Pregnancy After Prolapse: Tips for a healthy pregnancy.

There can be a lot of fear around pregnancy after being diagnosed with a pelvic organ prolapse, the worry that each pregnancy or delivery method is going to make your pelvic organ prolapse worse. Questions going through your head like

‘If I get pregnant again am I going to make my prolapse worse?’

‘If I get pregnant again, will I be able to recover like I did before?’

‘Will I still be able to love this child knowing what the pregnancy has done to my body’.

We can have some pretty dark thoughts when we have a birth injury, teamed with the hormonal fluctuations that occur post birth.

You may feel comfort knowing that MILLIONS of women get pregnant after being diagnosed with prolapse and are absolutely fine!!

There are so many things to consider when planning to have a baby again after a POP diagnosis. Although not all of it is fully in your control, you can still set up some parameters to help you feel confident going into pregnancy again. IF that is what you choose at the end of it all.

First and foremost, you should talk to your healthcare provider about your specific circumstances and what your risk factors (if any) may be. There is always support you can receive either from your OBGYN or pelvic health physiotherapist to help you make your decisions.

For myself, I gave birth vaginally to 3 babies (2014, 2018 and 2021). I was nervous about pregnancy only after my second baby. Although recovery was ok after my second, my third pregnancy threw a few wrenches in the works. An unplanned pregnancy teamed with a pandemic and Polyhydramnios a condition where tour body produces excess amniotic fluid send my brain racing. All things which were out of my control.

Here is what was in my control!

#1 See a pelvic health physiotherapist early on in your pregnancy. This way you can monitor your tissues and determine the best action plan for you. Sometimes it may be you need strength in you pelvic floor other times it may need releasing. The situation will change throughout the pregnancy as different hormones ebb and flow.

#2 Seek out the use of a pessary if you are well suited to using one. That can help take a little of the load off the pelvic floor and the particular organ(s) that is prolapsing. In Canada your OBGYN will be able to prescribe the use of a device and it can be covered under your health plan. OR you can see you pelvic health physiotherapist for recommendations too.

#3 Use your Breath wisely. When you are lifting something heavy (like if you have a toddler), breathe out when you lift. Also known as exhale with exertion. This way the pressure in your abdomen is being transferred away from your pelvic floor and supported. You may feel like you need to exhale through the full task rather than just with the lift and thats ok. Just ensure you are NOT breath holding.

#4 Stay hydrated! This couldn’t be more important for your pelvic health so listen up! Having a good poop and a healthy bladder has a direct effect on your POP. If you get constipated, that strain on your pelvic floor can make your symptoms worse. that along with an irritable bladder the tissues can get angry. So drink up, stay on top of your poop, use a stool to elevate your feet and ensure your diet is full of fibre!

#5 Well balanced exercise can help to keep those pesky symptoms at bay. Now don’t just run to kegles as the first port of call. A lot of the time the pelvic floor tone is high and needs to chill out. So ensure you are mastering the diaphragmatic breath rather than jumping straight for the kegels. The key to a healthy pelvic floor is maintaining strength while allowing length and softness. Support your pelvis with glute strengthening and lengthening in your programs and co-ordinate all your movements with that diaphragmatic breath.

At the end of the day, the choice to get pregnant again is yours. But with these tools in your pocket it should take a little of the pressure off the decision.

Master Resell Rights - Is it a scam?

Ok so this isn’t my usual content, but I have been on quite the journey over the last 8 months involving the death of my mother. I needed something I could focus on which didn’t involve selling my time for money (a service industry I have been in for years). I had been searching for ways to earn money online and Master Resell Rights kept showing up. There has been a lot of talk about Master Resell Rights and the Course Roadmap to Riches. Its popping up all over social media. But what is it really all about? I’m going to delve into the course for you so know know exactly what you are getting into if you decide to jump on the bandwagon with me!

THE INSIDE SCOOP

The Roadmap (or Roadmap to Riches) with Master Resell Rights is a comprehensive, done-for-you digital marketing product. An online course that aims (and succeeds) to teach you the ins and outs of digital marketing. The premise is you don’t need to be a digital creator to start your business. i.e you don’t have to have created any products to sell of your own to start with. Once you purchase the course it is yours to sell to anyone you like for 100% profit. On the other hand, if you have digital products lines up ready to sell (like me), it’s going to teach you the exact way to get them out into the world. All this without any upsells or hidden fees.

WHAT IS IN THE COURSE?

The course itself has so much content, content I had been looking for. I couldn’t afford the big ticket prices a lot of coaches charge so this was an easy yes for me. The money I invested in this digital program was honestly JUST what I was looking for to elevate my current Fitness based business. Even if I don’t make money off selling this course, I WILL be learning to tools I need to sell my own stuff too.

The modules in the course are;

• Introduction to Digital Entrepreneurialism

• How To Setup Automation In Your Business

• Optimize Your Sales Process

• Email Marketing

• Branding Expansion

• Content Strategy

• SEO Training

• Success Mindset

• Platforms To Market On

• Business Tools

• Passion Building

• Master Resell Rights Details

I’m not even halfway through and I’m learning SO SO much to elevate my business. It seems like a scam, how can one course which is sold by anyone who buys it have as much detail and success as it does? Women (and men) all over social media making HUGE money off a course they didn’t even make. But what’s the catch? So far I don’t see a catch. There are ZERO hidden fees, even the platforms they promote don’t cost anything to get started. You can buy into some things (like getting your own website) or you can just coast along using the free tools available. You spend your time setting everything up and learning all the tools in the course but that is it.

THE TIME YOU PUT INTO THE COURSE AND MAKING YOURSELF SUCCESSFUL, THE MORE YOU WILL GET OUT OF IT (INCLUDING THE PROFITS

Did I mention if you sell the course to someone else, you get 100% of the profit from the sale? Interested in jumping in with me? Elevating your business? No pressure to join, you can learn more too, just click the button below!

The Pressures Of Motherhood.

Lets be honest here, MOTHERHOOD IS HARD…even without the added pressure of social media! We sit and scroll through accounts day in and day out. What we look at and who we follow has a massive effect on how we feel and what we do right? Thais can be a great tool to help up stay motivated and get inspiration about what we want to do and how. BUT, and this is a big one…is everyone you follow giving you the ‘feel good’ factor OR are they hammering an image you want to see but is unrealistic?? This doesn’t just have to be related to body image…it could be parenthood in general.

I began my journey in motherhood over four years ago, thinking what I saw was helping me achieve my goals…later to find out it was having the opposite effect. Accounts of women who are ripped/six-pack abs and looking great in everything they do, working out 5 times a week. It made me hate my body, I would feel guilty for only fitting in 2 workouts a week (and short ones at that), I would nit-pick about how I could change my flat bum…how I could add curves and muscle and how I could stop looking like I’m going to waste away! Each message took a little piece of my soul away and made me doubt who I was. Yes I LOVE exercise, but I didn’t want it to take over my life. I didn’t want to feel guilty, I wanted to enjoy my life with a new baby.

I felt terrible after everything I saw, so I went ahead and deleted all the accounts I followed that had an unrealistic image of what I wanted to be. There was just too much pressure and I was under enough pressure with bringing up a new (very fussy) baby…love you Eden! My personality type is to be down on myself and punish myself for not achieving what I want to achieve. I would cut corners and obsess over the numbers on the scale. This just isn’t healthy for anyone!!

Now I put it to you, how do you feel after scrolling through Instagram? How do you feel after reading posts on Facebook? Does it inspire you? Does it give you positive thoughts about your body? Do you leave feeling happy about what you saw and read? IF NOT….DELETE and UNFOLLOW allllll the accounts that give you negative thoughts or have images you like but will never achieve. Decluttering the space on social media will allow you to open up your mind to positive change.

Once you have cleared out the clutter, you can start adding more positive accounts who welcome you and support you.

Who do you follow who you LOVE?? Who makes you feel great after the images and words you see? I love the movement towards positivity, healing and recovery rather than bouncing back…here are a few accounts I love.

@thebirdspapaya

@knixwear

@thebloommethod

@thebellemethod

@jessiemundell

@belliesinc

@vaginacoach

and soooooooo many more!!

Why should we conform? Why should we treat our selves like an object….a fellow trainer said it best

We are not some body, we are somebody!

AMANDA INGRAM FITNESS

We have feelings and we deserve to be happy in our own skin. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t want to change our bodies, just that we deserve to love ourselves and have realistic expectations.

LOVE WHO YOU ARE

When Reality Hits - Yes, I pee my pants!

The moment you meet you baby for the first time, all the pain slips away (for a very short moment lol). You are in a bubble of ‘I can’t believe I made this’, the world around you has completely changed and you are now a MAMA!! 

In the first few weeks/months your life get turned upside down. You are trying to figure out how to be the best mom you can be to this new life you have created. Reading all the books you can find about breastfeeding, sleep and how to survive a newborn! Googling rashes, poop and ‘why is my baby crying’!!! Your life is all about baby, but what about YOU??

It took me months to pay attention to what was happening to my body. I was so caught up in the life of my baby I didn’t see what was happening to me. Being a personal trainer I thought I knew what I needed to know about postpartum fitness, reality is I knew NOTHING!! I rushed right back into getting my body backmode. Planks, push ups, chin-ups, crunches….you name it I tried it. I even went back to a Crossfit gym to do a WOD thinking this was what my body needed. I didn’t make modifications and I went as hard as I could.

As life started to calm down I was noticing things that didn’t seem right. I was struggling to get to the toilet on time….when the urge hit I had to freeze in case something went wrong! I would be walking with the stroller and it felt uncomfortable down there…I couldn’t quite figure out what that feeling was, but it wasn’t there all the time. Some days it was fine other days it was like something was falling out. I was in denial. Bragging about how quickly I pushed in labour, laughing about how I couldn’t sit down for weeks…but that was all a cover up for how I ACTUALLY felt. 

I felt broken, like my body had let me down. Child birth is a natural process, why do you have to be left so scarred (or even scared about what your body is now) ? Moms joke about never feeling the same again, but why?? So you still pee your pants…I don’t agree that is right! So my rectum is falling out through my vagina….erm ok I’ll just keep going on as ‘normal’!!

I promise this story has a happy ending!

I started googling what I was feeling, researching what was happening to my body. Words kept popping into the results page like unrinary incontinence, prolapse, diastasis rectus abdominus….I was amazed….why did no one tell me about this when I was pregnant. Is this a lable I have to live with now? Why didn’t my OB/GYN not talk about this during my recovery or in my discharge appointment? He even checked my vagaina during the appointment…didn’t he see anything?? This was my calling…I work with women and mams to be and knew I had to do something to better the information given during/after pregnancy.

I still battle with myself, thinking what if I had done this differently? What if I had been given more information during pregnancy, would I have a prolapse? So many questions I have, so much information I would have given my ‘first time mom’ me. You are not alone in this journey, PLEASE don’t ignore the symptoms!! Your body is screaming out trying to tell you something. The fitness world tells you to listen to your body, but how do you know what to listen out for if you aren’t told about it in the first place?

Check out the list below of signs you shouldn’t ignore…this doesn’t mean you need to stop doing what you are doing….instead change HOW you are doing it!!

You are not alone, reach out for help.

w w w . f i t a n d e a t s . c o m

Essential oils - Your perfect buddy for pregnancy and postpartum!

A Guest Blog by Sophie Wanner

Every (expecting) mother remembers this one moment, the moment you see two lines on the pregnancy test and your life will never be the same. There are a lot of changes coming up during pregnancy and postpartum. Not only the physical change of a growing belly but also your mind and soul is going to go through a lot of ups and downs. Every mother to be will experience these chenges, however some women don’t have any pregnancy complaints - congratulations, you are the lucky ones. The most common symptom being morning sickness (that can actually last the whole day and night, ugh). With a growing belly and changes to the pelvis comes back pain, there are days when you feel so exhausted you just want to sleep! Not to forget about all the colds and flu you can easily get with a weakened immune system, or when you are pregnant during the summer and it is a really hot humid day, the chances are that your legs will become swollen. Due to pregnancy and the small and delicate life that is growing inside your body most of the common medications are not recommended. Instead essential oils are a great option to help with the most common pregnancy complaints. With the right application and dilution they are SAFE for you and your little growing peanut. 

When Lucy asked me to write a guest post about my favorite essential oils for pregnancy and postpartum I knew from the beginning that this wouldn’t be an easy choice. There are so many different oils with amazing properties! But I want to keep it simple and choose five essential oils that are wonderful during pregnancy and labor but also postpartum for yourself and your newborn baby!

My top 5 Oils

#1 LAVENDER TRUE (and this oil really is worth being #1!)

I am pretty sure most of you know and may already use Lavender true. It is the perfect oil for the whole family. The main properties are antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, healing and sedative. It is a perfect balancer, a powerful energizing tonic, but also great for insomnia and irritability. Just put 1 single drop on your pillow and it will help you get a better night sleep. With infants, it is great for colic, ear, nose and throat infections.

#2 GERANIUM

An excellent all round balancer, eliminates waste and congestion, has an tonic effect on the entire system. It is a tonic for the uterus, helps with exhaustion and can even be used as mosquito repellent - what else do you want! 

#3 MANDARIN

It is known as the best pregnancy oil of all, especially for the mind and body. It has a general harmonizing effect and is good for preventing stretch marks. It is also safe to use with children’s digestive problems. Just don’t expose yourself to sunlight after using it on the skin.

#4 TEA TREE

Tea Tree has a strongly bactericidal property and can be used with almost any respiratory and urinary infections. It is also good for cold sores, thrush and vaginal infections and it is less irritating than most oils and thus safe for the use with children.

#5 CHAMOMILE ROMAN

Last but not least Chamomile Roman, you might not enjoy the fragrance of this essential oil as much as others but it will save your life with your growing child. It is highly respected for its calming effect on all systems and for almost all children’s ailments; colic, diarrhea, teething pains, earaches, temper tantrums to name just a few! 

There are many other essential oils that can be used during pregnancy, labor and in childhood. This is my personal top 5 and they are all safe to apply during pregnancy and early childhood. Nevertheless, I highly recommend contacting a certified aromatherapist like myself to receive the correct dilution rate and the prefect matching blend for your needs! If you have any further questions please contact me via the information below. 

HAPPY HEALTHY PREGNANCY MAMA!!

Thank you,

Sophie!

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