I was most definitely more fit and toned prior to and during my pregnancy than I am now. I am running around after Misaki but I am not out there hiking in the beautiful Australian outback like I was prior to and during pregnancy. I was super blessed to become pregnant quite easily at 38 (I am so sorry if you are struggling to conceive). While age was a barrier to me becoming pregnant, I thank potentially my lucky genes, but also the fact that I was quite fit with a BMI in the normal range, that I had no troubles getting pregnant and having a pregnancy and baby with no complications. I know there are so many variables to getting pregnant but if we can take control of the ones we can, the pregnancy journey will hopefully be easier.

Pelvic instability is a very common cause of the back pain 44% of post partum women suffer. What is it, what are the symptoms and effects and how can physiotherapy help me?

Back pain affects 48-90% of pregnant women (Hallum, 2016). Low back and pelvic pain is present in 44% of women 6 months after they have had their baby (Brown and Lumley, 1998). Low back pain during or after pregnancy is most commonly caused by pelvic instability or even pain referred from pelvic floor scar tissue from child birth. See my blog on Pelvic floor strengthening and stretching- My story for more information on that.

A little anecdote about my memories of my grandparents and how much our mothers, now grandparents, do for our baby. We should be thankful and give back to our grandparents.

I remember going down to an Adelaide beach side country town called Goolwa, on a Friday night, for a weekend with our grandparents. I can’t remember how regularly we went but I remember it so fondly. My sister and I got picked up directly from school and put in to the tray of the ute (OH&S in the 80s!), rugged up so we were warm and off we went! Highlights of the weekend would be picking carrots with Grandpa from his vegetable patch, feeding the magpies bacon and generally getting spoilt with some form of sugar, an absolute rarity for us.

It is surprising anyone came to our birthday parties because the ‘sweets’ consisted of dried fruit balls and a lemon cake oozing with lemon and very little sugar. You would think I would still be having counselling for this, but no, I have a debt of gratitude to my Mum for instilling good eating habits in us and to our Grandparents for treating us.

Vaginal delivery can displace your coccyx and cause incredible bottom pain. Read to see how physiotherapy can help.

Another one of my mother’s group friends, all credit to her, had only just had her baby when she and her husband drove to the beautiful Barossa (known for some of the best red wine in the world) for a wedding. She had this awful pain in her bottom that was getting worse the longer they drove. She later had it investigated to find out that she had a displaced coccyx (tail bone). This is not uncommon with vaginal child birth and causes pain when sitting, pelvic floor dysfunction and is a general pain in the bottom.

How to handle your baby correctly during bath time to avoid an injury

Misaki is a water baby. From her first bath in the hospital to the swimming she gets to do in the pool, she loves it. It was so sad when she was not able to have a bath for about 3 months of her new born life when we first had the hip splint on for her hip dysplasia and then the foot casts for her metatarsus adductus (bung feet). Now that she has free reign of the bath it is a wonderful time for baby and parent. There is so much opportunity for bonding, baby massage, play, discovery and general good times. 

Funding cuts have eliminated much needed physiotherapy services for Mums.

When I started working as a physiotherapist 12 years ago times were different. Back in my day, every patient in the public hospital I worked at in country Swan Hill, Victoria, received physiotherapy prenatally in a class and individually postnatally. If there were any issues they were offered outpatient physiotherapy. When I had my baby this year in 2016 I went to possibly the best private hospital in Adelaide where the service and experience was second to none, but there was no postnatal physiotherapy unless you requested it and no complimentary outpatient physiotherapy.

This is nothing at all against the beautiful hospital and staff but it is rather a comment on the times. Huge funding cuts to Health have cut down allied health services considerably across all hospitals. My comment is, is that physiotherapy is so useful pre and postnatally for so many reasons but something we have to seek out ourselves to gain full recovery for ourselves and our babies. Many people are not aware of what you can get help with or who to see. Look below to see what physiotherapists can treat.

Being a new Mum or anticipating childbirth can be very stressful so use these simple relaxation techniques to help calm you.

Being a parent, particularly a Mum who is generally the primary caregiver, especially initially, is probably one of the hardest times of your life. I am sure you know sleep deprivation is a form of torture and you are likely to be suffering from that especially in the first 8 weeks when they don’t know day from night. Then there is the crying of your precious newborn that you can’t make sense of which is distressing beyond words. It is hard. So, relaxation is really important to incorporate in to your day as a new or expectant mother. All you need to do is deep breath. When we are largely sedentary in the first few weeks/ months we forget to deep breath. Shallow breaths are not helpful for relaxing.

Multitasking at its finest. Here is an exercise routine to do while laying next to the cot waiting for your baby to go to sleep.

I understand how utterly exhausted you get from months of broken sleep. I get it. I had all these grand plans to walk 10km every day with my baby and get my prebaby body back. Ha! The reason we started this business is because we understand how hard it is to find time for anything other than the necessities, let alone getting out of the door to exercise or get your aches and pains seen to. So the case for incidental exercise has never been so relevant. It has to be incorporated in to the necessities of your daily routine.

Here is my Catherine Zeta Jones story on teaching Misaki to self settle and some manual handling advice on some of the more hands on methods.

Picture Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment where she is stealthily and sexily climbing over and under hidden laser beams to steal the cash. That is who I feel like (minus the sexy) when I am trying to get out of Misaki’s room after settling her to sleep!

Teaching your baby how to self settle themselves to sleep is probably one of the hardest parental challenges and one of the biggest achievements. 

I am not going to even enter the world of advice for self settling and am definitely not the best at it by a very long way. As infuriating as it is to not hear the best way to do it, it is true that every baby and parent is an individual and you have to work out the best way as a team. There seem to be strong views either way so DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. I am only going to offer manual handling advice for some of these more hands on methods.

Considerations from a physiotherapist's point of view when purchasing a baby carrier.

Travel has been something I have been fortunate enough to do during my maternity leave. We have been following my husband for work seeing parts of Asia and America along the way. We have had some wonderful times and I feel blessed. It has put us behind my mother’s group babies a bit though with self settling and solids as it is hard to be diligent with a routine in airports/planes and hotels. I wouldn’t swap my life for anything and Misaki is a trooper for being flexible and relearning self settling and our lives are all the richer for it.

Read how to avoid causing one of the most common baby manual handling injuries.

This is one of the hardest baby manual handling tasks to do because it is hard to create a perfect environment. It is hard to get yourself and your centre of gravity close to the car seat where you are trying to place your child. On top of that you are inclined to bend and twist to place your baby and to do up their straps. I have an excellent idea for a baby car seat to solve these issues but it is too hard to patent. Anyone in the car seat industry that is interested in making me and yourself rich please contact me!

Here are some tips on how to not add a back injury whilst driving and calming your crying baby at the same time.

I am starting to feel like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City! If only I could walk in heels. I am loving writing blogs and getting my brain working again. New ideas are always coming in to my head but I write them down on the handy laptop as quickly as I can as I don’t trust my baby brain.

Some babies love driving in the car others hate it. Misaki hated it at first but now loves it. But if she is unhappy for some reason she still loses it which can be distressing and distracting. Safety first. The safety of you and your baby is paramount so concentrate on the road. If your baby is crying she is alive (!) and unless is crying with significant reason will survive. It is really hard to hear your baby cry, and not something that we want to happen for extended periods, so pull over if she is really distressed. If you are fortunate to have someone else travelling with you and your baby is liable to cry you may want them to sit in the back. Many will argue they have to learn to calm themselves, controlled crying etc but if it is a long drive, and you feel you will get distracted, try this suggestion.

Your child bearing hips are not meant for carrying your baby. Read how to carry your baby to avoid back, pelvic and hip pain.

When I think of a mum holding a baby I think of a woman with Beyonce style ‘child bearing’ hips and the baby being held on one hip. And yes I have been known to assume this posture many a time whilst carrying 7 things in my other arm BUT THIS IS WRONG.

Read this to avoid your baby falling off the change table or hurting your back changing your baby on a public toilet floor.

Doing the dirty. Changing the nappy I mean. We acquired a fantastic nappy change table. Some are a bit lower than others so make sure when purchasing you get one that is the right height for you so you are not inclined to bend over. Ours is made of wood rather than a sling top so the change mat sits nice and firmly. If you can afford it I would advise the firm top because if you have a wriggly baby that does not like nappy change time, then you want the least moving variables possible to save your back and shoulders.

Ours had a strap to lock her down which was also extremely handy and would highly advise. I also have a permanent collection of toys that stay at the clean head end of the table and a mobile to try and keep her still long enough to change her nappy. This also stops her putting her hands where you definitely don’t want them.

In this post, I'll talk about my thoughts around considerations when purchasing a pram.

My hubby couldn’t contain himself when we shopped for prams. I think car lovers love a good pram. He was open but really keen for this all terrain pram that would survive the Japanese snow fields like his best mate’s pram. We are both strong willed and opinionated but maybe because I almost had a pregnancy hormone melt down in the shop, we got my preference; this beautiful, luxurious, leather handled Toorak tractor for babies (or the Burnside pram as my husband calls it). [Apologies to the non-Australians- Toorak and Burnside are fancy suburbs in Australia]. I did not pick it for its looks (well not just because of its looks). As a physio I was looking for certain features which I will now recommend to you.

Read how a physiotherapist can assess and treat prevalent abdominal separation and which exercises you should avoid.

Separation of the abdominal muscles (diastasis of rectus abdominis muscle (DRAM)) is very common in pregnant and postnatal women (66%). This is due to the weakening of the linea alba (connective tissue joining the muscles especially the rectus abdominis). Pregnancy hormones, weakening abdominal muscles, weight gain and stretching of the abdomen due to the enlarging abdomen are the causes of the weakening linea alba. Because of its attachments to the core this weakening can cause back and pelvic pain due to lack of support. It can also cause pelvic floor weakness and incontinence due to the interaction of the core and pelvic floor, and abdominal hernias. After pregnancy the width and angle of the fibres of the linea alba can change and this can reduce the ability of the abdomen to stabilise the lumbo-pelvic area. If the separation persists longer than four weeks postnatally the function of the abdominal muscles is likely to be affected.

Are you one of the massive proportion of people that are actually doing damage rather than good by activating your core incorrectly?

There is a massive proportion of the population that don't know how to actively switch on their core. Those that don't suffer back pain often unconsciously switch on their core correctly but those with back pain very often don't. If the core is switched on incorrectly damage can be caused to the spine. Learn how to switch on your core properly below.

Do you think the best core contraction is sucking in your stomach and holding with every stomach muscle you have? As tight as you can? Well hopefully you said no. There are good and bad of us in every profession but I have had so many patients with back pain demonstrate what their personal trainers have taught them with regards to switching on their core and I am saddened but now no longer shocked. Even more have gym class instructors telling them to switch on their core with no individual guidance at all. The individual has no idea and is actually likely to be doing harm to their back with ineffective core contractions rather than good.

Read this blog about my snowboarding prowess, how you are vulnerable to injury when pregnant or a new Mummy and how you can prevent injury when returning to or starting a new exercise.

I am an excellent Apres skier. Classy outfit, good drinker. We are about to travel to Japan to go on a snow boarding holiday. My first trip to Japan was our ‘honeymoon’ and we have gone every year since. My husband loves snowboarding. He is actually really good at it, and I would love to see him in full flight on the black runs, but it is hard to perform at your peak on the gradient of the green runs your wife only dares venture to. I am a terrible skier and boarder.