Happy new year! As a parent it is even more important than ever to reflect of how we have performed over the year. Mummies can be too hard on themselves so be proud and take this time to celebrate how wonderful you are.

And just like that 2019 and another decade is almost over. We hope that you have had the most magical year with your family, watching your baby/ babies grow and explore this beautiful world of ours. The end of the year is a time for reflection; what have we achieved, what have we not and what can we improve on for next year. As a Mummy I think it is more important than ever to check in to see how we are doing as parents and to make sure we are making the most of these precious years with our babies.

Painful sex is common for ladies with endometriosis. Read this blog to find out why and what you and health professionals can do to help.

Pain with sexual penetration (dyspareunia) can be caused if there are inflamed endometrial lesions near the vagina. Certain sexual positions will be more painful depending on where the lesions are. If lesions are widespread around the vagina all positions may be painful.

In a series of 4 blogs I am going to talk about Endometriosis: signs, symptoms and treatment options, Endometriosis and chances of having a baby, Painful sex and endometriosis and lastly Hysterectomy as a treatment for endometriosis.

What are the signs and symptoms of endometriosis?

Endometriosis has been causing women severe pelvic pain for eternity and medical professionals have not been able to tell them why. Even today, an average of 8 years passes before their symptoms are diagnosed! It is still poorly understood but knowledge and good management has rapidly advanced in more recent years. Endometriosis is such a complex beast with many possible presentations. It can not only cause pelvic pain and painful periods but can also low back pain, pain with intercourse, mood disturbances, tiredness, bloating, changing bowel motions, bowel pain, painful bladder syndrome, migraines and difficulty conceiving!

Read this blog to work how to avoid or alleviate knee pain caused by all the squatting and lifting we do as Mummies.

Does parenting hurt every part of your body?! As a 40 year old Mum who is more unfit than ever my knee pain has started to return. I keep questioning my age as a contributor but I think it is much more due to my strength and fitness levels. When ever I do lots of regular hill walking or in my very distant past as a rower I am fit, strong and I have no knee pain. Take away my leg and butt strength and the pain returns. So simple!

In my defence and to all the other mothers and fathers that hear me, we are probably squatting much more than we did in our previous lives as free agents. We are squatting to pick up babies from the floor, chairs, cars, lifting prams out of the car and picking up the countless toys! Read this blog on how to lift our babies and exercise without getting knee pain.

Gestational diabetes has affected several people I know. Read how to prevent this condition that can severely detriment the health of your baby and yourself now and in the future.

Gestational diabetes (GDM) increases the risk of premature birth, neonatal death, prolonged jaundice and respiratory distress in the babies. In the future it can increase the risk of the child being obese and type II DM. It can increase the risk of the mother having a caesarean section, pre-eclampsia, hypertension, GDM in future pregnancies (66%) or type II DM (up to 63% within 5-10 years (Shand et al 2008). GDM increases the risk of premature birth, neonatal death, prolonged jaundice and respiratory distress in the babies.

Misaki has not made it on to the cover of Vogue Baby but she would be if I was the editor. This blog is about how toddlers have perfect posture, flexibility and manual handling skills. How do we prevent our babies from morphing into the slumped, stiff and sore adults and sadly now the adolescents I treat today? Please read and learn from your toddler.

Read this blog for interesting tips on encouraging active lifestyles, healthy eating, managing fussy eating and promoting healthy self esteem in our babies.

I am having a fat day/ year. I have got myself in to a terrible rut. I was definitely fitter during my pregnancy than now. I have slowly been getting more unfit and I feel embarrassed about it. I have been putting it down to the fact that I am spending every minute that Misaki is asleep or with a sitter, working at my paid or unpaid jobs. I also want to be the best mum I can be, so whenever she is awake we are having fun together.

I have recently put in to my diary a daily reminder to exercise. We are going out walking in the nearby national park which is a wonderful experience for us both, good hills for my butt, legs and core (stabilising to push the pram up and down hills) and good for her to see, feel, hear, smell and sometimes taste (!) nature around her.

This blog is about the very common condition, neck pain. Read how we are at a greatly increased risk of getting neck pain as a Mummy and what we can do to minimise the potential.

I have never known a love this intense! Without a doubt I would take a bullet our daughter. As a new mother, we are holding our babies in absolute adoration, examining with wonder all their little features, never wanting to let them go.

On the other hand many of us are struggling with teaching our baby and ourselves how to breast feed. In my case this was extremely painful and traumatic.

Both of these extremes and other motherly tasks such as holding our baby to try and get them to stop crying or to go to sleep or alternatively falling asleep ourselves in awkward positions in utter exhaustion can be very taxing on our neck and shoulders, causing pain and dysfunction.

In this blog I ask for parenting ideas on how to psychologically manage the terrible two tantrums as well as give advice on exercises to help prevent injury when having to wrestle your two year old in a tantrum!

I had to see my physio today because I have hurt my neck. I hope you don’t think I am an awful mother but the only reason I can think of for it happening is because I (protectively) restrained our two year old. Beautiful Misaki turned 2, 2 weeks ago, and almost by the strike of midnight she started with the classic throwing herself on the hard floor, kicking her legs and punching her fists because she couldn’t have an ice block for breakfast.

Learn about the positives and negatives of dummies and learn tips on how to get rid of them when the time is right.

After months of workshopping the idea with Misaki we finally gave Misaki’s dummies to the dummy fairy! I didn’t do any research on the idea but the idea of a little fairy dedicated to collecting dummies from the little girls and boys to repurpose for new babies seemed like a beautiful story. She liked the idea but was not keen on the follow through for quite some time. We recently returned from a flight to Melbourne so with no travel for a while this seemed like a perfect time. I got encouragement from my Paediatric OT friend too who talked about giving the dummies to Father Christmas in a similar vein.

Being a new Mummy is really hard but many are afraid to ask for help. Why?

I was really surprised to hear that so many mums are afraid to ask for help. I am a person that welcomes advice and is not ashamed to admit I am failing and to ask for help but so many are not. So many put up with painful breast feeding etc because they think it is normal. So many think if we ask we are admitting to failing and are incapable mothers. Not true. Parenting is such an unknown world. It is not an exact science. Our babies are not ‘text book’ like geeky me was hoping. But there are experts out there who deal with these specific problems daily and through helping hundreds of parents out there know just what to say. Like any profession there are some that don’t resonate with you and don’t help but most are amazing. I have had nothing but helpful advice and most importantly someone saying “you are doing a good job, it is bloody hard and it’s okay to have a cry” “Whah” there I go.