62 How to Prepare Your Pelvic Floor for Pregnancy, Labor, and Birth with Amy from Homebody Movement

Amy Baumgarten of Home Body Movement shares with Heidi the ins-and-outs of claiming your space, connecting with your soul’s true self, and developing a new pattern for your life through prenatal and postpartum yoga. Amy coaches the listener through celebrating their postpartum body and developing a connection to their endocrine system.

To get more in-depth and personal with Amy, connect with her on Instagram.

To gain special access to the entire library of Home Body Movement’s “Returning to Center” series of guided videos for a year use the code BIRTHSTORY10 at checkout.

Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com

For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com.

Want to share your thoughts on the episode? Leave a review and send a message directly to Heidi on Instagram.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Speaker 0 (0s): Hey, it's Heidi, we're about to dig in to episode 62. And I was just wondering how everybody's doing. I'll be honest. I really needed this episode this week. And to hear from Amy it's Thanksgiving week when I'm recording this, and we just had family pictures, you know, the ones where like it stylized and your hair and your makeup are done, and we've got to professional photographer because we want to have the perfect holiday card that goes out. But the reality is we're in the middle of COVID a lot of tough things are going on with like life and family and work.

And I was really not excited to get these pictures back because honestly, I just don't love the way my body looks right now. I didn't do a great job in the postpartum period taking care of my pelvic floor. And I have diastisis rec D. So I know when I get these pictures back, the first thing I'm going to think is everyone's going to think I'm pregnant again. So I say all of that, because maybe that hits home with some of you guys during this holiday season. But I know that part of the way in which I'm healing is by falling Amy with Homebody movement on Instagram and connecting with my Body with my pelvic floor, which includes my abdominals and breathing just positive energy and life into my womb space so that they can move away from this Debbie downer attitude about professional pictures, and really start to get positive about the way I think about my body.

I hope you enjoy hearing from Amy. She talks about what its like to run a business catering to pregnant women while suffering a miscarriage. And she also shares with us all of her passions and expertise about the Postpartum body and a really healthy Pelvic Floor before, during and after you're Pregnancy stick around till the very end cause she also offers an amazing discount code for the Birth Story Podcast listeners. If you'd like to take her online course.

So let's dig in

Speaker 1 (2m 10s): What else

Speaker 2 (2m 10s): There is a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what does a day of Labour look like a weight? Is this a normal, Hey I'm Heidi my best friends. Call me hides. I'm a certified BIRTH Doula host of this podcast and author of Birth. STORY an interactive Pregnancy guidebook. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries and I believe every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage.

So here we are listen each week to get answers to these tough questions. Birth story where we talk about Pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories and share our feelings and of course chat about favorite baby

Speaker 0 (3m 0s): Products and motherhood. And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant, or you just love a good birth story. I hope you will stick around and be part of this Birth Story family. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast and absorbing all of the information that you need for an amazing pregnancy and birth.

My Pregnancy guidebook and journal called Birth Story is [email protected]. And as a listener of this podcast, I want you to have $5 off, like I want you to listen to this podcast and engage with the book. So just use code Birth Story Podcast when you get to checkout, it is my thank you for supporting me this Pregnancy guidebook and journal is the best gift for you or anyone. You know, that is expecting it's a 42 week by week guide to your pregnancy.

And as Birth affirmations, weekly journaling prompts with a full page for journaling every single week, it has all of the information that you need to connect to your pregnancy and have an empowered BIRTH. So thanks for shopping Birth story.com. Don't forget to use code Birth Story Podcast for your $5 off. It's also available on Amazon, or if you prefer the audio book, you can download it on your audible app [email protected]. Now let's get to this amazing episode.

Welcome Amy to the Birth Story Podcast I am so excited to have Amy with Homebody is your company and then on social, on Instagram at Homebody Movement so Amy is coming to us out of Brooklyn and she is an expert in the Postpartum Body and so Amy welcome. And I want you to share with everyone a little bit about who you are so that we can get to know you as we go on this journey on what we need to know about healing and recovery and tools for our Postpartum Body

Speaker 3 (5m 13s): Thank you so much. Heidi it's great to be here. I love your podcasts. I love hearing all the stories. So yeah, my name is Amy Baumgarten from Brooklyn and I run a company called Homebody. I see both one-on-one clients and I teach prenatal and postpartum classes, but originally I was born years, years and years ago in Buffalo, New York. So holla Western New York, but moved around a ton. I went to college in Baltimore for dance, and then after college I moved to New York.

So I've been a dancer I can remember. And that's how I got into this field to begin with. So I went from being a bonehead, a ballerina, and all of that, that, which includes a ton of body image issues and a ton of injury. And you know, trying to like I've felt like I was like, you know, square peg and a round hole, just never quite the ballet dancer type, but it was my passion up until college. And then I started to do more modern dance, contemporary dance and found sematic work.

And sematic Movement is, you know, it's many things to different people, but so Maddix means a study of the body. And so medic work is more of an internal process using Movement different kinds of Movement to help people to help the practitioner understand that their Body. So rather than somebody telling me how to move my body, I'm listening and being, maybe being guided by somebody, a teacher, a mentor, and then listening to those experiences that are coming up from me within and then being able to move my body according to that.

So, you know, I, I write about this a lot. How I really, in my early days felt pulled away from between my mind and my body. There was a huge fragmentation. So MADEC work really brought those back together. And so I, I started doing a lot more rehabilitation Movement practices rather than a dancing. I still loved to dance, I think is really important for everyone to move their body, shake that booty. But I came into the somatic world into Pilates and yoga and a process of a body of work called body-mind centering.

And that really has changed everything for me, its a somatic modality and I use that a lot in my work. It help you understand all the layers of the body, not just the bones and the muscles. It really incorporates the organs and incorporates the fluids and incorporate your endocrine system. Your vocalizing system, write your voice and how all these different layers to support you. So that I came to be my healing process.

I was in so much pain in so many injuries in my life that I was really drawn to this work for that reason too, to heal. So I healed him a knee injury. I healed a lower back injury and now I feel like in the best shape I've ever been in and I'm the oldest I've ever been in. Of course. How old are you? I just turned 37

Speaker 0 (8m 31s): Would be seven. That's a spring chicken. Yeah. Okay. I have lots of questions. I'm going to like jump in. Okay. So you said like you found this like somatic movement in dance. So if anyone's listening and we're going to go in to like this healing of our Postpartum Body, but I'm really interested like in markets, like I'm in North Carolina, what would like type into Google or where would we go to like, is there something on YouTube to like, this is something I've never heard of before, but feels really intuitive.

I mean I grew up in, well I didn't grow up, but I spent my formative years in Asheville, North Carolina around drum circles. And I would say I was probably doing sematic Movement in drum circles because that's when your talking that sorta felt like the way I moved my Body to the beat of like Mickey Hart's planet drum, you know, when I'm dancing around. So anyway, just if were an LA or Minnesota or Houston, whoever is listening, like how, what did we do if we wanted to explore this type of dance?

Speaker 3 (9m 43s): I would say it's ah, it's a growing field, but it's still quite is still underrepresented in the day, but there are a sematic Movement Serafin and that's, those are the key words I would Google. Some of the medic is really a catch all term that could be applied to so many different practices you could be. So Maddick in, you know, in the boardroom you can be somatic when your driving a car is just about, can you stop and take a moment to listen in

Speaker 0 (10m 12s): What comes directly to me is as a Birth DOULA I have so many different moms that HIRE me in a lot of first time moms, but the majority of my clients come to me because they have medical trauma from their first births. So not only are they in this Postpartum period, but they are also pregnant again and they are having to navigate how to take care of their Body in the postpartum period while also moving again into the prenatal period and those tend to overlap.

And so if anyone's listening and you're resonating with what I'm saying, like, Oh yeah, I'm pregnant again. I'm listening to this episode because I want some information on Postpartum, but like I would definitely recommend hearing what Amy's saying and typing in somatic psychotherapy to start doing some like maybe like intuitive visualization tapping into center before you move on to your next birthing experience.

So really interesting stuff. Okay. So in Brooklyn, like with Homebody, do you work only in Brooklyn or do you have clients all over the world that you work with virtually? Like talk to me a little bit about like what every day life for you looks like?

Speaker 3 (11m 38s): Sure. My practice is based in Brooklyn before the pandemic. I was being client's wife at my studio here and I was seeing virtual clients, but the vast majority were on my live classes in my life. My clients, since the, I have taken my one-on-one clients onto zoom and it's been surprisingly effective it's and it's really, I've been able to reach people all over the world now and I'm starting to actually move into the virtual realm more.

I'm really embracing it. Whereas before I was like, no, I was a purist it's like, we must touch with me, must be in, in the room together. And I still value that very much, but I think this work does transcend space in time. Yeah. So there is something really powerful about that

Speaker 0 (12m 28s): Is it has been amazing to me because right now I'm a virtual DOULA and everything is unfolding with all of my clients as if I was physically present with them. Even though I'm not able to put my hands on their body. I, it's just amazing what we can do with tone and voice, how you can still show up and be an impact. And like that comes through the screen. I mean, it really has been pretty.

I was like, you know, I was like, wow, this is just, I'm going to have to file for unemployment. I can't be a Doula this is never going to work. And I feel like right now I could literally be a virtual Doula for anyone around the world and effectively serve them. And so I think our business models are going to really be changing after coronavirus. I know that you have some new things that you've added in. I want to get too and talk about. So lets kind of dive right in. What are the most common things that people are coming to you for with their Postpartum Body and then I will also like to chime in some of my clients have written into me and had some questions and things for you.

Speaker 3 (13m 48s): Oh beautiful. Yeah. It's always helpful to hear what other people are experiencing. So I came to the Postpartum work before Pregnancy before other stuff, just because it was such a huge a thing. People were coming to me with these issues and I said, wow, you know, this is a community I can serve. Let's get in to this. And so I did a lot more studying over the years. The biggest things that I've found over the years, one of the biggest fears is they asked us us Rekti and I'm an expert on working on that specifically.

I will say, I think it became the big phenomenon and it's not as much of an issue as, as we've been led to believe, but it is, it is common and it is something that people have fear around. Especially second time moms, second time Pregnancy people who are going through the postpartum period and now pregnant. They want to make sure that they can keep that in check incontinence is a big one and other pelvic floor issues. So a lot of pelvic floor issues like incontinence like hemorrhoids, like constipation, all those things that arise from pelvic floor issues can be managed really well by the pelvic floor protocol that I have.

And you know, I highly recommend going to see a Pelvic for therapists When the world goes back to normal and we can see the therapist and be one-on-one in the room with people is a great way to reconnect to your pelvic floor and get support. But I, in my role is to empower you the mover, the Body holder, to understand what you can do, right. To help you feel it. And the somatic process is about, you know, the pelvic floor and the deep core, which is where I, I put my focus in the postpartum work is not something that we know about.

It's not something that we talk about. It's not something that we feel readily. And so somatic work that I do helps you sense that, touch that with your mind and be able to go, Oh, okay. That's my pelvic floor, right? Yeah. I can look at the bones. I can look at max and the illustrations, but here's what it feels like. And here's a tools that I can use in order to keep feeling it and keep engaging it. Yeah. So Pelvic Floor is a big one, but I want to se to compress vertebrae is not something that, that you generally associate with it, but whether it's a, a tight neck, usually upper back in general gets very compressed.

While at the same time, there's a lot of ribs, glaring. And so was that combination. There is a lot of breathing issues.

Speaker 0 (16m 43s): All of this makes so much sense to me and Amy, I am four years Postpartum and I'm like, if I'm being really honest, I mean, I'm still kind of suffering through a lot of these things. I think it's important to recognize that the postpartum period doesn't have a time limit, that it can be from the moment you give birth. But these are different things that if they are not addressed can be issues that could last a lifetime. So I would say, I don't think it's ever too late to find our way to your class.

And I want to talk about your online course because it is mind-blowingly impressive, affordable. It is mandatory for all of my DOULA clients to take it. And I was hoping that you might share like with your background and your history, like in dance and in pre natal and then the somatic work in the evolution of Amy like there has been this the 37 years of your life have had this amazing, especially with body image, 'cause part of postpartum Body is embracing Auer and the things I was going to add where the fatty tissue and that extra weight, and we are the pockets of fat where we gain in different places with the increase in estrogen and especially you with those in dance and have a history of, I have a lot of clients with a history of disordered eating or eating disorders.

If that makes sense in both of those ways, Andy and embracing the loose skin or maybe the scar tissues and like kind of having a love for that is something that is very difficult for anyone to anticipate. And then you wake up one day and then in here is that. So I wanted to kinda talk a little bit about that, but Amy your evolution lead you to developing an online class assumably so that you could scale the work that you're doing outside of Brooklyn and really impact the lives of thousands to millions.

Can you share with us, like I want to know upfront, like tell us the name of your course, how we access it. We're going to put a code up for a discount on the podcast, but then I want you to walk through what you have designed and created for people like my listeners.

Speaker 3 (19m 23s): Absolutely. I'm so happy to, so I made this court it's called returning to center and you can find it on my website. Homebody movement.com. It's not hard to find from there. I made this course because this is a population that I saw needed the most help. First, I had every intention of creating a Pregnancy course to go along with this one and a preconception course later on down the road.

But in my mind, people who are dealing with these issues now needed this work. And I wanted to create something that gave the basics of what the deep core was, what it is and how to work with it. The things that I do with my client's every single day. So the deep core is really the most profoundly affected when it comes to getting pregnant and going through childbirth and the Postpartum experience to everything is affected from there outward.

So what the deep core Is is the mussels of the breath or the muscles of the deep spine, the pelvic floor muscles and the muscles around around the front of the spine, which are the deepest abdominal layer, which we call the transverse. So those four kind of like a room, a feeling of Floor and the walls around your spine. And they create your stability. They, they create your sense of a groundedness.

Mobility is involved with that. And any strength that you have in your body comes from that place. So, but this is oriented and of course it's these oriented after giving birth and after being pregnant for nine to 10 months, then what happens is we create new patterns based on this disoriented, deep core. And if we don't reclaim the deep core, reconnect to it, then we hold onto these inhibitive patterns that eventually are going to cause injury. And like you said, or your 10 years, 30 years down the road, Postpartum those issues could still be present.

Speaker 0 (21m 35s): Yup. I'm going to jump in right there too, because as you're talking, it's a really triggering some things for me when, especially when you mentioned something like a house in a ceiling and walls, I'm going to get teary here. The way that I experienced this was a profound emptiness. So I know there will be people listening to this podcast that had some thing, someone inside their that is not a baby in their arms.

They went home or they eat, they miscarried it at home. They had a stillborn or the burden of their baby. And when that house feels empty, as you're talking to me, I don't know this, I'm not an expert, but the way I am interpreting it and getting teary-eyed is because I still suffer from Postpartum anxiety and depression. And I believe, and I filled up my core with food and all of these unhealthy things. Right?

And so like, you're describing this sacred womb space that for me, when my baby was expelled and I wanted more children and I couldn't have more children and I'm so thankful that I have two children, but I have never felt like my family was complete. And so my womb space feels empty. And so you talking feels, there's something triggering, and I'm saying this out loud, because if that's happening for me, then I feel like it's got to be happening for other people.

And so can we talk a little bit more about what the healing process looks like from the center? Like, I love the name of your course returning to center, but I was hoping that you may kind of walk me through, like, if I was coming to you Postpartum and doing this course, what is your ultimate goal? Like what do you feel like you're walking me through, on my Postpartum journey. And where do you hope like me or anyone listening that takes this course?

Like where do you hope that we arrive at the end of your course? Like where your heart was when you were building it?

Speaker 3 (23m 54s): Such a beautiful question and thank you for sharing your experience. And I know that emptiness and I've I've. I had a miscarriage in a November and I did this work. I was a student of this course during that time, because I felt so disconnected from my body. So disappointed and my body. And as much as I talk to my students and I share and to encourage them, I needed to like, hear it myself.

I couldn't be the encourage or anymore. So that's what this course does for anybody wanting to reconnect. And I will say that everyone has a deep core. Anyone with a pelvis has a deep core, and those who are womb carriers have the opportunity to really claim the space and to know all of its different capabilities, right? We can Birth, it can expand. And it, it can, it can do all these incredible things and it can recover from that life changing experience.

So what the course in my heart, what I intended this course to show everybody, is that our bodies have the capacity unending capacity to shift shape shifts. And all of it can be celebrated. All of it should be celebrated. So we take it in four parts. So there is the first section is just an introduction, understanding what the deep core is, why we're even talking about it, how it's been affected. So you really get a good anatomy lesson and you get to assess Your.

So we do a little diastisis tests and strength tests. So you got to check in with yourself before and create some intention around why you're there personally. And then there's FOR Movement sections. So the first one is talking about the deep core there's four, as I mentioned, there's the four layers of the deep core, and we get really comfortable with each of them through different exercises. There's so there's videos for each

Speaker 0 (26m 3s): Videos are amazing to anyone who's listening as Amy is talking. I mean, this is not like a, of course its a PowerPoint presentation. I mean this is top quality, top of the line, one of the most interactive, most beautifully done courses I've ever seen. So like I just don't want to gloss over like how amazing your videos are,

Speaker 3 (26m 26s): The, the perfectionist, a type a and B. It was like, this has to be beautiful as well as sound good and feel good and everything is right. Every part of it matters. So the first section is really getting into the deep core, which has flow, which is subtle, which is so mad and there's questions that are asked reflection, questions that help you understand or help you stuff out what you're experiencing. What does it feel like to breathe this way? What does it feel like to touch base with your pelvic floor today? So you got a chance to really check in with yourself and then this, this, the second section is focusing on the lower body.

So we really get connected to our legs in our hips from the deep core. So this is again, it's always coming back to how the deep core affects and is affected by your movement. So we'd go into a lower body action. We get a little more movement involved. The third section is the upper body. We look at how we connect and root to the grounds through our legs for first and then how we can expand upward out in the world. This fourth section of the Movement sequence is integrating all of that. So we do three advanced exercises that are repeatable and that can be, I've heard from students that really help start to alleviate some of those Postpartum issues that we were mentioning earlier, whether it's back pain or whether it's really wanting to connect to your core.

So there is a more high intensity core work. And then we have a final, a closing section with another assessment that you can take and a final thoughts and reflections that you can do. Then there's just a material that you can download and take with you audio classes that I've put together that you can just listen to and follow along with and things like that. So lots of resources around the actual material Amy

Speaker 0 (28m 17s): And what is the website where someone finds the course?

Speaker 3 (28m 21s): Yeah. If you go to my website, Homebody movement.com. It's on the front page that,

Speaker 0 (28m 28s): Okay. We will link to that in the show notes, but Homebody Movement dot come to be able to access that the course. And then Amy I know you've had a discount code for those listening. So can you tell us what the price is? And then also what the discount code would be?

Speaker 3 (28m 51s): Okay.

Speaker 0 (28m 51s): It's Heidi, I'm interrupting the Podcast to let you know about a free resource that I've created for [email protected]. All you have to do is go to Birth story.com and then click the tab that says the workbook. Once you put your email address in an entire resource library, of all of my secret sauces are available to you for free as my thank you for listening to the Birth Story Podcast and being part of this [email protected] under the workbook, you will find a birth plan template articles on circumcision, delayed cord clamping, flipping a breech, baby, packing your hospital bag, acupressure points, placenta, encapsulation, and so much more.

There are over 20 free articles ready for you to [email protected]. Now let's get back to this amazing episode. Okay. I know I left you hanging on that discount code, but now back with Amy

Speaker 3 (29m 52s): It's two 49 for the course, and that includes a year, a year long access to all the videos. And then the there's a lot of stuff to download that you can keep forever. And most people are finishing the course in less than six months, but I wanted to give everybody like a lot of time to be able to go back and to repeat anything that they needed to really bring it into their Body. But this is not something that I feel anyone needs. This has, this is foundations work, right?

Ideally you are going to take, this is going to integrate into you and to your Movement and then you're able to go do the wonderful things that you love to do. Yoga, Pilates, running, or biking, kind of swimming. Those are activities I don't recommend in the early stages of Postpartum. I recommend this work first and then yeah. Moving into your life. So you have a year long access to a discount, 10% off with Birth STORY 10, all caps. Birth Story

Speaker 0 (30m 54s): Awesome. Thank you for doing that for my listeners too. So happy to do it. Yeah. Okay. Well, I have some things I want to really dig into for Postpartum and like just kind of hit it. So like number one, like I said is a DOULA and anyone who's coming to my podcast for education through storytelling, we do so much pre planning and preparing for the Birth process, which is very important, but there are a couple of things we, I see consistently with my clients and they don't put any effort into the postpartum period or the nursing period.

And then they are very surprised. So we want to set everyone up for success. Okay. By giving you some practical tools. So we're going to give away some things for free in this podcast of how to take care of yourself. And then literally were just going to encourage everyone to, as your PR, you're listening to this podcast because you're preparing for your birthing time. I mean like scribbled down Homebody Movement and I want you to add this and the discount code Birth STORY 10 to enroll in this course.

So some of the things though that we, we have to put on the table for the postpartum period, that people need to be ready for an aware of. And again, like I said, this is if you have miscarried, this is if you have recently had a child living or not, this is if you are trying to get pregnant and you are trying to work also on, you know, connecting with that wound space to create a positive environment, you know, for a baby to, to live and thrive.

So a couple of things that came up from my clients, right? Like that are like, okay, we just gave and dah, dah dah. So the first one is the after cramps that no one talks about. So immediately after having a miscarriage or giving birth, there are a lot of after cramps. And so I was wondering if you could share some like are verbalize in the best way possible some breath or some movements that can help soothe the after cramps that hit, especially when you're nursing and your uterus is contracting.

So keeping that in mind that there might be a baby on the breast. I was hoping that we could maybe have you walk us through some breath or some movements. What would your advice be for my clients and my listeners?

Speaker 3 (33m 28s): Well, I was wondering if I could answer that by taking us all through a little breath practice. It's like a couple of minutes.

Speaker 0 (33m 33s): Absolutely. I'm netting some I'm needing some relaxation today, so let's do it.

Speaker 3 (33m 39s): Okay. So this is great. This is a little taste of how I work. I'm using somatic visualization. So if you are experiencing, and this can also include menstrual cramps. So if you're experiencing cramping of the uterus, what I'd like you to do is find a comfortable position. And that could be seated. That could be reclined. One option is lying on your back with blankets, under your knees, under your head. So wherever you are, take a moment to drop in.

You can close your eyes or keep them open and soft. And as you take a breath in, no, this is how your body expands. As you let your breath go feel your body emptying is notice the ground below you are rising up to meet you.

Can you think a little deeper into your seats in the floor. You are going to place your hands or one hand on your womb. Now I'm going to see if we can direct our breath into our hand for the same thing. As you breathe in, feel the wounds, filling up, expanding in all directions as you exhale feel, How it draws together.

There's a slightly, you don't have to squeeze it and we'll have to muscle through anything. Just noticing the change. And now we're going to change a little bit of the stress pattern. You are going to inhale the same way of filling up the womb, feeling it, expand three-dimensionally as you exhale this time.

See if you can continue to softly, expand the womb. When instead of emptying and condensing the womb, it's going to still be filled expanded. As you slowly let the air out of your body. Each time you do this, and this is if you can feel the muscles around the womb.

So the womb is an APO and there's multiple go around. Feel them stop in an open in the lab.

Take one more breath. IN Medico. Nice and slow. Start to open. Your eyes are closed and come back in the room.

Speaker 0 (37m 29s): Okay, well that felt wonderful.

Speaker 3 (37m 32s): So you have a different tone of voice now Heidi

Speaker 0 (37m 35s): And I'm like, I'm going to have to wake back up into podcasting voice. I wanted to share the way I experienced that. I really appreciate that, that exercise. I never lost one pound of my Postpartum weight. So I currently weigh for years later, the same that I weighed on the day that I came home from the hospital. So the first thing I noticed when you asked me to touch my womb and my womb space is I had a mental and a lot of moms that may be doing this Postpartum right after you have a baby that there's just a lot of extra skin and things there.

I had to mentally take a moment and choose. And that moment to not judge myself and to feel through the flap of extra fat deposits that I have allowed my body to hang onto because of Postpartum emotions. And so instead of feeling the fat on my belly, I was, I was able to achieve feeling through it all the way to the energy of my womb space.

So I just wanted to put that out there for those that may be plus sized, or just recently post-partum. And if you have that same moment, just keep breathing through it because I just kept listening to your words and I was able to get there. And then once I was able to get there, I was able to really connect with my womb. And I've never, and just those short few minutes, and I've never done that. I have never had a moment with my womb space, you know, to even like ask her what she's been through, what that experience was like for her through fertility and through to children.

And then through not being able to have another baby, I feel like I just got one small tool from you that is going to let me start a journey. That one tool that you just gave just gives you a little path of how to get closer to there. So that way

Speaker 3 (39m 55s): That's pretty awesome. Beautiful. That's beautiful. And I'm a When of knowledge. You and anyone out there who is dealing with that. I know I was dealing with that after my miscarriage, I was like, just hands on belly was triggering, but when you can go, you know what, today, or this minute, it's something else I choose to focus on something else. It can feel really liberating and help you really see all the layers of who you are. Not just the one place. Yeah,

Speaker 0 (40m 24s): I absolutely get it.

Speaker 3 (40m 27s): And I want to just say one thing about that exercise. So people understand what we did, which is the breasts is there to help. The cramping is obviously contract them. The uterus is a muscle is contracting over and over again. So it's almost like a Charlie horse in your calf, right? And it's like, it's uncontrollable it's necessary, right? When they are giving birth in sometimes the afterbirth. But when it's continuing, sometimes its kind of like that Charley horse where it doesn't know to, to, to shut off yet, it's going to need some time.

So what your breath is doing, it's going into an inside that contracted space, write your mind and your breath and your just kind of pressing out against a wall of the uterus and saying, Hey wait, okay, we're just going to make space so that it feels like it doesn't have to continue to squeeze an entitlement around itself, right. We're just creating a little softness with them. So that's what we were doing,

Speaker 0 (41m 24s): What it reminds me of when my clients are in labor and their, and their whole body head to toe initial reaction is to curl up into a cramp and then a ball. And then through having a Doula like my role as to help release and surrender through breath from head to toe. And so this is that same concept and philosophy, but you know, isolated directly to our womb space. So really cool.

Okay. The next question was sex and the pelvic floor. So all we're told, the only information that we are given is don't have sex for six weeks. You may have had no taring. You may have had a sulcus terr. You may have had a, a third or a fourth degree tear. We're all given the exact same information, regardless of having a belly birth, having a vaginal birth, having injury to our rectum, our vagina, our labias are cliteracy and people don't know that you can have tears around your clutter as in earlier early and all of these things.

And so we just go to the doctor and then they tell us like, presumably our bodies should heal itself magic in six weeks. And this is a misconception that must die and why it's important to take Amy's class. And so I wanted you to talk about healthy sex in the postpartum period, how to listen to your body and how to know like, are we dry or are we lubricated what these things are, if it's painful, how do we take breath?

Does that make sense? What I'm saying? Like if you have no sex for six weeks and you just forgot that the baby you're scared, you're scared to take up shit. And if you're scared to take a shit, you are really scared if you're in a hetero sexual relationship to have a penis inside of you, if you are in any other type of like, you know, relationship Your any thing inside of you or around you or rubbing on you can be very intimidating.

So I was just that's my next question is sex, sex, sex. What is your advice for the Postpartum mum?

Speaker 3 (43m 48s): Yeah. This was amazing question or recommend to everyone. Anyone who has given birth have any kind to see a pelvic floor therapist, at least once. Cause the work that they do is powerful. The manual work they do. It's female body centered, right? So they are looking at what's happening for you, not the protocol of six weeks or whatever. I highly recommend that because they do, they will have you on a fish or you're having specific issues having sex IN from my perspective and from the work I do, I want to honor people's process and say, if it's something that doesn't feel right to months later, four months later, eight months later, then honor that and do the work that we can do for the pelvic floor to touch base.

And that is not everything. So what I mean by work, I mean sometimes just touching your pelvic floor again can be a powerful step. In my course, I have worked using a massage, a ball on the Pelvic for that can be life altering. Cause you realize different things when you touch and when you engage with these parts of their body and then there's more musculature work we can do. If that feels good and is able to help you awaken the pelvic floor, then that's great.

And if it's still not helpful, then there's, there's going to be probably more work that needs to be done. Especially if there was a high trauma during Birth, if there was a really big terrace, third and fourth degree tear, or you might need a little more manual support and that's what a pelvic floor therapist would do. I think that the sixth week go ahead and have sex after six weeks is ludicrous and does not acknowledge the woman at all. It's like a letter from like a leftover, right? When it was really about the husband and when he can get back with you in his business,

Speaker 0 (45m 52s): No, I'm like how about you spend weeks, zero through six, exploring your own Body and every day feel and touch and how it changes in how the swelling changes and, and get in tune with your body. And that's different for everyone. But like we don't do enough in that Postpartum visit at the hospital with your OBGYN. I mean, midwives do a little bit more, but like talking really about what its like for you and what you want and your enjoyment and your healing and how your body is changing and all of that kind of stuff.

So I at least wanted to put that out in the table. I do also always recommend, even if my client's have a tiny terr and they choose to use like menuca honey to like heal naturally that they still see a pelvic floor therapist because, but there's so much more that happens to our pelvic floor then taring and all we talk about it is tiring. Like, Oh, I don't want to tear. And you know, but I'm like, well, what about like the strength of your vaginal walls, which is leading to my next question that you brought up so that we don't have a cyst, a seal or what would, that's a prolapse of your bladder?

So like our vaginal walls stay strong. And so a lot of your work that you had talked about was working in leading up to the Birth, but then in that postpartum period to make sure that Pelvic Floor was strong. So I think that would be the last thing I wanted you to touch on today was about incontinence and the actual, like a strength of the Pelvic Floor and some of the things that you would recommend to do while everyone's listening right now, pregnant and then immediately, immediately not like six weeks later about like immediately you have to urinate like, like within probably 30 minutes of giving birth.

And so what that, that looks like with, within your practice and within the returning to center course.

Speaker 3 (48m 6s): So the, I encourage all of my students and clients that right after giving birth, squeeze your vagina. You won't feel it if you get, if you, if you have, if you had vaginal birth that you want necessarily to feel it, but squeak a few times and then let it go. And then a few hours later and do that again and do what every day, because what you're doing is you're reconnecting the neuromuscular pathways that connect your brain, your, your volitional willpower, a desire for something to happen and the actual reality of it happening, right?

So the more that you can do right after birth and that it doesn't hurt, it's not going to hurt pre six week to do this is actually a very powerful squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and let it go. This is a little here in there while you're pregnant, the same, the same work that we do in returning to center for the pelvic floor. It looks the same. And during pregnancy, it's just about getting the full range of motion of this diamond.

I like to call it the Pelvic diamond that we have. And that's the space between your sitting bones and between the pubic bone on your tailbone, right? So what makes a diamond shape of the bottom of the pelvis, where those muscles intersect and where they hold base for the vagina and the unit and the urethra baby is pushing on the bladder, which means baby's pushing and waited on the urethra. And I have some issues TMI.

I have some issues with peeing just without having had the baby yet. That is if my bladder gets too full, it just doesn't, it doesn't come out because it's like, if you think about like a water balloon and you poke it with a tiny little needle and you see just that little, the rate of water coming out, right. It takes a while because it's such a whole balloon, right? It's, it's, there's pressure on the opening, right? That is very similar.

When you give birth, there's all this pressure pushing on the little tiny urethral openings of your bladder. And then it can actually create issues where either it's hard to Pete or you, or you don't have control PA. Right? So what we wanted to do is draw up, right? And you can do this from the center of your pelvic floor, which we often talk about in this course, but you can do it from the vagina.

You can do it from the anus or you can do it from the urethra. And so doing this during pregnancy, because during Pregnancy, your pelvic floor is still pretty much intact. There's a lot of weight on it, but it's in tact. Postpartum right away. You're not going to have that nuance that ability. But so if you do it before, and so this is, I want to say is do this work before giving birth and it will help you with the recovery. Postpartum

Speaker 0 (51m 17s): I have a great question for you on that then. Yeah. When do you feel is the best to purchase the returning to center course? Because I'm starting to hear they, you should, you should be purchasing this course while you're still pregnant and kind of like reviewing it to you have an idea so that it's not this overwhelming thing. Postpartum, it's actually something that you're looking forward to. And your Postpartum as part of your Birth preparation planning, this is my takeaway, but I wanted to hear from you on, like, when you feel is the ideal time for someone to register for returning to center.

Speaker 3 (51m 55s): I think that's a fabulous idea. If you have the capacity during your pregnancy, maybe in the nesting phase, third trimester, you're really have a space to relax and just take in some new information or even earlier than that, if you have that option. Yes. I all means. And like I said, I want to do a Pregnancy course that specifically talks to Pregnancy because things will feel a little bit different of course, than when you are postpartum, but to, but to get a sense of it.

I think that's a great idea of Heidi to be able to, ah, kind of wrap your head around some of the concepts beforehand, you could practice the exercises while pregnant are all safe for pregnancy and postpartum. So it could be a really great way to, to kind of Prepare. Yeah.

Speaker 0 (52m 42s): I was just kinda thinking about my own Postpartum journeys and how they were just so overwhelming. If someone was like, if I wasn't prepared that it was part of my plan, you know, I would want it to be beforehand, like just as much as you're writing out a Birth plan and you're writing on a nursing plan, you should also be writing out a Postpartum plan. And hopefully it, you know, includes the returning to center course as it does for all of my DOULA clients.

So a lot of my listeners will right in and say like, Heidi we really feel like you are a virtual DOULA. And so I'm telling you, if you take that seriously and you are listening episode after episode in your learning for me, then I really want you to take this seriously and take the returning to center [email protected] and use the code BIRTH Story 10 to get your 10% off of the course. It is important to me. It is important to Amy and then that's why we've come together today to collaborate on this episode so that you are preparing for the Birth that you want, but also learning how to recover and heal your body in, in full disclosure.

Because I don't want you to end up like me. I didn't take it seriously. I had bladder surgery, my vagina is put together with a mesh. I have a sling under my urethra. My bladder is tact. I gained 70 pounds that I held onto. I have diastasis recti. It is painful to have sex. And all of this is why I have been like stocking Amy on Instagram and asking her like, is it too late for me?

And the answer is no, it's not too late for me. Like, I can heal my body and my womb space through like the somatic breathing and practice. And I'm really excited to be going on this journey with you. Amy and I really hope that the listeners are inspired to do the same.

Speaker 3 (54m 55s): Thank you Heidi and I just wanted to quickly air fist bump you for that pre that prep for Postpartum have a Postpartum plan. That is so huge. I say that to everyone that I work with who is preparing a baby, it is not just about the birth plan is about how you recover and how you are going to recover later is what is effected by what you're doing today. So just keeping that in mind, I would love to leave everyone with the notion that you, after giving birth in whatever circumstances that you have given birth, have a new form to explore that it's not about getting your body back.

You're still you and you still have the same Body, but it it's a different landscape and it can be explored and celebrated as such. And that's what I'm hoping to impart in returning to center.

Speaker 0 (56m 2s): I think its coming through loud and clear. Thank you for being on my show today and for being part of my life. Amy I really appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (56m 11s): Oh, same here. So grateful for you, Heidi. And for all of the inspiration you are providing all these amazing women. Thank you. Thank you

Speaker 2 (56m 24s): For listening to BIRTH STORY Michael Is. You will walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want to, no matter what that looks like.