Courtney’s Story

Exercise has always been a key part of my life and played a huge part in my mental health, and I didn't want this to change whilst I was pregnant and postpartum. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I frequently trained right up until two days before birth and even coached F45 classes up until 38 weeks. Throughout my pregnancy, I anticipated how hard it would be to rest, and recover for at least 6 weeks but knew that it was the best thing for me, my body and baby.

Part of my postpartum plan was seeing a physiotherapist, so a couple of days after my boy was born I booked in for an appointment right at 6 weeks, by the 6 weeks I was itching to do something other than my walking, breathing, and pelvic floor techniques but I was 98% sure I had a prolapse and was scared of the uncertainty this brought for my training, job ,and personal life.

At 6 weeks, I nervously went to my appointment. I found that I had a grade 2 prolapse, and my vaginal muscles were still quite loose (thank you, tight pelvic floor, and 3 hours of pushing). My physio knew how important exercise was to me so gave me options of things I could do whilst helping my pelvic floor to heal and muscles to continue their recovery.

Between 6 weeks to 12 weeks, I did a lot of gentle exercise from all fours, my back and tummy to reduce the amount of gravity and pressure I was putting on my pelvic floor and muscles. I also had to spend a lot of time in laying horizontally to counteract the time I spent moving and on my feet and had to do my pelvic floor exercises religiously.

At 12 weeks, I returned to my physio and was told my muscles were recovering well but I still had a grade 1 prolapse, I continued to implement exercises from my physio and participated in a 6 weeks program that helped mums return to exercise. This 6 week program was the perfect thing to help me build my confidence back up, and remove the anxiety I had about increasing intensity and returning to my preferred type of exercise.

By the time 18 weeks came, I was feeling so much stronger physically and was hardly experiencing my prolapse symptoms and was able to use certain techniques if I started to feel them. At my 18 week appointment, I was told my bladder when full only slightly descended into the vaginal wall but I didn't have symptoms that grade me with a prolapse anymore. As you can imagine I was beside myself!

By this point, I had learned even more about my body and slowly continued to increase the weight and intensity of my workouts. Some days felt better than others, and I learned what felt good and didn't for my body. The journey was long, far longer than I had ever imagined.

At 7 months postpartum, I returned to coaching at F45 and realised that whilst my body had come a long way, it still had a way to go. Movements that were easy before, felt straining and hard, and the excessive time spent on my feet brought back prolapse symptoms some days. It felt like another curb and more uncertainty.

I had to continue to rest, learn and listen to my body a whole damn lot. Some weeks I felt so strong and able, others I felt weak and defeated. I juggled between going hard and taking it slow.

I'm now 13 months postpartum, and things are still getting better month by month.

My return to exercise postpartum wasn't what I imagined, or hoped for but I am grateful for what it taught me!

-Courtney