Today, we’re going to really dive into 3 secrets that I will share with you to recover faster from giving birth and the reason why you need to act now that you’re pregnant. I am pretty sure that you didn’t think that you could do so much during your pregnancy to prepare you for the next step in your life.

The reason I chose this topic today is that so many women don’t know that you can prepare your body for postpartum during your pregnancy. I want you to pay attention here because it is not the kind of information you’ll hear everywhere.

Let me share with you some insights of what is going on when you’re officially postpartum, meaning you gave birth. Most of my clients come to me complaining about hip pain, lower and middle back pain, incontinence and so forth.

Think about it this way: your whole body is changing over the course of 9 months, at a somewhat slow pace: your posture is adjusting, you’re gaining weight slowly, your pelvis bones are widening to help you give birth, and so forth.

Then you give birth. We can call that a traumatic event for the body. Even though you are equipped for it, it is still a very harsh physical event on your body. And here what’s happening? You’re losing anywhere around 12lbs right after; your posture is shifting again as there is no baby anymore in your uterus so the pressure and the bio mechanics in this area is changing: there are not the same forces pulling on your ligaments around your uterus, and it will have a consequence on how you stand, on the curves in your spine, etc.

So everything is happening on a very short time frame compared to the long time frame that is your pregnancy.

I’m spending some time explaining you that because you have to understand that your body is again going through a lot of changes but very fast this time. And if you’re not prepared for it, it could be very painful.

So what I do with my clients, is preparing them ahead for that. They are following my step-by-step program and reaching each milestone on their success path. And guess what? They didn’t suffer from incontinence, they got their flabby abdomen back in no time, and they felt their old-selves again and most importantly they were on top of their game to take care of their children but also to go back to work and be successful!

Let’s dive in my 3 secrets to recover faster now, I know you’re dying to hear them !

First: You want to train your pelvic floor muscles. Obviously giving birth will make some damage on this area. But being pregnant as well. These muscles act like a diaphragm: they are handling the pressure of all the viscera and in this case the pressure that your baby is applying as well. Imagine a pillow. If you are putting your hand on it, it will shrink down a bit. But now if you put your head, it will shrink even more because it has to handle more pressure right? And with time, it can be completely flat and not even able to handle any pressure at all. That’s the same here.

So weaknesses are not rare to see after a pregnancy. On top of that, giving birth does even more damage: did you know that during birth these muscles stretch from 25% to 245% of their initial length. The issues that you can develop are leakage or incontinence as soon as your sneezing, laughing or just putting a bit of pressure on these muscles like running or jumping.

A weak pelvic floor is not something unusual at all after pregnancy, in fact, 30 to 50% of women report urinary incontinence after their pregnancy. It doesn’t have to be like that. That’s not something normal. It can also translate in hip pain or lower back pain or even worth in prolapse later on. 

So to prevent that, working on your pelvic floor muscles during your pregnancy is mandatory. However, you don’t want to do kegels like crazy, it’s not about making these muscles hyper-active and hyper-tonic. This could lead to issues as well.

It’s about coordinating this muscle activation with deep breathing, and being in control of them. Not squeezing your butt like crazy or practicing when you go pee, as you might get a UTI from doing it too often. Not so cool.

But by practicing that during your pregnancy, you will prevent these long-term symptoms.

Do you see how it could make a whole difference for you?

Adding some hip and lower back mobility exercises can help as well. Again being comfortable with them, having practicing them during your pregnancy, it will be easier for you to use these exercises again once you gave birth. You won’t have to look for it or not take the time to do them properly because you don’t know how to do them and you’re in a rush.

In our step-by-step program you will find pelvic floor exercises, breathing exercises and mobility exercises throughout your whole pregnancy, whatever trimester you’re in when you join us. We are the ONLY program that match you exactly where you are and still offering you a step-by-step program to prepare you to give birth successfully and thrive as a new mom!

Then, you need to learn how to breath properly. I often tell my clients that they are breathing in what I call “survival mode”: just enough to get some air in their lungs and mostly with their upper body. Take the time to look at yourself in a mirror when you are breathing: does your shoulders come up? Are your neck muscles really tense? If yes, well you’re doing wrong.

To ensure proper core activation you have to be able to breath from your diaphragm in all 3 dimensions. When you breathe in your diaphragm is going down, you can feel an expansion in your belly from back to front, but also to the sides if you put your hands on your lower ribs and little known but true, you can feel an expansion in your back as well. This what i call the 3 dimensions of breathing. Consider this area in your trunk as a canister. Everything has to work together. So it’s not only diaphragmatic breathing in fact, you have to master breathing deeply engaging your core muscles as well and your pelvic floor. You don’t breathe against your pelvic floor but from it. It can be a bit tricky to understand, we go more in detail in our program the prenatal holistic training program. You can go to bonjourbaby.net/yes to know more.

So now why does it matter? Once you are more familiar with that type of breathing, you will be able to add it to your workout routine but also in your daily life. You will feel your core muscles becoming stronger everyday and so you will prevent the onset of diastasis recti after you gave birth, but also protect your pelvic floor muscles, and most of all you will avoid feeling too flabby! This is a simple and great exercise that you can do right after giving birth as it will help relax your pelvic floor. So again, being prepared during your pregnancy will change the way you will go through postpartum. Do you see now the power of breathing and how it could change completely your game after you gave birth?

Last, but not least, using posture-based exercises in your routine and not only in your workout is a must.

So now that you’re not pregnant anymore, as I explained earlier your posture is shifting again faster than during your pregnancy. And on top of that, you have to add new “drills” to your new mom life: breastfeeding or bottle feeding, holding a little baby in your arms and walking with him or her, bending forward to give her a bath or put your baby in her crib. That’s all new to you. So if you didn’t prepare for it following the kind of program I offer, most likely you will complain of back pain.

Yes motherhood requires to activate more often certain type of muscles you didn’t use that way. That’s why working on your posture will save you. And you don’t need to go to the gym to do it.

You can add these exercises to your daily routine: when you’re breastfeeding, when you’re walking, when you’re waiting for a bottle to heat and so forth.

Mobility exercises will help as well to fight all those postural type of pains: loosening up your hips and shoulders, working gently on your core with breathing and posture-based exercises like I just show you. I have so much more in my prenatal holistic training program to share with you. We also prepare you for all these new drills so you feel strong and confident to add them to your new mom routine. Again you can go to bonjourbaby.net/yes to see more details.

This one was a good one right?

All right, that was a lot of valuable and new information! But did you see how adding my 3 expert secrets to your routine now will help you to recover faster once you will give birth? Do you understand as well why you need to act now that you are still pregnant? It’s all about being prepared, I tell you! Imagine how you will feel like when you come back home with your baby and knowing that you got this, you know how to prevent this type of pains and discomforts, you have a program that got your back, that is here to help you spending quality time with your family and thrive in your new mom role?  Can you picture that?

 If you liked today’s live, I’ve got even more for you Ladies. As you know now, my prenatal holistic training program is currently open for enrollment and will close on July 2nd. We offer a very special price to all of our founding members as a thank you to let us help you during your journey. We will reopen in September but at a very different price. So if you want to take advantage of it, you need to act now. Until tonight you will have access to our timely bonus too, the ultimate baby and me checklist to be sure to be perfectly ready for when you have to go to the hospital. So if you want to take advantage of it, act now and go to bonjourbaby.net/yes to see all the details. If you have any questions, you can ask directly on the page, we will be happy to help you! Bye for now!