BODYLOVE TO BIRTH

July was  Bodylove to Birth month on our platform and we had the great pleasure of hearing from some incredible mama’s who passionately and vulnerably shared their powerful and unique birth stories with Ali. We believe that through this first hand sharing mamas can take little nuggets of knowledge that help them prepare mentally for their future birth experiences. We strongly believe knowledge is power and encourage women to arm themselves with plenty of trusted information, education and real life experiences to ensure they feel empowered for the big day that lies ahead. 

As well as beautiful birth stories we heard from a perinatal psychologist, Dr Sally Dunlop from the Gidget Foundation who discussed the importance of women preparing how they will prioritize their mental and emotional well-being post birth. We also heard from women’s health Physiotherapist, Eliza Bernadi who explained how to best prepare the pelvis in the weeks leading up to your birth, and optimize the position of the pelvis during labour for a better birth. Finally, join Ali anytime for  a ‘Prepare to Push’ workout that she streamed live for mamas to enjoy anytime.

In this article, we include a snippet from our conversations and a link to their chat with Ali. If you missed any of these chats you can check them out below and listen to them in your own time!

We know that no two birth stories are ever the same but we hope our stories help you find courage, information and inspiration for yours! 

Francesca Kendall – Bodylove Mama and Sleep Expert @the.sleep.escape

In our very first talk of the series, we spoke with gorgeous Mama Fran who shared many wonderful tips about premature babies, induction, pain relief, and more!

Fran shared her top birthing tip.. “to get as knowledgeable as possible but don’t have a set plan. Ask what your options are from your obstetrician or midwife so that along with your partner, you feel like you were part of as many of the decisions made around bringing your baby into the world as possible.” 

You can find Fran’s birth story here.

Deborah Symond O’Neil – Bodylove Mama @deborahsymondoneil

Our second talk was with a divine mama, Deb who shared her beautiful birth story about her second baby. It’s such a powerful story as your second birth is always so different from your first. 

Deb shared how she felt the second time around “My second pregnancy was tough, I was vomiting up until half way and I was breastfeeding when I fell pregnant so I was still quite depleted. I definitely wasn’t in the same physical place that I was for my first pregnancy so it was a lot tougher the second time around for me. I still really wanted to go into birth the same way that I did with Beau as I had such a great experience with him so I wanted to do the prep in the way that I had the first time.”

You can find Deb’s birth story here.

Sally Dunlop – Psychologist – Private Practice and The Gidget Foundation

An expert in her field, we had the pleasure of speaking with Sally who shared on a very important topic, how to prepare for your mental and emotional well-being post birth. We tend to talk so much about the preparation of our bodies for childbirth and how to care for our bodies and rediscover our strength postpartum (which is where postnatal pilates workouts  like Bodylove Mamas can help) but there’s a massive part of mental preparation that should go into that first stage as a new mum. We believe it’s important to do this thinking before you have your baby. 

Sally shared her insights “there’s some serious mental preparation that goes into birth but lately I’ve spoken to a bunch of women about those days and weeks after giving birth which is a bit of a black box. If you haven’t been through it before, we actually don’t have that much exposure to women in that period just after they’ve given birth. These days we get a bit on social media but we still don’t know that much, so it’s great to open the discussion and talk about some good resources on the topic”

You can find Sally’s expert advice here.

Jessica Tange – Bodylove Mama who used donor conception for her twins 

Jess shared a story like no other, Ali’s gorgeous sister-in-law and a super mama to two beautiful twins. Jess told us her story about doing it on her own, through IVF and a C-section. A very real, special and authentic story that is unlike any other shared on Bodylove Mamas before. We feel so many of the themes in this story will resonate deeply with lots of other mamas or women out there who want to be mamas.

“I’d been thinking about it for a long time, whether it was going to be financially possible and all those different considerations. I spoke about it with you Ali, I spoke about it with my mum and lots of different friends, it was honestly years in the making but it was so interesting that the moment I made that decision for me, it absolutely was the most liberating feeling I think I’ve ever had. It was one of those moments that I realised I didn’t need to rely on another human to fulfill my dream of having a family”. 

You can find Jess’s birth story here.

Georgie Abay – Mama and Founder of Grace Tales @georgieabay

A must listen 30 minute chat with a true super Mama. Georgie is also an author of an incredible digital magazine, Grace Tales, a real pioneer in the Mama space. Georgia shared her birth story around her experience with premature babies, which is such an important topic to enhance better understanding and practice for others on their pregnancy journey.

“With Arabella my first child, It was six weeks before she was due and I woke up and said to my husband, I’m going to have our baby today. My mucus plug had been coming out for about two weeks and I woke up and I just felt so heavy, I actually had to check that my baby was still inside me. It was a heaviness I hadn’t experienced throughout the whole pregnancy and that’s when I knew my baby was going to be coming that day” 

You can find Georgie’s birth story here.

Eliza Bernardi – Women’s Physiotherapist at Born Ready Physio Clinic

The goal for birth month was to properly educate and inform as many women and their support groups on different topics surrounding birth. It’s important to understand that all births are unpredictable and while it’s great to know our preference, the plans put in place for the day may not go exactly as expected. The best thing we can do is prepare and empower women with information and tools to feel more confident and comforted for their own unique birthing experience. 

At Bodylove Mamas we work closely with Eliza from Born Ready women’s Physio clinic who kindly spoke to Ali to help educate all women on the pelvis during labor. This talk will give you an understanding on what happens to your pelvis during your birth and how to best prepare the pelvis in the weeks leading up to your birth.

Eliza’s main goal for birth prep with her clients “Our interest as women’s health Physios is the clearing of any tension or tightness within the layers of the pelvic floor, to hopefully make it easier to get a baby out of your hole that’s surrounded by pelvic floor muscles”

You can find Eliza’s expert advice here.

And that’s a wrap… this month we touched on some incredible topics from premature babies, induction, donor babies, c-sections and optimising our pelvis for a better birth.

We also got to workout with Ali as she jumped on an Instagram live to do a Prepare to Push live 30 minute workout. Which you can still find here and do in your own time.

Preparing your body for childbirth is a crucial part of our prenatal program. As you approach your due date, we want you to feel empowered, strong in both the body and mind and ready for the physical challenges of labor. 

On our Bodylove Mamas platform we have a whole collection of prenatal pilates workouts specially designed to prepare your body and mind for pregnancy, childbirth and  your exciting journey into motherhood. All of which are at home workouts that are on demand so that you can do them anytime, anywhere via our  app or website. You can start working out with us from your first trimester here right up until birth and beyond. We recommend you begin including our Prepare to Push collection of workouts into your practice from around 35 weeks. We offer a 14 day free trial so you can find them here to try them today.