As I’m about to properly begin my postpartum fitness journey I wanted to share a bit about my recovery from pregnancy and giving birth three months ago. I had booked an appointment with a private women’s physio for a thorough postnatal check up but unfortunately it was cancelled when the UK was put under lockdown. I didn’t have any specific concerns as such but since the 6-week GP check up (NHS) is very superficial, I thought it would be good to have someone check me out properly. The GP had very little time to answer my questions (she even got a bit annoyed with me and said she’s got other patients too…) and she didn’t examine me at all. She did refer me for x-rays because of my wrist and shoulder pain, but again thanks to coronavirus, I never went. With the guidelines from the postnatal programme by Nordic Fit Mama which I follow, I checked my own pelvic floor strength (decent) and abdominal separation (none or very little as far as I was able to tell). So once again I just have to trust my own instincts and listen to my body as I embark on this journey to reclaim my body!
For these first three months I’ve mainly let my body recover naturally while I’ve focused on my newborn baby. I am not very fit at the moment but I feel like when it comes to recovering from giving birth three months ago I’ve recovered well. I really, truly believe that when it comes to bouncing back from pregnancy “more tortoise less hare” is the way forward! In my humble opinion the first three months are best spent getting to know your baby, getting used to your new life, and taking care of yourself by
- Staying hydrated – especially if breastfeeding/pumping. I kept getting horrible headaches from dehydration until I learned to keep a water bottle on my bedside table
- Eating enough and as nutritious food as possible to keep your energy levels up (again, especially if breastfeeding/pumping)
- Resting when possible. Showering is not essential, sleep is (although a hot shower always feels amazing)
- Doing exercises to rehabilitate and strengthen your pelvic floor and core – your future self will thank you!
- Walks in fresh air, with or without the baby, are great for keeping you sane and giving energy
- Gentle stretches can really help with stiff and aching muscles from carrying around your little bundle of joy (even when they are still tiny!!). Also hours of nursing can lead to stiff and aching neck and shoulders
- Giving yourself and your body time to heal from everything you went through in late pregnancy and giving birth! This is not the time to stress about fitting into our pre-pregnancy jeans
While I found it quite easy to embrace to growing pregnant body, it has been harder to feel the same about the postpartum body. After having my first baby I felt like I was suddenly in someone else’s body. We have nine months to get used to the pregnant body but nothing prepares us for the body after baby! I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t feel mine either.
This second time I at least knew what to expect. After I had Noah I still had a big belly for the first week or so, until it deflated into soft squishy rolls. My boobs ballooned from the milk and I still carried more than half of the weight I gained during the pregnancy despite the baby being out. Everything was big. And that’s fine!! Some women fit into their normal clothes as soon as the baby is out but that’s not me. It took time for my “normal” size and especially shape to return after having Maia. During my first pregnancy I worked really hard on maintaining muscle and strength but still I had to work hard after she was born for a toned body. I might have gone back to my usual size (UK 8) pretty quickly, but I had no muscle definition and my body composition was different (hence the squish).
During my second pregnancy I had far less time or energy for training but interestingly I hit the exact same maximum weight at 9-months pregnant and now three months later I look very similar to how I looked three months after having Maia: slim-ish but little muscle and more rolls and excess skin (see picture below). I dare to say though, my starting fitness level for this postpartum fitness journey is likely lower than last time! I weigh about 3-4kg more than before falling pregnant, having already lost 12kg (6kg as I gave birth and another 6kg over the past few months). So again I don’t have a lot of weight to lose as such but regaining strength and cardiovascular fitness is on the to-do list and through that, hopefully I’ll grow a bit of muscle and lose fat too. I prefer a strong, toned body (not everyone does and that’s ok) and I generally feel better and have less aches and pains when I‘m fitter. On the other hand, I don’t bother much about being super lean. Being very lean is not essential for my health or happiness and it would cut out a lot things (such as sticky toffee puddings) which I enjoy and hence it’s not worth it to me!
Have I followed my own advice? Well, mostly. I’ve been eating healthy food but also lots of sugary and carby treats and coffee. I know my diet is not 100% healthy but that’s how I’ve self-medicated my sleep deprivation. I know the sleep will improve and I’ll just need to make sure I don’t make the unhealthy snacking a long term habit. Life with two kids is active even without a training programme and combined with breastfeeding, my energy consumption is higher than normally. This is why I don’t share what I eat and how much. I don’t want to give the impression of “do this and you’ll lose the baby weight” because we are all so different.
Since 2-months postpartum I’ve followed the Nordic Fit Mama post pregnancy rehab programme (it’s very good! See Nordic Fit Mama) for core and pelvic floor exercises. Some days I’ve forgotten or been too tired to do them and some days of the programme I’ve repeated, so I’m about to finish my six-week programme in seven weeks (more about this in a separate post to come). I go for daily walks with Noah in the pram and I often wear ankle weights for a nice subtle add-on. But I haven’t been diligent enough with stretching and foam rolling which I should do every single day because my body is so stiff from hours of breastfeeding and carrying Noah.
2-months after having Noah I also started the post pregnancy programme from Kayla Itsines’s Sweat app. You might remember I did her BBG programme to get back into shape after Maia was born (see: Results). Back then I started it four months after having a baby because even BBG 1 is quite tough. Since then Kayla had her own first baby and postpartum fitness journey and was inspired to create a new programme – yay! It’s quite easy to start with, much slower than her other programmes which is perfect for starting out after a baby. I swear if it was very hard I would just feel put off by the fact that I couldn’t do it! And it’s very important to start slow. As a mum of two little children I need those 15-20 minutes to myself for my exercise to feel like I’m still doing something for me. So it’s both a mental and a physical need.
I admit I don’t feel amazing in my current post baby body. I feel fine and most days I’m not bothered by how I look but I do feel slightly uncomfortable not quite fitting my clothes and having to keep tugging my leggings up to keep the tummy rolls under control. My bottom is flat as a pancake and very far from the peachy perfection you see on social media. And for someone used to perky C-cups, carrying around double D’s that are just waiting to drop is just errr… a bit strange. It’s no drama and I’ve experienced this before, but let’s just say I’m happy not to be on the beach at the moment. Or well, I would probably still choose to be on the beach now if it wasn’t for social distancing, but you get the point. I’d be more confident in a bikini in a few months I think.
The reason I’m reposting these before and after pictures of my first postpartum fitness journey is that they are a reminder to me that I’ve gone through this once and I can do it again. It’s very comforting for me to know that my body recovered once and that with time and effort it’s possible to feel fit and strong even after baby (or two!). Many mums have said that they bounced back after the first baby but that it proved difficult or impossible to lose the baby weight after the second one. Maybe this is because it’s increasingly difficult to find the time and energy for ourselves when we have two kids (especially if the older one is still little), or maybe it’s because we are older, or maybe it’s the knock on effect of multiple pregnancies? Those are valid points and also made me wonder how this would go… I’ll be 35-years old this summer and I have no opportunity to go to the gym (well no one does at the moment due to the lockdown) and I will only have help with childcare for a few more months.
From my own experience I would say the best way to get fit after baby is to get fit before the baby. Being in good shape before falling pregnant helps so much during pregnancy and also after. Muscle memory is a great thing and if you’re able to stay even a little bit active during pregnancy, even better! But this is not to say you can’t start your fitness journey from scratch after you’ve had your baby – of course you can! It just might take a little longer.
I’m also a huge advocate of rehabilitating the post pregnancy body in between pregnancies. I’ve heard comments such as “don’t bother if you’re just getting pregnant again soon anyway” which are so wrong!! I’m not talking about the baby weight (unless we are talking about obesity which isn’t healthy of course) but rehabilitating especially the pelvic floor and core which go through a lot in pregnancy and giving birth and if not healed properly can have serious negative impact on your wellbeing and quality of life later on. The knock on effect of respective pregnancies will only make it worse (I hate to be so blunt but it’s the truth). I had two babies in two years and I guess you could think it was waste of time for me to lose the weight and regain fitness after the first pregnancy just to get back to where I started (which is where I’m now) after the second baby. The thing is though, it’s not bad to be back at where I started because it’s not a bad state of fitness to be in (even though it could be improved). And starting my second pregnancy from a healthy weight and strong body helped me once again to achieve a healthy pregnancy and natural labour.
Now I’m focused on finishing these two programmes and then I’ll reassess whether I’ll be ready to start one of the other programmes on the Sweat-app. I’m really looking forward to getting properly back into training!
xoxoxo,
Sini