E03: Why Pregnancy Does Not Have to Be Painful
Have you experienced pelvic pain during pregnancy? What is it, exactly, and how can you manage it during your vegan pregnancy?
Join Maya & Emily Pastrana, PT, DPT as they discuss these questions & more. If you've been told to "go on bed rest" or pregnancy is "just painful sometimes" don’t miss Emily’s top 5 (or 6) tips every woman should know before, during, and after pregnancy. Pregnancy can be uncomfortable, but it does not have to be painful.
Emily Pastrana is a pelvic floor doctor of physical therapy, birth doula, yoga instructor, and photographer working in women’s health. She is the founder of Empowering You, a mobile pelvic health clinic, serving those experiencing any symptoms involving the pelvic floor or associated with pregnancy or postpartum complications.
She is a proud vegan who firmly believes in the power of plants during pregnancy. And she lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and cats where she enjoys taking photographs, cooking, and gardening.
Connect with Emily:
Instagram: @em__powering
Podcast: I'm Not Ovaryacting!
Links: pelvicrehab.com
Connect with Maya:
Website: The Vegan Prenatal Collective
Instagram: @vegan.prenatal.nutrition
Transcribed
Maya (00:04):
Hi friends. Welcome to the Vegan Pregnancy Podcast. I'm your host, Maya Bach, prenatal dietician, fellow vegan and founder of the Vegan Pregnancy Collective. From food to fitness, you'll hear from vegan moms to be just like you and other healthcare professionals. The goal is to empower, support and inspire you as you navigate your vegan pregnancy. Now let's dive in. Welcome, Emily. Thank you so much for joining us. A little bit about Emily first. Emily and I connected over Instagram and she is a pelvic floor doctor of physical therapy, birth doula, yoga instructor, and photographer. Wow. That is excellent working in the field of women's health. She is the founder of Empowering You, a mobile pelvic health clinic, serving those experiencing any symptoms involving the pelvic floor or associated with pregnancy or postpartum complications.
Maya (01:10):
She is a proud vegan who firmly believes in the power of plants during pregnancy, and she lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and cats, where she enjoys taking photographs, cooking and gardening. Oh my gosh. We have to talk about gardening later. Emily can be found on Instagram at em_powering, on her website at empoweringyoultd.com, or on her podcast, I'm Not Ovaryacting, and that's ovary as in ovaries. Go listen to podcasts. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything you want to add?
Emily (01:48):
No. Thanks for having me. It's funny. Maya giggled, because when she said cats, literally, my cat is in my face right now, which is hilarious. Unfortunately, Instagram is so annoying, but it's E-M underscore underscore powering. Two underscores. But you can't tell when it's typed, which is so annoying, but if you are trying to look me up, it's em__powering because one underscore was taken.
Maya (02:16):
Well, thank you for clarifying that and I'll link to that in the show notes as well.
Emily (02:22):
Awesome. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. Last time Maya and I spoke, when I listened back, once I pressed record, we still talked for a half hour of just shooting the breeze. I love Maya. I'm so happy to be here.
Maya (02:35):
Thank you. And likewise, it's really good to be able to connect with like-minded providers in the world of women's health, which brings me to, can you explain a little bit about what pelvic floor pain is or dysfunction? And why that's really common, I don't know if really common is the right, but why that's common in pregnancy?
Emily (02:59):
Sure. The thing about pelvic floor dysfunction, in general, is it's something we just don't talk about. Whether you've been pregnant or not, I would say even from my own personal polling, there's a large majority of us vulva owners who have pain with sex or pain with even just inserting a tampon and we don't talk about it. We're told, oh, you're just tight, which, cringe. That's just sometimes it's uncomfortable. Just practice more. So that alone, pregnancy or not pregnancy, just discomfort with anything going in there is pelvic floor dysfunction and does warrant a visit to a pelvic floor PT, someone like me. And then during pregnancy, so many things are happening as baby gets heavy, all that pressure, yeah, it weighs down on your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor, those muscles are like a sling, and they sit in the bottom of your pelvis and they support your organs.
Emily (03:46):
So your rectum, your bladder, your uterus, your cervix, and that holds it all up. So as baby gets bigger and drops down, that uterus becomes heavier. Those muscles are working on overdrive to sustain and keep us nice and supported. And additionally to that, as all that pressure goes down, we can put pressure on our bladder and our urethra, and that's when we start losing urine and have that leaking with coughing, sneezing, laughing, or a hard time holding our pee. Sometimes there could be pressure on our rectum which can cause some of that constipation. And that's just during pregnancy. And after pregnancy, after you have your baby, sometimes when we're pushing, those organs have a ton of pressure on them.
Emily (04:27):
That's when we prolapse and those organs fall down into the vagina. Muscles are too weak to support it. We're too weak to engage our pelvic floor so we leak our urine. So many things. Or you could tear, and it's really painful to insert. All of these things are so freaking common. I'm going to say it 400 times, get ready, common, but not normal. Most women experience it. Most women don't get help for it because we have normalized all of this bullshit that happens to our bodies.
Maya (04:55):
I really like when you said common and not normal. Can you maybe share some client story, what their symptoms were, how they shared that with you, and then what was their process like?
Emily (05:09):
Yes, absolutely. What we're going to listen for and something you're going to now learn from today, Maya, is those buzzwords of women or postpartum people or pregnant people downplaying their symptoms because they think it's expected of them because they've been pregnant or had a baby. I even had someone who came to me during pregnancy and said, I am in such bad pelvic pain. My pelvis hurts. I feel like I cannot separate my legs, but my doctor told me I'm just pregnant, just lie down. But lie down? You're pregnant and you're living your life. She was in the middle of her pregnancy and was told verbatim, stay horizontal.
Maya (05:49):
So bed rest, basically.
Emily (05:51):
Bed rest for pelvic pain. She asked for a referral to pelvic floor PT. Her provider said no, stay horizontal. And she was a little bit adamant about it and then ended up getting that referral. The first thing she, and so many of my pregnant postpartum people say is, maybe I should just deal with it, maybe this is just expected of me. And no, pregnancy doesn't have to be painful. So in her specific instance, her low back, so we have our sacroiliac joint, which is where our low back meets our pelvis. And then we have our pubic bone in the front. And all of those are brought together by cartilage and tendons.
Emily (06:26):
And when we're pregnant, as our weight changes, as we get clumsier as we're reaching for things and our form isn't as cute, we can have little shifts or little pains occur, or muscles can kick into overdrive where they shouldn't be and create a tightness or a spasm. And all it took for her, I got her in a really great supportive SI belt, a sacroiliac belt, love those. And then we worked on making sure her glutes were super activated. If our glutes and our core are working, our pelvic floor does not have to do as much.
Maya (06:58):
Oh, interesting. So providing that area more support.
Emily (07:03):
Yeah. You're offloading. Exactly. Because baby's going down, pelvic floors like, ah, hell it hurts. So all the supportive big muscle groups around we build up during pregnancy. Pregnancy does not have to be painful. It does not. It can be uncomfortable. It doesn't have to be painful.
Maya (07:19):
Right. I really like that. The focus of today's episode, to clarify, Emily is going to give you her top five tips as a practitioner, as someone who sees women before, during and after pregnancy, what you need to know in order to help manage pelvic floor dysfunction.
Emily (07:39):
Yes.
Maya (07:39):
Emily, can you walk us through one by one, let's say someone comes to you and said, Emily, I'm in my third trimester, I'm feeling a lot of pain. What are those five things that that woman needs to know?
Emily (07:54):
Sure. First and foremost, to reiterate, pregnancy and postpartum discomfort are common, not normal. Okay? All these complications, they are going to happen and they should not be normalized. You do not have to deal with it. So right off the bat, do not settle for anybody telling you, oh, that's just pregnancy. Deal with it. That's the first thing I tell my patients when they come to me is, hey, I'm so glad you're here. This is exactly where you should be. That's number one. Number two, this one is huge. It is never too late to switch providers. It's not. I had two doula clients.
Emily (08:30):
If I talk about clients, I'm talking about doula work. If I say patients, I'm talking about my physical therapy patients. They're technically, they're different hats unfortunately. I'm a healthcare provider as a PT, I'm support person as a doula so I call them clients, but I've had two doula clients in the last two months switch providers at the third trimester. We had deep conversations about it. They felt like they were being blown off. They felt like they were having pain that wasn't being addressed. And they just weren't feeling great about it.
Maya (08:58):
One of the things that I hear in my practice is, a vegan pregnancy is not normal in our society yet. And sometimes, my clients feel uncomfortable sharing the fact that they are vegan with their providers or their provider is not supportive. I had someone recently, she's been working with a fertility clinic, and they are very anti-vegan.
Emily (09:25):
Oh my.
Maya (09:26):
Yeah. Which is really unfortunate and also disempowering. So if we can, to use your word, normalize the fact that it is okay, insurance allowing, and location access to services allowing the fact that it's okay to switch providers, because it really is, during this time especially, important to advocate for yourself.
Emily (09:47):
I completely agree. We need people who support us and we deserve that.
Maya (09:51):
Yeah. Absolutely. The world of healthcare, and this can be a totally separate episode of conversations. It's a combination of lack of nutrition education and being provided for our healthcare professionals or physicians. Again, it's not normal. The recommendations surrounding prenatal nutrition are largely driven by animal-based products. When you exist outside of that social norm, it can be challenging to find information.
Emily (10:19):
Yes, it can. I'm taking a childbirth education course right now just to broaden my knowledge. And they super lightly touch on nutrition, because that's not our jobs. But in case somebody asks, they give us a little bit. The course I'm taking is international. And they gave us my plate, our United States standard, which is meh. It's not good. But they also gave us Canada's plate, which is very vegan-friendly. It's three sections, fruits and vegetables, protein, and carb. In the pictures, the protein has tofu, nuts, beans. It still has animal products, but even in the notes of the course I'm taking, it said, unfortunately we're based in the United States so we tend to use ours. But, the Canadian one is way more friendly for pregnant people. I thought that was really fascinating. I was just looking at the plate and it had all the examples of foods and it was very plant forward. And there wasn't even a dairy section, which I also really appreciated. It's pretty cool.
Maya (11:19):
That's incredible. Okay. Note to self, go look up the Canadian.
Emily (11:23):
Yeah. I'm going to text you a picture. I took one. I just had to share that with you.
Maya (11:27):
Yeah. Thank you. Again, it speaks to the difference in where you live and your healthcare system and provider the knowledge that they get also.
Emily (11:38):
Exactly. Pretty cool.
Maya (11:39):
Okay. So moving on.
Emily (11:42):
Number three, also picking five things on my podcast, I make people pick one thing which is rude and unmanageable, and Maya asked me to pick five, and I was like, oh, what five? That's so hard. And I ask people to only pick one thing, so that's ridiculous. But number three, this is so hard, but your due date is a guesstimate. I think it's really important to remember during pregnancy that your due date is not written in stone and a normal pregnancy, a normal, healthy term pregnancy, could be between 37 and 42 weeks.
Maya (12:17):
Can you share a little bit more about that because I think that can cause some anxiety, especially if you are experiencing symptoms like pelvic floor pain later during pregnancy can cause some, am I going to be pregnant forever feeling.
Emily (12:33):
Yes. I'm so glad you brought that up, Maya, because this is also a global issue. We've all developed in how we look at pregnancy, even thinking of the way we speak to one another. If you're speaking to a pregnant person and they say they're 36 weeks, you might be likely to be like, oh, almost there. If we're going by their due date, they're a full-blown month away. That's a long time. And you can go past that. So many people now are being induced at 39 weeks which is a whole different conversation. That could be really great. Sometimes it's not necessary. I'm right down the middle. But we have definitely normalized not going to our due date. When we hear somebody in their 30s, mid-30s, all of a sudden, all of us, providers and patients, start thinking they're almost there. And they are. They're not in their 12th week anymore.
Emily (13:27):
But at the end of pregnancy, four weeks can feel like a long time. And I think we have a little bit of a global issue around the mindset of how long pregnancy is that come 35, 36 weeks, we start feeling like we're almost done. That's a little bit of a societal thing. It's nobody's fault, but really healthy pregnancy can go to 41 weeks. And so, if we're sitting at 36 weeks, oh, I'm having all this pelvic pain, how am I going to do this anymore, I should almost be there, or pregnant people start to feel really disappointed come 38, 39 weeks when they don't just go into labor. You know what I mean?
Maya (14:05):
Yeah.
Emily (14:08):
Exactly. That's why I have so many clients I work with who are like, I don't want an induction. I don't want an induction. I want to try to let my body do the work. And again, inductions are fine. These are just examples. Then comes 36, 37 weeks. And they're like, I wonder if I'm dilated yet. And in a normal case, there's no reason to think you are. Even if you are, it shouldn't really matter. We're not even to your due date. And our mindset really starts to change. So what I really want our friends who are listening to remember, a healthy pregnancy can go at 37 weeks. That's early, but it can happen. A healthy pregnancy, what we think of [checking 00:14:49] early is 41 weeks. They say 42, but I am more comfortable with going to 41. And that's normal and that's healthy. I really want to try to normalize going to your due date again, unless you have a reason not to, because it's all perception. Does that clarify, Maya?
Maya (15:09):
It does. In today's world, which is so social media driven and looking at what others are doing and feeling like you're falling into that comparison trap. And then from my perspective, looking at the nutrition side of things, this is normal and this is not normal. When you feel like you exist or you're doing something that's not within the social norm, it can even put more pressure on you.
Emily (15:35):
Yes. A lot of these are obsolete terms. And that's the due date, I just want us to remember that, in your due date, even if we stick to 40 weeks, at 36 weeks, you still have a month to go. Starting to get out of that, I should be almost done, it's almost time, I should be maybe feeling labor signs. Maybe not. That would be normal. But so much of it is like you said, the pressure of what we see and what we've come to normalize in our society. So be patient with yourself and remember that due dates are guesstimates, and take some pressure off yourself.
Maya (16:10):
Yeah. I really liked that. A good gentle reminder.
Emily (16:13):
Yeah. I hope it was gentle. Moving on. And this one is probably the one I can get the most fired up about. And it's something that we definitely don't talk about enough. This could go for whether we're talking about a vegan pregnancy and stuff they're encouraging you to supplement with or take. This could be decisions in the delivery room. Any sort of decisions, informed consent is a requirement. You have to give consent before anything is done to you or your baby or given to you or ingested by you. To take it a step further, is in your birth plan or in your agreement with your doctor in the office. If you agree on a certain thing and then you're in the delivery room and that thing comes into play, they require consent again. Just because you said it was okay at your 37 week appointment, it does not still have to be okay in the delivery room.
Emily (17:09):
I want you to remember that you should consent at any time of your pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. I hate that I hear so much verbiage for my pregnant people talking about their delivery about things that happen to them. I hear, well, and then they did this to me and then they did this to me. It should be with you. It should be for you. It should be for your baby. And a lot of pregnant people are feeling like things are being done to them. And I think a lot of it is because our pregnant people are lacking participation in what's going on. Consent, consent, consent, consent.
Maya (17:47):
I like that. That speaks to partnership, that speaks to healthy boundaries. Ultimately, this is your journey.
Emily (17:57):
Yeah. Yeah. It really is. I have had so many people, and this is part of my work when I'm on doula duty in the delivery room, I have a client who might say, I really, I don't want an episiotomy. Those are falling out of practice, but providers still do them. That's when they cut you from your vagina down towards your rectum to help baby get out if baby's not quite fitting. And I have people who maybe really, really don't want them. We're in the delivery room and baby's having a hard time getting out and the OB might say something like, I'm just going to help make a little bit more space. That is an episiotomy. I would much prefer the language. It looks like you're going to need an episiotomy, do you consent? That's easy. That's clear. But instead, we can get lost in some of the verbiage.
Emily (18:46):
I'm just going to open you up a little bit more, I'm just going to help baby get out. Those are really sweet ways of saying it. And they're still true, they are not lies, but a procedure is about to happen that requires consent. And that's where you have another set of eyes in the room. And that's why I believe in informing yourself so much and informing your partner. Because even if the partner is, or a support person, is super informed, they could be like, hey, I think they're going to maybe cut you a little bit. Are you okay with episiotomy? Someone to say, that means episiotomy. Because consent is required.
Maya (19:18):
Yeah. Yeah. The language and the verbiage does sound very nice. Oh, okay. Help baby. Who doesn't want that? But if you are very clear on not wanting that procedure or for whatever reason, then that should be a part of the conversation.
Emily (19:36):
Yeah, exactly. I find a lot of that... Introducing Pitocin. Pitocin is great. I'm not anti-Pitocin at all. I think a lot of us need it to help get our uterus to contract. But a lot of times the verbiage is, we're going to hook you up to the IV and get things started. What does that mean? That could mean anything. We're going to start Pitocin now. Are you ready? It's all about language. Consent is required. Soapbox, I will step on down before the next topic. I'll get back on it.
Maya (20:08):
Do you find that some of your clients have an easier time or harder time, or maybe it's difficult to tell? I don't know if there are statistics around this. If they have a pelvic floor dysfunction and they have a high degree of pain during their third trimester or later in pregnancy, does that impact delivery?
Emily (20:31):
It can. I'm glad you asked. That is why I also am in the game of normalizing PT during pregnancy. Pelvic floor PT is under utilized a lot as is, but it's probably underutilized more postpartum after, I hate the word damage, but after the damage is done, if you will. So yes, it can impede what's going on in the delivery room, which is why I like to address people's pain before they're in the delivery room. Even just for example, the pelvic pain, if our pubic bone separates a little bit, that can happen in some pubic synthesis dysfunction and it could separate. That is so freaking painful. Even just to separate your knees the teeniest bit, the pain I've seen in my poor patients is just horrific. And that's during pregnancy. And then we're going to put them in the delivery room, lie them on their back, and make them spread their legs to push and have the strength and the awareness and the confidence to push a baby out. That could be really challenging. So I love to address pain before the delivery room. I do see a correlation.
Maya (21:40):
Okay. And can you share, are there specific exercises that you would give to an expecting mom who is experiencing pain?
Emily (21:50):
Yeah, it's super specific. If we have that separation, like I just spoke about, which makes me sad, I hate when that happens. For one thing, I have a couple of manual therapy techniques I do to help, for lack of a better term, push things back where we want them. There are a few manual techniques I can and would do. And then, as I was mentioning before, offloading the pelvis by loading the glutes and the abs. That tends to be really, really helpful. What happens during pregnancy, like I said, as baby gets heavier, not only does the pelvic floor take on more, but our adductors, our A-D-ductor muscles, which are the muscles that squeeze our knees together, they start to take on more load. They don't have much purpose in supporting our pelvis. That's not really their job. But those muscles attach into your pubic bone.
Emily (22:42):
So they start to take on some of that load that is not required of them. And it can cause tons of pain. If that's you, we offload the pelvis, we offload those adductors, those muscles that, when you're at the gym and you're in that machine that you squeeze your knees together, I hate that machine. But nonetheless, it's a whole other topic. We can offload by loading up the glutes, loading up the lower abs, sticking them in a support belt. Specific exercises, like a clamshell lying on your side, can be really great. Squats can be really great. Anything that's going to work the glutes. Big glute girl.
Maya (23:18):
Nice. I really like that. It's about improving strength in other areas of your body to distribute the weight and the pressure.
Emily (23:29):
That applies to most diagnoses. And so much of what my husband, he's a physical therapist as well. We are musculoskeletal specialists. And if somebody has say tons of back pain, they often have really weak glutes and really weak abs. So their poor spine is taking on loads that it shouldn't be taking on. So you build up the surrounding muscles and you offload your joints. Your muscles are meant to support your joints. You shouldn't just be hanging on your joints all day. That causes pain. So we build up and we support.
Maya (24:01):
Okay. I really like that. One of the things that I like to do, so my husband and I are doing a lot of cardio or we like to do triathlons and we go training. It's very cardio heavy. I like to go to Pilates. I like someone to tell me what to do, I love the reformer. It's 45 minutes. I'm in and out. To balance out the high volume of training, that's what I like. I feel like I'm getting my glutes, abs, other muscles that I don't work out specifically, are being targeted. Would you say Pilates is good, obviously with supervision from physician, physical therapy.
Emily (24:48):
I'm so glad you brought it up. One of my business partners is a Pilates instructor. That's why we partnered together. I firmly, yes, we are sneak peak. We are launching a little bit of a program and a resource group together, because I so firmly believe in Pilates. If I had the time and energy, after all the trainings I've done, I wish I had it in me to go get Pilates certified, but it's so intense because it's so good. And you hit it right on the head. And Pilates workouts, I genuinely think it only works the good stuff. I'm a firm believer, I say it all the time when I'm in a Pilates class. If we all came out of the womb doing Pilates as our workout, we would have no pain, doing it correctly. Which it can be tricky. But I love the reformer. I'm such a believer in stabilizing and building strength in our glutes and core and Pilates is all stability based, which is what most of us need to decrease pain.
Emily (25:47):
So I love that you do that. I think it is a great addition to all the cardio training you do, which side note, you're amazing. I can't believe what you do. But nonetheless, I am very, very pro Pilates. This is why my girlfriend, Tonya, and I, her name is Tonya Rockovich. She is phenomenal. This is why she and I like to work together because sometimes she might have a Pilates client who has a very specific pain. And if I think it needs attention and a diagnosis, it'd probably be more appropriate for me to clinically treat them as their PT. If it seems generalized, she and I can work together and I could be like target the gluteus medius and she's going to be great. And Tonya can be like, yeah, perfect. And we work really well together. I very much so believe in Pilates. Yes.
Maya (26:32):
Okay. Good to know.
Emily (26:33):
I love it.
Maya (26:35):
Had to ask.
Emily (26:36):
Yeah. I'm very pro Pilates. I'm glad you asked.
Maya (26:40):
So, to wrap it up, the top five tips. I know I made you pick five, but we've explored what to do in terms of preventing, managing pelvic floor dysfunction and pain. What should every pregnant woman know? The last tip.
Emily (26:57):
The last tip is, it's your pregnancy and your birth. Yours. It doesn't matter what your mother or your best friend's cousin or your sister or anybody said, this is not their pregnancy. This is not their baby. This is about you. I feel like this is something Maya has to preach a lot on terms of a vegan pregnancy, because we all have the family members, I have them, who are like, oh, you're sure you don't need some eggs? I promise I don't need the eggs. The same goes for our birth plan and how we do things. Well, when I did it, I was fine when the doctor did this, that, and the other thing. See? I'm okay. You're not them and they're not you. This is your story.
Emily (27:39):
Another thing to remember too is things change for a reason. If we were operating under the same health care system and guidelines that we were when our parents were our age, we would be lacking so many ways. Think of how bringing babies into the world has changed. Think about how sleep has changed, diet has changed. Veganism was hardly even a thing. Cancer research, all of these things that have progressed so much since our parents were our age. So remember, things are different now for a reason. And it's mostly a good reason. And it's your pregnancy. Stick to your guns. This is about you and your baby and nobody else.
Maya (28:20):
I really like that. That speaks to empowering you, which so aptly the name of your business.
Emily (28:29):
Yeah. It tends to encompass everything. Thank God I picked that.
Maya (28:32):
One last question. When would someone come see you and how can they do that?
Emily (28:38):
Great, good questions. For a pelvic PT in general, we do have to be licensed per state. I'm licensed in four different states at this point, but I mostly practice in Pennsylvania, virtually and in person. But we are working on a compact license so I would be able to work in multi states, but nonetheless, you probably have a pelvic floor PT near you. There is a database for it, pelvicrehab.com. You can put in your zip code or your city or whatever and all the public floor PTs registered with her will come up. But I digress. If you are pregnant and experiencing low back pain that's consistent, pelvic pain that is consistent, if you are noticing that you just really want to exercise and you don't think you can do it safely, I would recommend a physical therapist because that is our job to make sure you can safely do it in a therapeutic dosing.
Emily (29:29):
If you're experiencing any coning or doming of your abdominal muscles during your workouts, if you're a fitness person and you're exercising a lot and notice a little bit of bulge in your abdomen, that tells me you might not be engaging your abs safely and exactly how I would want you to. You come in and see a pelvic PT. Flip it to postpartum. This is where the list gets much longer and where I really want you to realize that what you're experiencing is common, not normal. If you have pelvic pain, if you have pain with intercourse or insertion of anything, if you are leaking urine, if you are dealing with constipation or uncontrolled bowels, if you're experiencing, again, that low back pain, if you are experiencing any separation of your lower abdominal muscles, most people have some diastasis recti, which is the separation of your abdominal muscles during pregnancy.
Emily (30:22):
If that persists postpartum, see a pelvic floor PT before jumping into planks. And then if you had a C-section for instance, and that scar is bothersome and painful, go see a PT. C-section postpartum people are some of my favorite to work with because they get ignored a lot. So if you are dealing with anything postpartum that is beyond just being sleep deprived, I recommend seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist, especially if you're an athlete, if you are a runner. I will say this before I shut up. If you are postpartum and you want to run, running is the very last step. There is a slew of work that needs to be done safely and appropriately before then. I recommend working with a pelvic floor physical therapist to make sure you safely run without your organs falling out or peeing yourself or back pain, all that good stuff.
Maya (31:11):
I really appreciate you sharing that because it is something that some of us might not think about. Oh, I was a runner before, I'm just going to jump in. I know typically you have to be cleared for exercise so there is some conversation.
Emily (31:25):
And that six week postpartum visit, that should have been, if you had given me six things, I think the sixth would have been, your six week postpartum does not mean you have to have sex or get on a treadmill. And that's when you basically get cleared to return to normal activity.
Maya (31:40):
Got it.
Emily (31:40):
Yeah. Couldn't disagree with that more. That is when you are cleared to start safe and progressive activity. It is not safe to jump into doing what you were doing before.
Maya (31:51):
I really appreciate that clarification. Thank you. Yeah.
Emily (31:55):
Really important topic.
Maya (31:56):
I did not know that. So now we have six things. Six.
Emily (32:01):
I couldn't resist.
Maya (32:05):
I love it. I love it. The more the merrier.
Emily (32:06):
You cannot put me in a box of five things, Maya. I will break out of it and give you a sixth.
Maya (32:15):
Well, Emily, is there anything else that you'd like to share with the listeners before I let you go?
Emily (32:20):
I think that is probably it. If you have questions or concerns, or if there's something today that struck a chord with you, please send me a message on Instagram or an email @em__powering, empowering. I do have some different online support groups. I do provide virtual birth support nationwide, I just can't give physical therapy nationwide. But I do give birth support, birth planning, and birth guidance nationwide. So if you even just need a free consultation to chat about what you're experiencing, I can and will do that for you. You have a resource and a friend and someone who loves you with me.
Maya (32:54):
Amazing. Thank you. Your patients and clients are so lucky to work with you.
Emily (32:59):
Thanks. And my cat.
Maya (33:02):
Exactly. I know. For those of you listening, I see Emily's cats right behind her.
Emily (33:07):
The other one. Thank you so much for having me, Maya. This was great.
Maya (33:12):
Absolutely. We can do another podcast focused on doula and what that means and looks like for vegan women.
Emily (33:18):
Sure, that'd be great. Thanks so much, Maya. You're the best.
Maya (33:24):
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you're ready to go from feeling concerned to confident as a vegan mom to be, send me a DM. I'm on Instagram @vegan.prenatal.nutrition. I'd love to hear from you and we can chat more and see if the Vegan Pregnancy Collective is for you. Remember, you're not in this alone. If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with a friend and subscribe to the Vegan Pregnancy Podcast to get notified when new episodes are released.
