When Pelvic Floor PT Isn't Enough: Solving Complex Postpartum Cases

What if your client has done everything right – pelvic floor PT, stretching, exercise, therapy, nutrition – and they're still struggling more than a year postpartum?

In this episode, Lynn sits down with former client Samantha to unpack a complex postpartum recovery that many pelvic health therapists will recognize. After two very different births, Samantha was left with persistent pelvic floor tension, low back pain, bowel dysfunction, urinary symptoms, painful intercourse, and overwhelming emotional distress. Despite months of treatment elsewhere, her symptoms remained unchanged.

This conversation explores the clinical reasoning behind looking beyond isolated muscles to assess the pelvis as a whole – including birth patterns, pelvic bone positioning, compensatory movement strategies, nervous system regulation, and unresolved trauma. For those who have had postpartum clients that plateau despite doing "all the right things," this episode offers valuable clinical insights for how you assess and treat these challenging cases.

Clinical Takeaways

• The importance of learning the birth history – even when symptoms don't appear until months later.
• The long-term effects of prolonged labor versus precipitous birth on the postpartum body.
• How previous orthopedic injuries can influence pelvic alignment years later.
• Recognizing common postpartum pelvic bone patterns that often perpetuate pelvic floor tension.
• Why persistent urinary, bowel, and sexual dysfunction may have structural contributors beyond muscle tightness.
• The role of the central nervous system in clients who remain "stuck" despite appropriate treatment.
• How emotional beliefs and nervous system regulation can influence physical recovery.
• Why individualized assessment is essential when previous pelvic floor therapy hasn't produced results.

From Treatment to Recovery: A Clinician and Client Perspective

This episode isn't simply another postpartum success story. It's a detailed clinical discussion that walks through the therapist's reasoning from evaluation to treatment, while hearing directly from the client's perspective about how unresolved pelvic tension affected every aspect of her life – including motherhood, relationships, and mental health.

If you treat postpartum clients with persistent symptoms, this conversation will encourage you to think differently about assessment, treatment sequencing, and the interconnected nature of physical and emotional healing.

Don't Miss This Episode If You Treat Clients With:

• Persistent postpartum pelvic floor tension
• Urinary dysfunction
• Bowel dysfunction, fissures, or hemorrhoids
• Painful intercourse
• Chronic low back pain after childbirth
• Clients who plateau despite previous pelvic floor physical therapy
• Complex postpartum presentations involving both physical and nervous system factors

Recovery isn't always about doing more exercises. Sometimes it's about uncovering the hidden patterns that have been preventing the body from healing all along.

Connect With Lynn

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

About the speaker: 

Samantha Dove is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst and LBA living in Mead, Co. She has over 16 years of experience working with children and adults in a multitude of settings. She has been working in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis for 8 years, but before that, she worked as a Special Education teacher in the public-school setting. She has a passion for advocating and helping individuals with disabilities accomplish their goals. She loves to go camping, paddleboarding, and spending time with her family.  

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Transcript

And today I invited here with me Samantha Dove. And Samantha is a client of mine that came in to see me just twice after having two babies.

And I just found her case really interesting, and I wanted to just share it with you all to give you a sense of how I work with my clients and my line of thought and thinking as I'm working with my clients.

So welcome to the podcast, Samantha. Thanks so much for being here.

@3:56 - Samantha Dove

Yeah. Thanks for having me. So, Samantha, you have two kiddos.

@4:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

How old are they today?

@4:02 - Samantha Dove

Yes, I have a three-year-old boy and then a one-year-old girl.

@4:06 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. And you came in just last month, so they're still three and one. Okay.

@4:13 - Samantha Dove

Tell us what you were complaining about when you came in. Yeah. So after I had my daughter, I struggled.

@4:22 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And daughter was number one? Daughter was number two.

@4:25 - Samantha Dove

Number two. Okay. Yeah, so just about a year ago, 14 months if we're going to be exact. But I had her really quickly.

So the birth was really fast. And so almost immediately after the birth, I struggled with lower back pain. And then maybe two months postpartum, I started to have fissures as well as hemorrhoids, which then led to some gut issues.

So, you know, went all the routes of trying to see every daughter. So to try to help me with that.

I also struggled with postpartum depression, anxiety, even rage. And a lot of that was due to, well, one, just postpartum, right?

But then the other part was I just didn't feel whole in my body. I didn't feel like I was there, but I also didn't feel present.

I was in more pain than I think I realized I was in as I just kind of like compensated for it because you have to have to go on day to day.

And so after dealing with the fissures and the hemorrhoids, I got those finally cleared up and realized that I was not able to control my sphincter.

I wasn't able to relax the muscles and my pelvic floor, which I hadn't realized because I was in so much pain prior to that.

And so this was almost a year long journey of just feeling like that was probably my end. Like this is, this is what life is like moving forward.

And so there was a struggle emotionally because I want more kids, but also could my body handle having more kids?

And then the struggle of like, can I live like this for the rest of my life, not being able to pee correctly, where I had to like push to pee.

And I know we talked about you, you were like, do you have to push to go like to poop?

And I was like, I don't think so. But you were like, you probably do. I just didn't notice, right?

Like, so there was just so much impact. And so I seeked PT help from another physical, pelvic floor physical therapist, and had no results.

@6:37 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I was referred to you. And so that was almost exactly 13 months postpartum at that point when I saw you.

Yeah. Did you have to wait like six months to even get into that other PT?

@6:49 - Samantha Dove

Yes, yes, I waited six months to get into a physical therapist, saw her eight times. And she was lovely.

have nothing mean to say about her, but she just didn't help. Um, and I think she. We knew she wasn't helping.

It was almost like our meetings. She was giving me advice to do stretches and things, and I was doing them daily.

And I did everything that you could think of. I got a therapist. I tried to help with the anxiety and the depression.

I ate better. I was eating clean, drinking more water, exercising, taking time to myself, and trying to do that all while momming.

Yeah. Yeah.

@7:23 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

A new word, baby. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

@7:26 - Samantha Dove

Yeah.

@7:27 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

That's a lot. So when you came in to see me, you were 13 months postpartum after second baby. And, and when you came in, you were talking about, I always ask about the, the, the births and tell us more about your first birth.

Yeah.

@7:43 - Samantha Dove

So the first birth was pretty traumatic. Not in the sense that anyone is in danger. It was just a really long stretched out process.

So I was in labor for 38 hours and in the hospital for about 30 of those hours. Um, and I really wanted a natural birth.

I wanted to be able to do it on my own. And through that process, I had great doctors here, um, who were just lovely and nurses who heard me and understood.

Um, and it came to the point where I had to have a conversation with my husband and I didn't think this birth was going to come naturally, um, for the safety of me or my, my son.

Um, and so I ended up getting, being induced. I had to be induced because they were just worried about the fatigue in my body.

hadn't slept. I couldn't sleep. I was in so much pain. I had a lot of lower back pain contractions with my first.

You mean, um, you went into labor naturally, but then they had to augment it.

@8:45 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Oh yeah. Augment.

@8:45 - Samantha Dove

Sorry. Not yet. had to break the water. Um, twice. Um, yes. And then I got, um, what's yeah. Then they had to augment.

Um, and so there was a lot of. and That was over just the last seven hours of that before I started pushing, and then pushing lasted a long time.

I couldn't tell you, my husband might know the number, but it was over an hour of pushing, of trying to, you know, just be all done.

And that was after 38 hours of already being just like fully exhausted and just like fully in pain. And I was like, yeah, yeah, it was a lot.

I don't have fond memories of it other than being over and having my son. And that beautiful moment. Yeah.

And so that one was a lot. Yeah.

@9:35 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And how did you feel after that first birth? Did you have any back pain or any issues?

@9:40 - Samantha Dove

Yeah, I went to my chiropractor for almost a year after that on a biweekly basis of just trying to get my body back into the way that it was.

And I don't remember having, like, I didn't have fissures. I didn't have hernias. I didn't have any of that postpartum.

But it did take a long time. I did have a second degree tear with both my pregnancies from pushing.

Yeah, but no pain or anything else after that.

@10:11 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah. Okay. And then you get pregnant with your second baby. Did you have any pain or any problems carrying that second baby?

@10:20 - Samantha Dove

Yeah. I went into a physical therapist, the same one that I saw postpartum. Probably, I want to say that I was in my third trimester at some point.

It was not that close to the end. might have just gone into my third trimester. And I was complaining of pelvic floor pain.

But then also, what's the ligament that like it comes along the bottom of your belly?

@10:47 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

The round ligament. Yes, the round ligament.

@10:49 - Samantha Dove

The round ligament pain. And like shooting pain.

@10:53 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And not just like tension, but like just, I would be just sitting at my desk or I'd be standing and it would be pain that would like.

Made me almost want to fall over, like a shooting pain that would come down, and I couldn't move.

@11:04 - Samantha Dove

Almost like a cramp, but that wasn't it, you know? Okay. Did you have that in your first pregnancy?

@11:11 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I did not.

@11:11 - Samantha Dove

No, I did not have that. And I was smaller during my second pregnancy. It was like my belly wasn't bigger, you know, it was smaller, I weighed less, all of that.

So it really didn't make sense that it was like heavier in any way. Yeah, having done it again, you know, I felt like I was doing better at it, whereas the first one, I gained a lot of weight.

know, I took it as a full, open, I could eat whatever I want. I could get into cravings, right?

Like, because I could, but with a toddler running around, I just don't have time for that, you know?

@11:42 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

@11:44 - Samantha Dove

So, and there was like almost no answer to that. Like of, here, do this stretch. Here, why don't you do downward dogs?

Here, why don't you do, you know, this kind of thing. If you put some pressure here, maybe it'll release that tension.

And so. And so. Yeah, And so. So I dealt with that pain until I gave birth, but then that pain didn't come back.

But so anyway, yeah, but I'm sure that that played a role. Absolutely.

@12:09 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And then you give birth. And I did ask you with the second birth, how long were you pushing?

@12:15 - Samantha Dove

How long did that second birth last? Yeah. So my water broke naturally at six in the morning, but I wasn't having contractions.

I called the doctor at the hospital. She was like, take a shower, eat breakfast, come in at your leisure, right?

Because I wasn't having contractions. So I made it to the hospital around 10 and they got me all set up.

I got an epidural because I was not playing around with a 38 hour birth again, right? And within 15 minutes of getting my epidural, I started to push.

And so I was only in labor probably less than seven hours. Um, and, uh, pushed for seven minutes and my daughter was born.

@13:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. All right. Which is better, but also maybe not. So, you know, yes, because it is. And I asked this question to you when you came in was, did that birth feel too fast for your body?

@13:11 - Samantha Dove

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was so unprepared. I actually, um, during, after I got my epidural, I remember laying in bed and that's a very short period of time, that 15 minutes, but I almost passed out during that, that 15 minutes.

They had my blood sugar was dropping. My blood pressure was dropping. Um, and so they were really worried about me being dehydrated and all of these things.

They couldn't necessarily figure out what was happening. Um, and so there was, it was traumatic in its own way, um, of just not being like, I thought I was, there's some sadness with that.

Right. I thought I was going to have time to like sit with my husband and talk about it.

@13:53 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Right. Like prepare for the birth.

@13:54 - Samantha Dove

And there was just no preparing for that birth. Like truly I say to my husband, like you could have gone to the bathroom.

And I would have had this baby and like, you would have missed the whole thing. I mean, thankfully that didn't happen, but it was like that quick.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

@14:08 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So then, um, and, and what positions were you in when you gave birth?

@14:13 - Samantha Dove

I was on my back, both.

@14:15 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

your back with both of them. Okay. Were people supporting your legs? Yes.

@14:19 - Samantha Dove

I had my legs supported on both of them. Yeah.

@14:21 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. All right. Great. So, um, so then you come in to see me now we're 13 months postpartum after the second baby and, um, and yeah, you were complaining of pelvic floor muscle tension.

The pelvic floor muscles just couldn't release. You had shared about the, the fissures and the hemorrhoids, but you said those were under control at this point, uh, months post the second baby.

Um, and then you're also having deep thrusting pain with as well. Yeah. Yeah.

@14:53 - Samantha Dove

Yeah. Um, and so when I went to do my, the standing assessment, this was.

@15:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And really interesting, because I put my hands on her shoulder. And I noticed that all of her weight was on her left side.

So it was just going through her left, or I'm sorry, her right leg. And, and so I was like, huh, do you realize that you have all your weight on your right leg?

And you're like, No, I don't think you did. Did you?

@15:21 - Samantha Dove

Yeah, no, I didn't notice. Not until you said it. then I was like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

@15:26 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And, and so when I asked about that, you're like, Oh, yeah, I had three ACLs, or three knee surgeries on my left knee.

@15:34 - Samantha Dove

Yeah.

@15:34 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And so it's like, Oh, okay, that's interesting. But then once I laid you down, I definitely did get drawn into your left knee.

And, and then I just intuitively, I put my hand on your heart. And, and, and I noticed is so interesting.

And this is what I would really encourage all you practitioners listening in. to really pay attention to what do the tissues want to do?

What do you notice as you just put your hand and tune into a structure? What does it want to do?

Because when I put my hand, I had one hand on your left knee and the other hand on your heart.

And I felt your heart moving up towards your head. And I was just like, wow, it, and, and my sense was that your heart was running away from your knee.

And, and it was, there was something about those knee surgeries that your body wasn't fully on board with, or something was going on with that.

And that just happened to be the first thing that popped up in our session, not really anything postpartum, but it's all connected.

And, and so I worked on, and we released the trauma, we did the trauma release statement on your knee, from those surgeries, the injuries.

@16:56 - Samantha Dove

And two ACL surgeries, and two meniscal. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

@17:01 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. So, so we just, we helped the heart come calm down. And then I went straight to the pelvis and we found you in the open birthing pattern.

You had a, um, so the, um, the sacrum was in sacral flexion and it was also sheared off to the right.

Um, and then there was a left issue, splay, which makes sense to me because of, you know, she's in lithotomy position with like people holding her legs.

But if you think about her history of three knee surgeries and how much she's depending on that right leg to support her and through all those recoveries, that habit has just formed that you're probably always standing on that right leg.

And so that develops more muscle tone on that right side. And, and so it is going to be easier.

So I worked on bringing her bones back together and getting it out of that common birth pattern. And then I went to her uterus and lower abdominal area, and she did have tension in her right side, broad ligament and utero sacral ligaments.

So we released that. And then internally, I found tension in her left levator anis, but her right coccygeus. So I love when there's this opposite sides of tension there.

Your bladder was off to the left. I found your cervix posterior. So both utero sacral ligaments were tight on her.

And then the entire inferior half of her sphincter muscle was tensioned. And . That's because she's been in sacral flexion for, your oldest daughter is four years now, correct?

Four years old?

@19:07 - Samantha Dove

My oldest, he's three.

@19:08 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Three, okay. Sorry, your son is oldest. That's okay. But it's been in sacral flexion for three years, probably from that first birth.

And that's just been putting tension on that sphincter muscle that just got more tensioned. And then her IRF, so the ischiorectal fossa on the left-hand side had increased tone.

And I needed to work with the adductors in order to get that to release.

@19:36 - Samantha Dove

And I don't remember, we didn't really talk much about, do you remember me doing much with that second birth or clearing any of the trauma from the birth?

I think we did a little. I think most of the focus was on, we talked about how that tension on that one side may be just through feeling abandoned in some way.

Oh, yes.

@20:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

That came up actually in your second session, the second section.

@20:04 - Samantha Dove

Yeah.

@20:04 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So I think the first session, we kept pretty much physical, like physical. absolutely. And, and then it wasn't until you came back in that second session.

Let's see if there was anything else more. Oh, after so after we just got your bones back together, and we released the pelvic floor muscles.

Um, you didn't have any prolapsing or anything like that. But when you got up after that first session, do you remember what you felt?

Yeah.

@20:38 - Samantha Dove

Yeah, I actually remember wanting to cry because I just felt this like, change in my body, the tension that was in the lower part of my body was just so I'm going to cry now, but it was just so overwhelming, like it was taking over half of my brain.

And I do really attribute that to just being so frustrated with the. The world around me, because like, it's like only something you can bring up so many times to the people around you that you're in like this like constant, uncomfortable state of like, something that should be natural to your body to do is not natural, and it won't do it.

And you have to constantly think to yourself, okay, release the release the tension. And then seconds later, the tension was back.

And so for a year of doing that, I remember standing up and just like feeling no tension. And thinking to myself, like, wow, I didn't think that was possible.

That that could happen. And just like, what, 30 minutes?

@21:39 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah, pretty much by the time we got done and on the table, maybe 45 at the most. Yeah.

@21:44 - Samantha Dove

Yeah.

@21:45 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

But that's, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So you did end up coming back to see me again, a week later, and you're feeling much better.

You still have a little feeling of tension in your glute area. But you were sleeping better. You hadn't tried yet.

But you were you were peeing better. Yeah, I was about what was going on with your bladder with that.

@22:09 - Samantha Dove

Yeah, I so towards maybe only like two months before I came to see you, I noticed that I was starting to have to go to the bathroom more often.

And not like an urgency, like I didn't have to run, but just like a almost a constant feeling like I had to pee almost like I had a urinary tract infection, but I didn't.

And I did notice that when I was peeing, I would have to sit down and it should come relatively natural to pee once you're sitting on the toilet.

But it took a whole like mind body action, like I had to think through it. And I no longer had to do that after my first appointment, like it became a very ease thing, which maybe sounds really small in the grand scheme of things in the world.

But it was it was pretty big to me. And the other thing I noticed is I didn't have that constant feeling of like pressure.

@23:03 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And so then when you came in the second time, because there was just so much going on, and I didn't feel like we really got to a lot of the root cause.

So I had to come back that next week. And you were feeling less tension in your body. But when I went to work, you know, went to listen to your body, I did notice that your central nervous system was, it was activated.

And, and so then I worked with the central nervous system. And we really had to calm down your, your, your central nervous system.

And the belief that that showed up was that I'm not okay. And then we shifted that to I am okay.

Um, and, and that really just brought everything like the air coming out of the tire there. Um, you still had some

Fathom left levator ani muscle tension, and your cervix was tender to mobilization, but what I found in that left posterior aspect of your muscle is like that wasn't wanting to let go, and so we got curious with it, and that part of the pelvis represents our ability to receive support.

And so that's when we went ahead and shifted that limiting belief around it's not okay to receive support to it is okay to receive support.

What was that like for you? And what did you notice after that?

@24:37 - Samantha Dove

Yeah, I think that that made me think right like I don't think that I had thought very deeply into feeling like I wasn't accepting support, although I do have a childhood of like growing up in the early 90s of feeling like I, you know, middle child, I was the one that did support.

@25:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And I was growing up in a house where, like, you just, like, man up or, like, brush it off is kind of, like, the terms.

And, you know, had a great childhood.

@25:08 - Samantha Dove

But, you know, like, still just more of a, like, just keep moving on and you're fine. And so I think that I was holding on tension from there and kind of had pushed that into this.

And being a mom of two young kids is a lot. And then I also work full time. And I want my, you know, as every mom, right, you want your house to be safe and clean.

@25:32 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And you want to put food on the table.

@25:34 - Samantha Dove

And so there was just a lot of responsibility. And I've been working through that in therapy. So it's interesting that it came up in this and, like, a physical reaction as well of, like, where do I need to release control over things and give control to other people and allow other people into my world is what my therapist says, into my world to help.

@25:57 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And so there was

@26:00 - Samantha Dove

There was definitely a more deeper connection after that appointment of identifying, like, I really do need to release this because, and you helped with that, right, the physical release of it.

But then there's that constant mental of, like, I need to let someone in to help me because it's affecting my body physically, which I just didn't know was possible.

@26:22 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah, yeah, cool.

@26:24 - Samantha Dove

And how is that working out for you today? What do you notice? Yeah, I think that since our last appointment, I have felt just, like, a weight off of my shoulders overall.

Obviously not completely healed, right? Like, I still have a lot of work to do on that, but I do feel, I feel more open just in general with my husband about how I'm feeling.

We still need to work on the communication on my side with it, you know, of, like, not waiting until I'm so overwhelmed that I'm

Like, can you just go do X, Y, Z? But, like, I think that there's that more planning part for me that I'm identifying, like, of what is overwhelming to me and what can I hand off to other people.

@27:10 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah. Awesome. Oh, my gosh. It's so important for new moms. I think it's one of the biggest gifts that we can give our clients when they have this limiting belief.

And a lot of women do. And shifting that belief opens the door to be able to start that receiving process.

And we're not meant to do it all alone. No, absolutely.

@27:39 - Samantha Dove

Good for you.

@27:39 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And then how is for you these days?

@27:42 - Samantha Dove

Are you still having any pain with that? I have not had pain with , which is, I've been wondering of how long, because, you know, for as long as I can remember, has been painful, not like, like so uncomfortable that I couldn't do it, but just not the way that I felt that it.

So I do wonder how long that tension had been there and how long I'd been holding on to that in the physical sense.

Yeah. Yeah.

@28:09 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Oh, I, yeah, we don't really realize it's one of those things that once it goes away, you're like, wow, that, how long did I know that was going on in there?

You know, like what, that's so different now. So, so cool. What do you, what would you want other moms to know, other practitioners, pelvic health therapists from your experience here?

What would you want them to know?

@28:36 - Samantha Dove

Well, I can't stop singing your praises just in general of the, um, I have a couple of moms who have just gone through, you know, postpartum in the early stages of four months.

And I'm like, you need to go. Um, you need to go. I don't care if you're having any physical pain or anything right now.

You need to go because I just think that, um, it builds on it with the life stress. And so I think that it's more of a, like, you in the behavior world, I'd call it an antecedent, right?

It's like a proactive thing that needs to be done, like to just prepare your body for birth, but then also after, because there's just so much that's happened.

It's a traumatic experience in just your body's sense of the way, right? Your body goes through so much in that.

And I think that in our world today, we're so much about putting Band-Aids on things instead of just, like, meeting your body where it is and trying to identify the core issue instead of just, you know, throwing something in to try to fix it.

And I think the biggest thing that I walked away from that is that I don't look inward as often as that I feel like I should, of, like, why something might be affecting me the way that it is, and then identifying of, you know, this whole journey of...

One, most important thing as a mom is that we need time to ourselves, but we also like self-care in this sense is so important of just like how the dominoes really fell and how it built and how it affected my body physically, but how it affected me emotionally and the way that I was able to respond and interact and engage with my kids.

I know I told you, but after that first appointment, you know, there was a week between our second, our first and second appointment, and I played with my kids for the first time in that week, postpartum, after my daughter, and enjoyed playing with them.

And that's something I love. You know, I worked with children. I still work with children. I love that engagement.

And it was the first time that I like chose to do it and it wasn't a forced interaction and I enjoyed it.

And there was a smile on my face in doing it.

@30:55 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And I think that is a huge testament to like how much tension.

@31:00 - Samantha Dove

And anxiety was like just stuck in my body and how I was just so uncomfortable in my own skin that it was affecting everything around me and the interactions around me.

So, yeah, I just think that this is, it's just so much deeper than releasing just muscle tension and that.

@31:19 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

It's just, it was, yeah, it was a full physical thing for me. Awesome. That's so great. And, and for those listening in, there is a directory on my website of practitioners that have trained with me that know how to do this work.

And I think, you know, one of your biggest messages, Samantha, is don't give up.

@31:38 - Samantha Dove

Keep, keep looking, keep searching for a practitioner until you get the help and the support that you need.

@31:46 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Absolutely.

@31:47 - Samantha Dove

Yeah. So don't, don't, you know, I know there's a lot of practitioners out there or a lot of moms out there.

@31:53 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Well, I've tried pelvic floor PT and it's like, then try a different pelvic floor PT.

@32:01 - Samantha Dove

Right?

@32:01 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Like, it's like, not all chiropractors are the same. Not all pelvic floor PTs are the same. Not all doctors are the same.

So keep trying until you find the one that gives you the results that you need for your body. So please check out the directory on instituteforbirthhealing.com.

And I'd love to get more moms connected to practitioners who know how to support the body postpartum. So thank you, Samantha, so much for taking the time to share your story with us today.

I really think that I hope people listening in are going to resonate with some parts of your story and, and hope that practitioners will learn and understand how this work can can really be so effective on so many levels.

So I so appreciate you. And thank you for being here. Thank you. All right. And thanks everybody for listening in.

I hope that you found some golden nuggets in here, some clinical pearls, and would love to have See Have you, um, share this with others, uh, other moms that need to hear this story, other practitioners, and let's get this workout into the world.

All right. Here's to smoother bursts and faster recoveries. Everybody take care. Bye-bye. Okay. Yay. Thank you so much. Of course.

@33:22 - Samantha Dove

Happy to. Yeah.

@33:23 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

That was really good. I really appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah, of course.

@33:27 - Samantha Dove

Okay. Thank you. Truly. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

@33:31 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

My pleasure. it.

@33:32 - Samantha Dove

Yeah. Well, thank you.

@33:33 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Thank you for spreading the word. I, I appreciate that. So worse.

@33:37 - Samantha Dove

Yeah.

@33:38 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

All right, Samantha, you enjoy the rest of your summer. Okay.

@33:41 - Samantha Dove

Thanks you as well. Bye. Okay.

@33:43 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Take care. Bye-bye.