Episode #17 Beyond the 6-Week Checkup—Supporting Active Mums in Postnatal Recovery with Coach Cei

In this episode, Coach Cei dives into the overlooked realities of postnatal care, especially for active women eager to return to their fitness routines. Despite the importance of comprehensive recovery, the standard six-week postpartum checkup is often too brief, leaving many new moms without the guidance they need for a safe and effective return to exercise.

Coach Cei shares why she specializes in pre and postnatal coaching and discusses the essential elements often missed in traditional care, from core strength and pelvic floor health to mental wellness and gradual exercise reintroduction. Tune in to learn about the strategies, tips, and support systems that empower active mums to bridge the gap in their postnatal recovery journey and thrive beyond the six-week mark.

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Transcript

[Music] hi I'm Celia Boothman founder of LTR coaching and I'd like to welcome you to the inspired triathletes podcast where I'll be bringing you stories from female triathletes and taking on topics that are important to women in the

sport hello and welcome to today's episode today I'm here with with Coach Kai Kai from Cardiff are you from Cardiff yeah I am yeah you are because I Met You in Cardiff and I'm like you just automatically assumed U we met at the cardiff run show um a few weeks ago and Kai runs some M and me fit sessions in Cardiff designed to get moms kind of back into training and getting fit again so she's an expert in Pre and postpartum health so I am really excited to have you on I've got loads of questions we might not get through them all but we'll see how it goes um so yeah first off if you just tell us a little bit about your background and how you became interested in pre- and postpartum Fitness yeah sure um so I am a m of two so I've got a six-year-old and a 2-year-old and I was already a personal trainer anyway so I started personal training in 2004 and then when I got pregnant with Frankie in 2017 um I just realized that even though I was kind of not an expert in my field but I suppose I'd already been ping for 12 years I had no idea what I should be doing when I was pregnant and I was kind of like oh my gosh so if I don't know what I should be doing and I'm a personal trainer how on Earth do Ms know what they should be doing when they're pregnant um especially if they want to keep training um so I kind of researched a little bit about it through my mom's my friends and I realized that actually most of them gave up exercise when they were pregnant because number one they were advised by health professionals normally to give up training because nobody really knew what they could advise them to do or not to do um so obviously it was safer just to not do anything um so that was my first kind of Link into right I need to sess this out a little bit so I actually then just just before I had Frankie I did my pre and postnatal um qualification which was amazing um so much more to it than I realized as well so that was kind of like a big step in that direction um and then so after I'd had Frankie I returned as a pre and post natural trainer in the gym that I was in which was amazing um straight away I found that women were very very eager to get started with me because I think it's also that whole thing of you like somebody in your field who's maybe your age and obviously a woman um and that was a lot of feedback that I received as well that a lot of women kind of went well you know there's this 21-year-old PT who's saying he's pre- and postnatal trained but number one he's a guy number two he's younger than I am and number three I don't really want to tell him that I need to we every five minutes people have no idea why or you know it's a bit embarrassing yeah so that kind of led me to get really stuck into it and actually then probably since I've had Frankie actually don't think I've really trained any men at all even though before that it was kind of half half so that was funny and then when I was pregnant with Camy so she's only two and a half now so in 2021 when I got pregnant with her I realized that what do people do when they have two children when you have one it's quite easy to ask hubby or a friend or family to look after one child if you want to go to the gym for just an hour but the the numbers become smaller as to who will offer to look after two yeah so I was like this is ridiculous there's nothing available for moms then you know that there are limited I don't think there are any gyms in Cardiff actually that have a crash attached unless you're paying extra so I know David Lloyd do for example but you're paying over the odds anyway for a membership um so I thought I've got to start something where Ms can bring their kids along um so that's how and me fit started in 2021 and since then yeah it's just it's just blown up really because it's just become we've got there's a need isn't there for it obiously there is a need especially if people are getting that advice like don't do anything you know how I can't believe that's still being told to people now I think it's just I think it's just that unfortunately from what I've understood because I I link up with a lot of um private midwives that run kind of private um uh anti-al classes and that kind of thing and they said the problem is is that within the NHS they're not allowed to promote paying services so that's that's there in lies the problem I think because in my head I go I'm just going to go and visit every doctor's surgery around C go to Heath Hospital leave my flyers my leaflets but I can't because they're not allowed to promote um paying Services because obviously inequality between they just say don't do anything instead of like being able to recommend yeah well yeah well they kind of say as long you know if there's Word of Mouth then but yeah but not physically a GP is not a GP and a midwife are not physically able to promote a paid service they can only offer anything that's within the NHS or free services for people so that's interesting yeah so I know I remember getting given the ADV it was kind of like if you were doing stuff already then you know you can carry on with doing the similar to what you're doing um but don't kind of go crazy was the kind of advice I think I got still the advice that that women get given I think it's kind of like as long as if you're doing what you were doing before then absolutely fine yeah obviously then you get so many women now who suffer with like pgp or you know any sort of hip issues or or you know you you've got because now we're able to scan more and see more issues and see more things that are going on I think women then become obviously a little bit worried about well am I going to be able to continue doing this so um yeah it's difficult it's a difficult it's a bit of a mind field I think for pregnant women now yeah definitely and I guess like I suppose the more confident you are in what you know you can do that's going to help you to to know and understand your body but if you maybe don't have that background in exercise and you just do a bit you might be a bit more cautious I'm don't know CU yeah people that do a lot of sport tend to be desperate to get back into it yeah 100% to the other extent yeah and don't get me wrong there's never I mean not that I've heard of there there are not I don't hear many women who come up to me saying I wish I'd known about this years ago because from ex over exercising I ended up doing this so you don't normally get that kind of conversation but I do get a lot of women who say I still have AB separation and my youngest child is 15 you know and you think but that's probably because you went back into exercise without knowing what you should be doing because just like all of us you know me included I you know once I'd had a baby I wanted to get rid of my my flabby belly I wanted to get my body back I wanted so of course if your only Avenue is that you know of classes like body pump or hit classes you're jumping back into those which obviously for a woman who may have pelvic floor issues or app separation it's probably the last class she should be jumping back to but most women don't even know they have AB separation some women don't know they have pelvic floor issues until they start jumping or running and then they realize that obviously they're leaking but just like my mom who still doesn't jump on a [ __ ] lean because she leaks but it's again the the running commentary is that oh it's normal because I've had babies you know is not normal it shouldn't be casted as normal it's just because no one's fing it at the beginning and we're not getting that that care after having had a baby to be able to go actually leaking is not normal so okay yeah so that sort of leads us into you know how what are the major physical changes that occur you know what what kind of things happen when you're in your pregnancy and then after birth the physical sort of stuff that happens yeah so the big thing is that when once you become pregnant you're you have an active um hormone which is um running through your body which is the relaxing hormone so relaxing um basically allows your bones to maneuver themselves to obviously move to be able to make room for this baby so obviously your ribs kind of come apart your hips get wider everything happens it's almost like going back to when you were a baby and your bones were made up of cartilage it's kind of doing that whole thing again where relaxing allows your body your bones basically to become a little bit more Supple so that's a big kind of like warning because obviously then women think oh gosh I've become a lot more flexible or I can get lower in my squats and things and it's like yes but be aware that that's actually because of the hormone that's running through it's not just because you've gotten better or is that also sorry to inter is that also does that hormone also occur like through your menstrual cycle am I right in think you get it sort of a certain time in your cycle that can't I can't con know that one maybe but um I think there is a little bit I it's not obviously as much as as pregnancy but I think it might happen in sort of like the third part of your cycle there more more more risk of injury in that part which is sort of L but anyway sorry I interrupted you um but yeah that's the big one that occurs straight away and then you've got obviously just in general women react to pregnancy differently so like I mentioned before with regards to pgp which is pale the good or pain some women really struggle with it some women literally become immobile like they cannot walk because it hurts them that much and The Catch 22 is with GP movement helps but obviously you you only want to move if it doesn't hurt of course so when movement helps but then you're in that much pain that you don't want to move so then obviously these the pregnant women find themselves in these cycle this cycle of like well what am I supposed to do because it I it hurts too much to walk and but I'm being told that movement is good for it you know um and then yeah it's it's just I think with regards to pregnanc say it's just the obvious you know like we're obviously you know we're growing a baby inside us so I think the obvious things like all your organs kind of shift upwards which is why we say like you know women don't need to drink that much or eat that much and suddenly they're full or suddenly they need the toilet because obviously your baby's taking up the majority of the space that your stomach your diaphragm all of that was taken up before um and then depending on who you are depends on whether you end up kind of getting any eight pains whether it be ankles joints knees you know all of that kind of thing which again it's very personal some people really struggle some people kind of you know pregnancy can be a breeze for them and they really enjoy it um so it's a bit varied and then postpartum then you've got again you've got your obvious ones which well obvious I say obvious as if everybody knows it's obvious you so AB separation is the big one so around 40% of women don't suffer from it so you're looking at 50 to 60% of women that actually do end up with some sort of ab separation so some people know it as AB separation some people know it as dius repd so it's just basically where obviously your abs have separated to give room for the baby so what happens is you've got this piece of tissue that connects your abs which is called your linear Alba and that just stretches like a balloon would the more you blow it up it just stretches and stretches so essentially What's happen happened is after you've had a baby some women it just kind of comes back together naturally which is great but some women it's just almost past that elasticity level where it it just needs a bit more help to come back together now if you think Again Naturally a woman will go I need to do loads of sit-ups because I need to get my body back and I need get rid of my belly well if my abs are far apart from each other and all I've got is this piece of tissue that's connecting them you've essentially got nothing them protecting your your organs because your abs like your rib cage protect your organs so then this is where women are really really susceptible to getting hernias because suddenly you're you're pushing like a situp is obviously a repetitive movement yeah and you you're you're push you're putting too much pressure on that essentially piece of material that's connecting your abs so it can be it can be quite dangerous for women to jump back into exercise not knowing that they've got this issue um so that's probably the biggest one that I find pelvic goodd will pain luckily a lot of women it does seem to go after they've had the baby so it seems to be something that's more related to pregnancy and then it seems to disappear but pelvic girdle pain then leads to also things like sciatica you know because it's it's just where your body's shifting everything is it just pressing on the nerves or something ex you've got yeah exactly that you've got different parts of your body then pressing on parts that they weren't before and now they are so Reon it can lead to

sciatica yeah and so so how do you know if you've got like AB separation is there because you say that a lot of people don't know like I wouldn't have so I check every single M that comes to my mom and me fit class I check them so every single new person that walks in that's the first thing I do um and we kind of then check it every four to six weeks I will refer straight away anybody who's got more than a four finger Gap so for me anybody whose separation is bigger than that I say look I think you're better off going and and booking in with a women's a women's health physio so we're quite lucky now in the in Cardiff um we've actually got thing now called mummy OT so it's a group of women who have who have taken basically done this qualification of mummy OT um they are physios in general so Women's Health physio you'll probably find was a physio anywhere and then has specialized in women's health as well um but of course there's a cost so it's just annoying because anybody who you're referring to you know that for an initial consultation you're looking at 80 to1 pound straight away which on a maternity leave yeah it's not it's not ideal accessible for yeah I mean some women I do kind of go look if you're willing to push go back to your GP go back to your doctor and say I've got a forfeit I know I've got a severe abset I need to be seen and hopefully then they'll get through the system that way but a lot of these women just want to get it sorted as soon as possible and yeah some cases if you've got a bigger Gap than four fingers wide you do need surgery um because it is a case of actually doing things to help it come back together yeah um but less than four fingers is always um fixable um so anything less than that um is always fine but again it's knowing what exercises to do what exercises not to do what makes it worse what makes it better and unfortunately unless you've seen somebody like myself or any other PT who knows what they're looking for you you don't know like you said just in the dark so is it a physical examine you just s press get women to lie down on the floor and you kind of you almost you almost go into doing like a up so I get them to light their legs flat or their knees up so feet flat on the floor knees bent and I just say just raise your head as if you're doing a situp and then straight away then I can just press kind of all the way down so I normally run a finger down the the middle and I can always feel then for both side you can feel the sides of see the side and it's just kind of gauging most people I'll generally find have about two two and a half finger Gap if they're quite newly postpartum because again remember you're still recovering for a long long time and this is where women don't give themselves that recovery time and it makes me laugh actually how you know we we kind of go so if you had I don't know any sort of surgery that involved you know like like a liver you know anything to do with your organs you know you'd kind of go six weeks don't do anything whereas a woman can come home from having had a C-section 24 hours later and is expected to pick up and look after another baby that may be a or toddler and it's it blows my mind you know I think there's a real at the moment apparently about um a leaflet that they send home to men after they've had a sectomy and it's okay and it's like look after yourself take care you know and we're like don't even get a leaflet when they come out of of hospital I never got one you know just it's just insane isn't it but um yeah it is it is UN just almost respecting the fact that you've you've and your body has undergone trauma um which way we want to look at it I mean we make it all sound nice and saying we've just had a baby and look at this wonderful thing but your body regardless of your delivery your body has undergone trauma because it's doing something that is is shocked it's it's huge isn't it yeah it's huge and and all the time before as well it's like you know you've had nine months of growing a baby inside you and then you give birth which is a massive you know it's TI tiring it's hard I had both style of bir so I had a C-section and then I had a natural birth so I've kind of experienced both and I can say that yeah they both have their challenges definitely from from that and and I think we do you know the first time I was like right they said six weeks after see that I'm off and get back into things after six weeks yeah and I think a lot of people for for or put you know they just want to get fit and help they feel like they well for me anyway I felt like I'd spent nine months you know just not doing what I wanted to do and then it's kind of hard well it's the mental health aspect as well isn't it because obviously you're looking at you know for me it's funny actually because I remember people saying to me oh are you going to buy one of those buggies that you can run with your baby and I was like absolutely not my my children like an hour to myself in my own little bubble and um and it's funny isn't it like it's it's quite ironic really I run these M and meit classes I would never have attended one if it was because it again no I I I you wanted to get your head space when you did your exercise yeah again you know whether that would have been the case I don't know because with two children again three children four children how do people how do people manage to do that it's it's insane you know how do you know do so I suppose maybe had I not been able to go to the gym because it was too hard to leave two kids with my husband then maybe I would have found myself at one of these classes but yeah yes it depends on people's circumstances totally because I had my mom lives down the road and she was very supportive she would M the kids for an hour or something whilst I went off and ran or cycled or whatever and then we we go to the pool together you know we'd swap go to the baby pool so I had a really nice support system but I know a lot of people don't and I've got a friends who had twins and it was like that you know you're talking about having two children or having two you know twins as well is like double because they're the same age you know it's she was struggling like quite a lot I think in the early stages you know she's really into mountain biking and it was just she couldn't do what she wanted to do so it is really tough for people but to get that like EXC you know for your mental health is really important and H and if you do need that time away I'd say try and organize it because there is this sort of like oh we'll try and fit it in with the child you know like people do turbo sessions they put their children on the floor or whatever you see it all the time and I think that's great but it also isn't because you're still in that yeah I'm care I'm looking after someone wrong yeah 100% well funny enough we were talking about this actually in the classes and we were saying that even in that situation even though the classes you're still bringing your child along the moms were saying the difference is when they're at home trying to do a class whether it be a YouTube class something they've done themselves once the baby cries or needs attention they were like it's game over because when that happens 10 minutes into their workout or 25 you're then kind of like oh oh can't be bothered like you know whereas at least in my class they feed the baby if they need feeding but then obviously I'm still carrying on with the others so then they kind of say it's a lot more like they obviously they're more likely to just put the baby down and kind of go right let me just catch up carry you know and you just carry on and I feel there's so much in that as well that obviously I feel like anything that would happen at home you know whether even the doorbell ringing or anything your phone going you're just going to stop what you're doing and then it's very very hard to get yourself out of that kind of sto like frustration as well and like irritation whereas when you're in a group and you can see everyone else is in the same situation it must be really nice to have that feedback so yeah maybe triathletes should do like Mom and me session I don't know how it would work but it's AIT fit difficult um you have to have like a a baby on you know take the child or something I don't really know you'd have to do like relays so that different people are doing I mean we running it people do oh yeah yeah running people do manage don't they and yeah you know you could do that in the pool if you got friends together who wanted to swim you could kind of do that in the pool I guess there's ways of doing it but yeah it is very difficult so um just back to kind of like during pregnancy if you're if you are training and you know you're you're wanting to kind of maintain your fit because you can only maintain really your Fitness during pregnancy or maintain some bit of Fitness is there anything to look out for or anything that people should be aware of that could be a red flag or you know well the big the biggest thing that I always say to people is just stop doing things like situps um and the only main reason and it's actually contrary to belief so a lot of people think that you're supposed to stop doing ab exercises because of the baby it's not actually so much because of the baby it's actually because where the baby sits like when you're pregnant you have one of your main arteries that runs oxygenated blood to your heart can become basically it it can become squeezed or or kind of restricted when you do things like sit up because you're kind of obviously coming into like sit-ups crunches that kind of thing you're coming into that position now when you're pregnant as you will know as well Celia your body doesn't really care about you anymore it just cares about growing this baby especially in the first semester so I often hear of Ms that say Obviously lack of energy they get ill all the time like we we end up with colds coughs all these kind of things but our immune system has kind of gone sorry this is what we're working on now and hence the reason why after the first 12 weeks we generally find there's an uplifting energy we feel we've you know we feel better because it's done the hard work it's kind of made sure that fetus becomes a baby if you like and then hence the reason then your second trimester seems to go a bit more swimmingly because now you're growing the baby you're not making something become a baby so a lot of the time when people go why shouldn't I do ab exercises I'm like well it's actually because if you're going to put pressure on your body like that which already isn't worrying about you anymore you can end up essentially um it's going to sound really dramatic but you can end up starving your body of oxygen because you're doing this your body is sending everything it can to the baby suddenly you end up laded you know you're doing things that you shouldn't be doing essentially so it's just about it's so AB ABS is one of those things that we kind of go stop with the sit-ups Andes kind of thing from from when you find out your but again the problem with anything is that obviously any any any man any woman will never do research on a pregnant woman you know it will it will never really exist because we can't there is no there are there are not enough pregnant women who will sign themselves up to be researched on with regards to let's do a load of sit-ups and see if any of you end up like you know it's just not going to happen so unfortunately even the information that I'm giving you right right now is obviously based off somebody looking at the anatomy of a woman looking at what we do when we're pregnant looking at where your your different veins arteries your heart how the body is working and just going due to that the result is logically not situps and you know i' I've known as I'm sure you do and I'm sure everyone does no women who haven't found out they're pregnant till they're five months six months pregnant and so some of them those women have been doing situp they've been smoking drinking doing situp doing everything they were doing normally and their baby comes out perfectly fine but again there aren't enough of those situations or either situations where we can say it's safe to do so it's one of those we kind of go due to the physiological changes that are happening due to women's physiological you know everything make up yeah make a decision to not you know and I think that's the big thing like you asked are there any to not to-dos in pregnancy unfortunately there will never be enough research for us to say categorically no this is categorically yes it is just kind of going how do I feel know that obviously any sort of strength training is going to benefit you anyway because you want to stay strong so that as a mum then I mean mum life is hard car seats are heavy do you know what I mean anybody who says to me oh I shouldn't be doing strength training I'm like why would you not I don't you know it's it's tiring uh rocking a baby to sleep 40 minutes it's exhausting like you want to be you want to be fit and strong to be able to be a mom however don't don't you know don't a personal don't go crazy yeah yeah so same with like ab exercises a plank would I thinking like a plank would be like a safer exercise 100% yeah 100% planks side planks um bird dogs so where you're on your hands and you left one yeah things like that those are absolutely fine because you're not pressure um and then obviously look at avoiding um so you can't you can't stop AB separation from happening because it's one of those psychologic physiological things that will just happen depending on your body but you can reduce the risk of it so obviously if you can see that you're starting to Cone you would avoid think any exercise that you can see that kind of happening um yeah and I'd say that that's kind of just a given really um okay you know watch those kind of things okay so yes it's just sounds like and there's someone that I follow who's um she's a climber actually and she climbed all through you know she's she's really good at climbing and she sort of followed her pregnancy and said this is what I'm doing and and was posting about what she was doing and things and you know some people get upset don't they about oh you shouldn't be doing this and you shouldn't be doing that but because she's got such good body awareness and she understands like how to you know what feels right for her like she ended up getting a child's harness which goes over your shoulders and be like a full body harness rather than just around the pelvis so that she could carry on climbing because she was like this feels better and I was like that's really the way you know she just thought outside of the box but she listened to her body as well to kind of like go okay this is going to work and I know that that will help me and I and modified everything basically yeah I think that's it isn't it I think where where we get into dangerous categories is where and for me as a PT I think where I see women who are kind of going oh can I you know what should I be doing about my nutrition and things when I'm pregnant and I'm like no diet like if you're looking at dieting you're on the you're on the wrong you know or like people who are still going to the gym because they're worried about obviously putting on too much weight during pregnancy things like that we need to be aware of and just be really mindful that some women really struggle with that side of things and I think that's probably where you we're edging on why you shouldn't train um just because you know the goal is not to lose weight whilst you're pregnant the goal is not to get um fitter or stronger the goal is just to make sure that you know nine months is a long time if you don't end up training if you've been training for a long time that's a long period of time to then lose a lot of what you will have have built up whether it be your strength whether it be your Fitness beforehand so why would you not just keep it up you know and like we said we're not saying you need to be looking at doing any personal bests in anything but you should definitely keep it up yeah I think it's a difficult one for people to get their head around because it is like you know for your whole life so far you've been especially if you're performing at a high level that's what your life's been about and then all of a sudden it's like oh I can't do this the same way anymore and I suppose it happens gradually but but it's still like a massive shock to your system the first time around especially like the second time was totally different for me cuz I was like okay I don't mind I know I'm going to get fit again I didn't run till as late in my pregnancy I was much more relaxed about it all and just everything went a lot better but I know that first time months it's just it's scary isn't it it's like who am I becoming what's happening to me yeah

absolutely okay so if people are trying to like reintroduce and reintroduce Fitness if we is it okay can can you kind of look at it through a triathlon lens so like yeah if we're looking at Swim Bike Run what would be best to start with do you think if if people are coming back to training pregnancy or yeah if they've managed to kind of keep up I mean obviously like people are not going to be able to to cycle and run all the way up through probably you can swim like most of the way through you can swim the cycling is a funny one so cycling cycling if you look at it the the thing we always say about is the handlebars positioning of the handlebars because obviously a lot of cyclists once they if you're low down essentially you could be saying you're in that kind of ab situp crunch yeah so I think that's where we kind of just say just raise the handlebars now obviously you say that to a to um a road cyclist they'll probably look at you like I'm not going to look like I'm you know what you want basket on the front as well you know and it's probably not their idea of cycling but it is one of those adaptations that that I will always say to people if you're cycling even spin classes that kind of thing I'll say just raise your handlebars so that you're you're now going from that kind of almost horizontal position to sitting up more Vally you know um running running I'm I kind of have I I leave that to the individual I think running is one of those things that if you are able to keep running until literally the day you give birth I say hey crack on um your body will tell you if you cannot run anymore um and some people just don't like the feeling some people don't like thinking oh gosh I've got this baby inside you know and it just do able um but some people absolutely love it and and they will carry on doing it all the way through and I don't think again there's no research that I know of that say that says that you should stop at any point no um I think it's just one of those things that again if you feel like you've got too much pressure you're feeling you know like bearing down you're feeling any sort of pelvic girdle pain then of course yeah reduce what you're doing maybe stop what you're doing at that point but I don't think it's anything that you should ever stop swim is a great one swimming will always be but for anything you know we look at rehab for any sort of injury swimming is up there you know just that fact of non-gravity obviously it's it's just perfect for any sort of rehab so why wouldn't it be for for pregnancy as well yeah yeah I think the running like for me I the first time around I ran till in the I think it was about seven or eight months and then I got like I'm just not enjoying it anymore it feels uncomfortable and so I just stopped and then the second time around I just didn't do I don't think I ran that much actually I was just like I just walk I didn't yeah didn't feel the need that time but it is a nice it it was nice because I would run with um the women in the club and things and yeah it was a good good thing to do def so yeah no and and then coming back in would reintroduce yeah running running is is one of those things first of all just leave it for a little while I think there are too many again probably    okay brilliant then it's kind of going right at what point am I starting to ache and what are those aches are those aches normal aches like you know I don't know like any kind of shins splint kind of aches that kind of thing okay well that's that's just your kind of rest recover whatever is it a hip right I've not had that before okay that's probably linked to having had a baby right let's maybe not try and do a 10K next week let's try and keep stick the 5Ks for a good few months you know and it's it's kind of just pacing it really um I say go back to your couch to 5K especially for some who's been used to running because you're just going to get bored very very quickly but I would say is one of those things you need to test the impact you need to be able to see how far or for how long you can go and I have to say even not even being a runner myself I remember the first time so why I do a lot of skipping now okay I remember the first time I did skipping I did it and then I was like oh that was all right and then literally about 30 seconds after i' stopped I was like oh my God no that's not okay and it funny how even though it wasn't it wasn't during so OB my body had kind of gone right I'm skipping I need to keep and it was only after I'd finished that then my body went that was not okay you cannot do that for a long periods of time at the moment so then again even with that I kind of went right whoa I need to rain it back in a bit and you know and kind of at a time so it is but again it's making women understand that leaking is not normal you know and I think the reason go back to running and go oh it's fine is if they think well i' I've had a baby of course I leak no it's not fine get your go back it's like a joke isn't it it's kind of like oh yeah that's normal and yeah you're right it's like just accepted and it shouldn't be because yeah well ten have even jumped on it we have to pay for these tener ladies because they have now jumped on the back of this isn't normal we can make money off it let's people pay for this and tell them it's not normal that it is noral so with that that's a a pelvic floor issue so pelvic floor exercises yes are something that we should be doing I've heard on a regular Bas the leaflet that should be the leaflet that we get sent home with I should be doing it now yeah pelvic floor exercises are the one I think and and learning how to breathe again so what we do as well um this is a big thing that I concentrate on with the MS in my class actually is that as you get more pregnant you end up going from breathing through your diaphragm to shallow breathing we yeah because again You've Got No Room so you're not you know so people go oh I've become really unfit I'm so breathless and I'm like kind of but it's actually not because you've become unfit it's just because you're not you're not using your diaphragm anymore you're just you're just breathing from the top of your lungs essentially so obviously you become breathless a lot quicker so it's it's show showing women how to breathe through their diaphragm again and some people they find it really hard like I had a client this morning and we we must have been practicing it for about 10 minutes and then I was like right just go home you know you're getting frustrated now just go home and keep practicing but it's about that kind of like having your hands around your waist and breathing in so that you feel that your hands are physically coming away you know like your your your stomach is filling with air yeah and you feel your proper belly breaths belly breath yeah but yeah but we don't know how to do that after we've had a baby because again we've had not nine months because your baby's not that big of that but you know you've had about three or four months where you're shallow breathing you're not you're not using your diaphragm so I think that yeah and then you're probably anxious as well because you've just had a baby so you know there's going to be that that's impacting and I think that would probably have a big impact especially on Runners because breathing is really important you know how you breathe it's really important when you running so it's probably one of those things they need to you know yeah that's really good I'd never thought about that actually about the breathing aspect of things but I think yeah something that we don't always think about as being that important but it's like one of the major you know we breathe so many times a day it's really important to get like for your your nervous system and everything it's just amazing so yeah yeah people need to breathe properly I like that advice that's good so breathing in pelvic floor we've got pelvic floor I'd probably say the two tie them in together as well couldn't you maybe yeah absolutely but then I think with regards to like swimming cycling running I don't think running's probably running will be the highest impact exercise of the three so running is probably the one that you need to probably tread with caution you know as to returning back to swimming obviously I feel like it's one of those things you can you can probably get back in the water very quickly after having because it'll help um cycling yeah as long as you've not had a C-section and you've got scaring or anything and similar but probably the other way as long as you've not had any tears or anything like that that's issue comes into it so more you're swimming your natural delivery is probably more your cycling you know and kind of but again natural delivery is probably also your running because the SE section find many women have got that much of a pic floor issue um yeah see they've had a baby in a different way orbe it that your P has been tested through pregnancy so it's not one to disregard no but it won't be as poignant as somebody who's had a natural delivery yeah it's completely different the two things I would say but and it's like major surgeries per a C-section so you kind of we had I remember having um cu I got married like a week after I had my baby and uh wow with the C-section and it was very casual wedding but we did like a three-legged race in the in in the in the woods and everyone was like oh we want you to do this three-legged race so they picked people to come with me and I remember sort of hobbling we weren't we would walk running but they kind of like wanted to you know let me join in with all the races funny isn't it but because you're at your wedding it's almost like out of sight out of mind whereas had you not been getting married you're lying on your sofa you know with they probably suddenly if you'd said I'm going to do a three-legged race yeah like what are you doing that for it's almost like and and that's the problem again I think because as we're expected to just keep going and get up and then you know you're to take to school the next day you take him to school people forget what you've what you've been through whereas I think if it was almost like the standard after Allen has had a baby she has to lie down on the sofa for six weeks and be waited on hand and foot I reckon the expectation of what that woman is supposed to do within the six weeks would be a hell of a lot less than what we're expected to do now yeah I don't know if I could have done that though to be honest no I couldn't I mean just the fact I couldn't drive for drove me mad after having a season I did hear someone talking about in in some country I can't remember where it is um maybe a Nordic country or something like that they have women that come around like when women have given birth they actually have someone that comes into the house and does that they help the new mom out they have like a I don't know three weeks or something like that where they have the support of someone else who's going to look after their child and you know like just yeah basically support them which is what we really need isn't it as them you know it's and especially if you've got other children that you're trying to deal with as well I mean it's it's hard it's really hard especi and your breastfeed you know if you're breastfeeding you're like remember sitting there going well I can't do anything now you it's nice if someone can bring you a cup of tea or something like that you know we do need that as well okay um yeah so we talked a little bit about like mental health and and you know you talked a little bit about nutrition and not wanting to lose weight so what should we be aiming for really throughout our pregnancy and afterwards what are we looking to do right what this this one again is pinch of salt because what you're looking to do and what ends up happening are two complet um the biggest thing I always say to my Ms is just make sure you're getting good food and I I I never say I never limit it I never say you know 150 grams of protein no at this point you're just looking at having good food um but again unfortunately it depends on the on the network that you've got around you you know like if you've got somebody who whilst you're pregnant absolutely knacked you're eight months pregnant you've got a toddler that you're looking after you know be it all by yourself or be it because your partner works till 6 p.m. 7 p.m. every day the last thing you want to think about is cooking yourself ball you know it's just not going to happen so I think it's just one of those things you kind of go almost H just have in your house good food so that you're not just picking at snacky stuff um that you know gives you zero energy and you know isn't going to help you especially because again coming back to that hole your body doesn't care about you anymore anything that has any nutritional value your body's just shunting towards the baby anyway so your body basically left with the crap that's left over so if anything you need to almost eat so much better than you were before you were pregnant because you need your body to also pass some of that through to you rather than just passing it down to the baby and I think that's probably the only advice I give Ms when especially when they're pregnant after they've had the baby I always just talk about first of all not being tough on yourself um I hear of so many women who kind of go oh just I had zero sleep and then all I've eaten is this whole bar of cab bre and I'm like what you're knackered like absolutely shattered you've had no sleep you're nap trapped your baby's cluster feeding today it hasn't left your boob for like the last five hours I kind of got to get it you know I'll be the first one to say I'm not going to say to a woman then oh you know try and get your chicken and veg in you know yeah want to lamp me with a bar of dairy milk but I think it's just kind of again if if you know even if it's a day that you kind of say to Hubby right come on can you make a massive lasagna and then just portion it off whack it in the fridge so that then at least it's a two-minute microwave job rather than 20 minute 20 minute cook and prepare job um but again I I don't talk about dieting or limiting anything um I think it's just at that point it's just kind of getting through it and and understanding that you're going to you're going to be hungry um there's a nice myth that says that if your breastfeeding you usually lose more weight which is fine if you're also not eating more which I found with breastfeeding just constantly hungry was hungry yeah lot I was like well I'm you know all these calories I'm supposed to be losing I'm taking double that in anyway so it matter but I I I just think it's just that self-care kind of thing and it's yeah we don't want be like beating ourselves over the head about that's yeah it's the last thing you want when you've got giving yourself a hard time it's not good for us yeah but then I think it is on is on making sure that you have people around you that are looking after that aspect of it you know and kind yeah because it's good if you can eat well isn't it because it makes you feel better but you know and you're longer you know I always this joke with people that they're like oh oh you know I have a McDonald's a week and I'm like look I'd love a McDonald's a week but I'm like the problem with me having McDonald's is I have a McDonald's and then two hours later I'm hungry again because me they are the calories are you know it's a complete waste of calories because it's just not nutritional at all so then I still need to eat a meal two hours later I eat a good meal I know I'm not going to eat need to eat for a few hours so I think it's just aligning yes knowing like what what you what's good for you and what are good choices for you and what you can actually manage as well and and yeah Implement in your life because everyone as as we said earlier everyone's life's different and varies the amount of support you've got and and who can help you and if anyone knows any new moms dropping off some food some nice food to them is probably a good

idea okay so yeah just well we'll try and wrap up now um okay so if you just have you got any success stories from people that have come to you and kind of like had a really positive experience you know they've not they' they've turned things around maybe been been a l yeah so I think the biggest thing I I always say this to my Ms actually who come up to me and say oh my God Kai thanks to you I've lost this much weight or I feel like this or I feel like that and I'm like this isn't thanks to me I say I might have been the Catalyst but I say funnily enough once you start doing any sort of exercise it's a Snowball Effect and I always say that my M's come to my class now my class is a are designed around nap times so I have them specifically from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. because there are some moms that can do 930 because they need that the babies need sleep after there's some Ms that there you know vice versa whatever my class is very through those that time now if they didn't come to that class chances are they'd be meeting somebody for a coffee and a cake and as we get into winter and especially while last week I mean today we've been blessed because the last week has been horrendous you're not going to go for a walk like there is zero chance between now and February that a new mom is going to go oh it's pissing it down let me go for a cram walk with my with my kid and grab a coffee on the way you're just going to go and sit in a coffee shop and you're going to sit in there a not walking so you're not doing any steps you're not moving and B you're probably eating crap because let's be honest night there's nothing of good nutritional value normally in a coffee shop that we go and sit in so they're coming to my class so then because they feel good after they've come to my class they go home and they actually make better choices as to the food that they're going to eat because they've just done Exercise and I always feel that's the case like you'll never find somebody smashes out a workout or goes for a run and then comes home and eats crap because it's just not in your your endorphins are high you're just not in that state of mind so I'm like and then it kind of then carries on through so I'm like yes okay thank me thank me for the class I love that you're getting what you are out of it but actually it is it's just a catalyst and I think those are always my success stories with my Ms in that they've used the class to get them back to where they want to be yeah it's not because of the class you know like I'd love to say that yes you know Mary well you're facilitating it aren't you so you're you're like the springboard like you say you know into to them then then making those choices for themselves and and people need that you know it does it definitely makes a difference to people to have that support and and the yeah just feeling like someone's got you back and and that you doing something good for yourself you know yeah 100% I think the biggest thing as well you know and don't get me wrong Celia like some of these some of the classes we've gotten very dark in them you know we've ended up talking about postnatal depression We've Ended up because some of these women are turning up and they they literally they they've have they have had zero sleep you know they they are in that situation of if I didn't come out of the house today you know I you know I would have not been in a very good place and I'm like so I love that as well for me it's the facilitating of allowing because remember you can go to any sort of baby class with your baby but you might not have anything in common with these moms whereas the MS that come to my class not only have they had a baby but they're obviously all into one thing which is exercise they are they are into making themselves feel better about themselves so suddenly they've already got this common ground which is why I think we've ended up with a community of mums who you know honestly I think my first question to everybody when they come in the class I'm like right who's in the No Sleep club today and you know and it's it's how that just Ricochet then off into women venting about you know how their husbands do Bug roll how they've had no you know it ends up being this literally you know but but that as well is such such an important thing like women have to be able to offload and to also realize that it's not just you feeling like that like Ms feel like that at some point um so it's yeah it's really it's a really nice a yeah yeah that sounds amazing awesome um so yeah have you got any kind of books or anything that you'd recommend anything that you've found useful before not really I think the biggest me I'm I'm I'm not really a reader unfortunately my my reading yeah my reading is very limited um I think I think the biggest thing is just unfortunately is just of stop following Ms on social media who are eight 21 years old and have just had a baby because of course they're going to snap back into the size that they were before whereas most people who end up I end up speaking to over the age of 30 and I'm like our bodies just don't work like that anymore you know um and a and b none of us have that much money to be able to pay for a PT to live in our house and a cook to cook us you know and and again I feel this unfortunately it's just one of those things where you just need to be a little bit smart and a little bit selfish but in a good way and I don't need to be watching this you know and kind you know maybe not following these people on social media that you kind of go I wish I looked like her yeah so does everybody so it sounds like find find your tribe find your kind of group support yeah yeah yeah because there's a lot of not helpful information out there as well yeah awesome so if someone wants to get started or find out more about you and what you do then where can they find you and put all this in the show not as yeah um on Instagram I'm I'm as coach Kai so that's really it's just coach CI um on the mum and me fit classes I think if you actually just type in m and me fit Cardiff in Google it'll come up with um with everything if you put in coach Kai in Google it'll come with everything um so yeah they're probably the best two Avenues um I'm I'm pretty good with replying to people as well I'll try and make sure I message people um and yeah I I I'll always take care of somebody who comes for the first time because I I get notified whether it's a a first time M as well so um yeah so yeah oh it sounds really great what you're doing with people I wish I'd had a CL like that one a so thank you so much for your time it's been great chatting with you really helpful information for people as well and yeah thank you so much have a great day CIA thank you thanks for listening today have a great day take care bye for now

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