Movement Over Exercise: Small, Daily Shifts for Postpartum Mental Wellness

On this episode, we talk with guest speaker Abigail about the video resource she created for her capstone project. We discuss the benefits of movement postpartum on your mental health, how the term "movement" is different from "exercise", and ways you can start getting back to movement safely after birth to promote your mental wellbeing. 

Blog post with more information and resources: https://www.functionalfourthtrimester.com/blog 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to Functional Fourth Trimester, a podcast created to support new parents as they return to daily life after having a baby.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Each episode will talk through common postpartum challenges, share practical education and strategies, and hear from real parents and healthcare professionals along the way.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Whether you're listening during a feeding, a walk, or a quiet moment, this space is for you. I'm Lauren.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

And I'm Melissa, and we're excited to jump right into today's topic.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

After having a baby, taking care of your mental health can feel overwhelming, especially when movement starts to feel like just another expectation. But what if it could actually be a tool for healing instead? In today's episode, we are talking about how movement can be a tool for supporting mental health postpartum and how this differs from returning to exercise. I'm pleased to introduce our guest speaker today, Abigail. Her and I went to undergrad together and both decided to pursue a career in occupational therapy. She is a pediatric occupational therapist with a passion for family-centered care and holistic wellness. She recently completed her occupational therapy doctoral program and did a capstone on maternal health and the impact of movement on mental well-being with a background in dance and a degree in kinesiology. She's passionate about movement for individuals of all ages and has experienced firsthand the impact that it can have on somebody's mental well-being. Welcome, Abigail. Thank you for joining us. Of course, thanks for having me. I would love to start off with just talking a little bit about the resource that you created for your capstone project. Kind of like what inspired it and who did you design it for?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah, so initially I was inspired to pursue mental wellness because I had heard of so many moms who were just so overwhelmed by all of the resources that they had been given after they gave birth. One of my professors in particular, she said, you know, I have this baby and they just give you a binder with all this information. And like, I'm never going to read all of that information. So that was really what inspired it was these moms who are being given this information in a way that's not necessarily always the most digestible for them. And I wanted to explore how we could better provide resources for them and how occupational therapy could better support new moms in this period. So I was matched with a mentor from a site that focuses on maternal mental health. And she actually was the one who suggested looking into the movement realm more. I was kind of like, oh, I wonder if there's, you know, sensory areas that we could explore with pregnancy and postpartum. And she had said, you know, I know all of these people who use exercise as a coping strategy for their mental health before they get pregnant and have a baby. Um, and then they get pregnant and they can't exercise in the same way, or they don't know what is safe for them to do when they're pregnant, and then you have a baby and your body feels different and everything is different, and you don't know what you can do safely movement-wise. And then this coping strategy that you've used for your mental health all these years is not something that's accessible to you anymore. Um, and so we kind of got talking and we're wondering, you know, is that why? Is could that be contributing to why we see all these mental health challenges in the postpartum period? Because I do think a lot of us use movement as a coping strategy and maybe don't even realize it. So that was really um how the project got started and what inspired it. So, what I did for my project was I interviewed a group of moms and did some research, and then I also created a series of videos as a resource for postpartum moms on movement and mental health. So I created four. The first one was just on the benefits of exercise on mental health and what that looks like. And then I did one on routines because what we're finding is that your routines change so much when you have a baby, and routines are actually so closely tied to your mental health, which was not something that I had ever really thought about before. Then I did one on reframing mindset from exercise to movement, because I think the word exercise has a lot of pressure put on it, and these moms would say, you know, I can't get myself to the gym to go exercise and work out hard. And I was like, Well, what if you don't have to do that? You know, and then the last video I titled it Reclaiming Your Body, and it really just explores ways to safely reconnect with your body and return to moving after you have a baby.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

I find it interesting how you mentioned routines because you don't really think about how much your life is impacted when you have a baby, not just baby one, but baby two, baby three, it changes every single time. And that's a huge part of your life is adapting to those new roles, those new routines, and having support to get that figured out is totally normal. It's something that I think all moms should do.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, and it was so interesting too because like your routines, or after you have a baby, they change so frequently too. And again, I like I haven't had a baby yet, so I haven't experienced it myself. But these people were telling me, you know, in the research I did, you have the baby in the first couple of weeks, you're trying to just get some sense of normal and routine. And then as soon as you think you have it, some schedule changes or feeding schedule changes, or something about, you know, caring for the baby or something in your life changes and you have to adjust. And then a couple weeks go by and you think that you have something figured out and then it's going to change again. And that can be super disruptive.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yeah. I would love to, I think Senate Ron, it was like the third video I think you created where you talk about kind of the word exercise and how that doesn't necessarily mean you can't move around, you know, like there are still ways to move that aren't considered like going to the gym and doing your standard workout. And I think too, you know, there's that like six-week checkup that so many parents hear about and you're cleared to exercise now. And it's like, okay, but I am in pain still, or I'm still, you know, fatigued. So I would love to hear more about like that specific video if there's anything you found particularly interesting or helpful in terms of being able to differentiate movement from exercise.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, this is such a hard one to answer, but I think it's so important to talk about in creating this video. I did a lot of research just on like the definitions of those words, and then also asked people what those words meant to them. And what I found was very similar. So when I asked people what the word exercise meant to them, it was usually something that you know, high intensity, repetitive, something that gets your heart rate up. And then when I asked people what physical activity or movement looked like, it was lower stress, going for a walk, just moving in some capacity. There's not like a you have to get your heart rate up to this level or you have to do it for this long that qualifies it as beneficial. And when you look at research on physical activity guidelines that are recommended for health, you know, it says low to high intensity. So that can mean a lot of different things. When we talk about movement, movement is something that you can most people can start doing pretty soon after they give birth. It can look like walking around your house, picking up your baby. Even that is moving your body, and it's gonna feel different than it's bending over to pick something off the floor, it might have felt before you had a baby. It can look like, you know, doing the dishes or doing the laundry or walking your dog. It can look so many different ways. It doesn't have to be going to the gym. And so I think the biggest difference was pressure, and I think it's a mindset. We just have to learn to reframe our mind from I'm moving my body because it's good for my mind and my body, not I'm exercising to lose weight or burn calories or do whatever it is. Postpartum in general is really different for every person that experiences it. And there are a lot of commonalities and themes that everyone kind of experiences to some capacity. But when it comes to movement, what I found is the experience are very different. So, yes, you have that six-week, like this is the general time that it takes for your pelvic floor and your body to heal enough to where you can safely exercise generally. But then if you have an underlying health condition or you had some type of trauma in your birth experience that impacted people differently and maybe caused more anxiety in those types of people than people who had very uncomplicated births and maybe had a stronger movement background than others. So I think community was the one thing that tied people together when it came to returning to movement. So finding people to go to the gym with or go to the workout class with or go on a walk with.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

That's such a good point. If you could find that community of support in people who are going through the same thing as you that are gonna understand kind of what you can and can't do and support you in that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

And then just validate how you're feeling. Absolutely. I love that you know, you're highlighting that it is such an individual process because like everybody's birth experience is gonna be a little bit different. Everybody's background with exercise and movement is gonna be a little bit different. You know, when you're freshly postpartum, if you feel like, oh, I I can't do anything until six weeks. And that six weeks that you might be really struggling not being able to move around, go on a walk, get outside when in reality there are still things you can do before like technically you're cleared to exercise. And that there's safe ways to go about that. And I feel like a lot of it too is just like listening to how your body is telling you that it feels. And it's like if there's increased pain, like that's probably telling you maybe to slow down. If you're feeling great, like that's awesome too.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And your body gives you very clear signs when something is not right.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

And I think it's important to note how you were mentioning earlier on, like there is a difference between exercise and movement. And that is like that magic six weeks, which is not the same for everybody, yeah, where you can exercise. Um, but before that, you can move. And you know, you were mentioning a few things like going for a walk or even the things you're doing, moving around the house, and it's gonna depend on the mom, what she feels like she can do, what um she's ready to do. But during your capstone, did you find these are good things that you can do for movement within those first six weeks that are typically obviously they would want to check with their healthcare professionals, but that are typically safe for moms to kind of at least be getting a little bit of activity movement, getting their blood flow and all of that. So are there specific ones that tend to be like helpful or commonly useful for moms?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, so the one thing that I, in collaboration with one of my mentors, talked a lot about is learning how to breathe again. Because especially when your pelvic floor health has been disrupted in some way, a lot of moms forget how to breathe deeply and fully. We looked at laying on the floor and just breathing. Put your hand on your stomach and just take a breath. Notice is your stomach rising and falling? Is your chest rising and falling? What does that feel like? Do you feel like you can get a full breath and work on that first and really get down the breathing, then move on to pelvic tilts. So laying flat on the floor, putting your hands on your pelvic bones and rotating it forward and back while maintaining that breath so you're engaging your core in a safe and controlled way. Um, and then walking is generally pretty safe for a lot of people moms, and a lot of moms enjoy getting out and going on walks.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

So true. And I I fully agree with you on breathing because you have this mass that you're carrying around on the front of you that is restricting your breathing. So then in like pregnancy, you can start to breathe with your upper body, like just in your chest. So reconnecting to that proper breathing after birth can be so helpful. And that is a really important piece of movement that might seem really small, but in the long run, is going to be so helpful for a mom as she's reconnecting her body after it changes a lot when you're pregnant. It's you know, your body shifts while you're pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So and I think a lot of people, and I can totally understand why this would be, but you kind of avoid paying attention to the parts of your body that feel different because it's uncomfortable. And so just becoming more comfortable with, like I said, putting your hand on your stomach or on your chest and just feeling and becoming aware of how your body is different so that you learn how to love it and care for it better.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Absolutely. And I think that's the theme of just reconnecting with your body and being able to trust your body again leads into do you feel safe while you're moving and while you're returning to exercise, or is that going to make you worried and anxious? And I think too the breathing strategies you were you had mentioned, and you know, even just like the simple core work and the dental stretches, all of that is like physically helping you as well, but then there's also so many emotional and like mental benefits as well. Yeah. Just being able to like calm down and regulate and while also you know reconnecting with your body too. And I'm curious too. I know we've talked a lot about that movement is beneficial for mental health. And so I guess I'm kind of curious, like from your research, your experience, like what about movement is particularly like why is it a benefit to mental health? Like, where is that kind of tie?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah, I love this question because I learned so much about it when I was doing my capstone and thought it was just fascinating. Movement in general and exercise as a whole for the general population or someone who is pregnant in postpartum, typically there's an aspect of goal setting involved in exercise and movement and some sort of achievement that comes with it. And so, in that postpartum period, setting some type of goal to movement goal to either move work out or move your body for a certain number of minutes or to work up to doing some type of exercise, it can really help promote your sense of accomplishment and confidence. And then it also just helps with executive functioning and our higher order thinking. I think a lot of times people get stuck in like mom brain or postpartum brain, and exercise can help to kind of pull us out of that, and then also helps modulate the fight or flight response in the body. And so moving your body and doing something that's physically challenging helps to train your brain, like this is a time that it would be appropriate to go into a fight or flight response because you're putting stress on the body, and then it can more easily recognize when you're not in a fight or flight response, or it's not necessarily an appropriate time. Like there is no external stress on the body, therefore we can be calm and we can, you know, relax, the heart rate can come down and things like that. So there's a lot of neurological benefits too in that regard.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Yeah, that is also fascinating to me too. I agree. And I can't remember if I had asked you this last time we chatted, but are these videos something that are accessible to like the generic public?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

They're not currently accessible to the generic public. I hope that someday they will be.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah, I think the information in them could be such a needed like tool for parents and just like being able to hear and be reassured that you don't have to have that pressure on you because like we've been talking about a lot, that like pressure to get back to exercising and to be so focused on like, oh, I don't like the way my body looks, like, I need to do this so I can get back to looking how I want. First, it's like just stopping and like being able to reconnect with your body, appreciate the life that it just brought into the world, and really just being able to like get to know it more and like be intentional and aware with it through those breathing strategies or just through like gentle movement. I think that is gonna be something that would be so beneficial for mental well-being.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

You mentioned, you know, like kind of connecting with your body, Lauren, because I know after I had my son 16 years ago, I you know, like I grew him, I worked out during my whole pregnancy, but then after I had him, I was like, whoa, like I did not know that it was gonna like I didn't did not realize that my belly was gonna be like this, just like so mushy and it was so strange for me. Uh but I feel like now it's more common that people are showing, like, you know, I had a baby, but this is what I still look like right after I had the baby. Whereas in the past, it was kind of something that wasn't really talked about, so you didn't really know what to expect. And so kind of seeing more people showing like it's normal to take, you know, so many months to for things to kind of start going back into place and you just start feeling more normal. And also your your body's never gonna be the same after you have a baby. So I think that peace that you were saying, Abigail, for actually accepting it, like you grew a life in your body, which is actually really amazing if you think about it. Yes, it's and so you know, accepting like I have these differences that I didn't have before because I made a human, but it can it's still different. You're you're unfamiliar to yourself. So I think that that is sometimes more of an acceptance process, maybe for some people over other people. Maybe it's more challenging for those, you know, you were saying people who are very physically active during pregnancy and even before it, like maybe after they're like, Whoa, like what do I even do now? I don't know, I've really looked into it, but it definitely is something that like it's an amazing process, but you have changed and you have to accept like how you are different and how you know the beautiful thing that happened and how you're gonna move forward.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Yeah, and I I agree with you. I think we're doing a much better job of recognizing and bringing visibility to what the experience of having a baby is like, and I think that that makes such a huge impact on the mental health piece, just circling back on that community piece through looking at routines and looking at movement and looking at mental health and all the different components and breastfeeding and all the all the things that go along with having a baby. Community was the one thing that just kept coming up and having the right support is so important, and it really is going to support your ability to return to movement. So making a plan before you give birth. Um, you know, what who are the people that I have around me that I can call when I'm having a hard day, or who are the people that we're gonna walk through the experience of returning to movement together and having that in place before having the baby, or at least start the conversations before you have the baby, can make such a huge difference in your ability, your mental ability to actually, you know, use those resources because it can be so hard to access the resources. Not that people don't have them, but it's just harder to access them if they're not put in place beforehand because of the mental load that comes with postpartum and learning to care for a tiny human and all of those things. So I think that's really what something that I think is so important, and then be open to what it could look like. Something that came up a lot was you know, before I had a baby, I liked to lift weights and I like to do this type of movement, and I would have never considered Pilates or yoga or you know, some other running. And then after I had the baby, I explored all of these opportunities. And Pilates, I'm just taking one, but Pilates is what felt good. So now I'm a Pilates person, you know. So you just never know what's gonna feel right for your body. So be open to what that could look like.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I feel like this is so valuable talking about kind of those differences between movement and exercise, and because we can feel trapped after having a baby and not really know what to do. So I love that you did your capstone on that and that you were able to jump in and share that that value with us and kind of those differences so moms can take it into their space after having a baby.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

I wanted to thank our guest speaker, Abigail, for coming on today and talking all about movement versus exercise and how movement is so important for mental health postpartum. There is so much more to movement and healing than just being able to start exercising at six weeks postpartum. It's so important to remember that your body just went through a really difficult experience and it's gonna take a little bit of time to get back to what you felt like before. I hope all parents listening just remember not to compare their movement journey postpartum to anyone else's. Everyone is gonna look different. Everyone's birth and postpartum experience is different. In the description to this episode, I will have our blog post that contains more resources and things you can do on the topic. Thank you all so much for joining us today and listening. We can't wait to talk with you guys next time.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

I hope today's conversation gave you something practical to take into your day or simply remind you that what you're experiencing is normal. Returning to daily life after birth is a process and support matters.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

However, your day continues from here, be gentle with yourself. You're doing important work. Thanks for listening. We'll meet you back here next time.