The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
Exercise during pregnancy and charlatans attacking C-sections
This week I am a little bit upset.
Not about the first subject which follows a question about what type of exercise, and at which intensity, is safe to do during pregnancy. That's a great question and a doddle to answer :)
But I'm upset about the single worst Instagram video I have seen from someone working with babies. Here it is for those of you who want to have a look.
The Osteopath in the video is making LOADS of dumb, and I do mean idiotic, claims about the effects of a C-section on a baby's spine and it's health.
He claims the "lumbar spine is reversed" or "missing" and that is clearly complete and utter nonsense. But the video has 400k likes and this grifter has 600k followers.
So I go over some of the idiotic claims people make online to scare those of you wanting, or needing, a C-section into parting with your money.
And then there's a bit of jazz to calm me down :)
As always; HPNB still only has 5 billing cycles!
So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!
BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.
This means you can sign up after your first child, use the program and recover and then still have access after giving birth to child 2 and 3!
None of this "pay X amount a year" nonsense, once you've paid..you've paid!
This makes HPNB not just the most efficient and complete post-partum recovery program, it's also BY FAR the best value.
Though I'm not terribly active on Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there!
And, of course, you can always find us on our YouTube channel if you like your podcast in video form :)
Visit healthypostnatalbody.com and get 3 months completely FREE access. No sales, no commitment, no BS.
Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions or comments
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We're played out today by; Ryan Saranich with "Sentimental"
Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Buddy Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lapp, that, as always, will be me. This is a podcast for the 11th of May 2025, and I'm talking two things today. I did say the day before the music, but you know there's no guest on today. I'm talking about two things today Exercise during pregnancy. What can you do, what can't you do, and the dumbest, the single, most the dumbest, the single dumbest thing I've ever seen from a guy called nico neosteo on instagram complications during c-sections for the baby. This is an important one, so, so, without further ado, here we go. Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with little old me, pieter, at HealthyPostnatalBodycom. By the way, if you have any questions or comments, I finally got that in. I am here with little dinky who's snoring on the bed. So that's the snorty noise, as you hear. There's nothing I can do about it. You know the rules with regards to kitty. She shall not be disturbed. She's been through enough. She gets to sleep in peace. Lola is also here, just being a general pain in the bum and Buddy's pottering through the house somewhere. So today I am doing exercise during pregnancy. Let's start with that.
Speaker 1:I was sent a video um, only from the internet about some woman being highly pregnant doing a dance routine and the poster said is this, is this safe to do or not? Right? And that brought me back to this nice, easy subject. This won't take long, trust me. What can you? Can you do? It's high-intensity exercise and this was just a normal dance routine, so not that high intensity. Is that safe during pregnancy? The answer is almost inevitably yes. Anything you used to do when you were not pregnant, you could probably do when you were pregnant, unless you've lost your range of motion. All that sort of stuff, especially aerobic exercise such as dancing.
Speaker 1:What we try to do, we try to limit the exertion level to about a 7 out of 10. So you don't go, as we used to say in the olden days, balls to the wall anymore. Right, you don't go 10 out of 10 so that you're breathing really just completely shattered. We try to limit that a little bit. But other than, you can do whatever you want you can. You can do squats, you can do lunges, you can do heavy weight lifting, you can do jogging, you can do swimming and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:There is really no reason for you to limit, uh, what you're doing, what you don't necessarily want to do is go from a completely sedentary um, that's my chair creaks to go from a completely sedentary lifestyle to a very active lifestyle. Um, that is a slightly different, different beast, and you want to build that up a little bit, just so you don't overdo it, right? But that kind of goes for everybody who starts an exercise routine, right? You don't want to go from being completely sedentary to all of a sudden running a marathon on a Sunday, right, slowly, slowly, catchy monkey and all that sort of thing, and that is kind of all. But everything else you can just do, right?
Speaker 1:I know I've given this example before but for new listeners, I've had a client who squatted 100 kg the day before she was due to give birth from twins, the day before I'm going to say the day before due date, the day before she gave birth to twins because it went by Z-section and she squatted 100 kg just because she wanted to show that she see that she could do it. And that was because she'd already squatted 100 kg before. It was no problem at all. You inhale, you squat and you exhale. Now, to be fair, her bum didn't go all the way to the ground, but that was more of a space, more range of motion sort of issue. Right, that is the sort of thing that usually is. The limiting factor when it comes to exercise during pregnancy is that you just don't have the room to maneuver anymore, so to speak. Not as much room to maneuver, or it's a bit more difficult.
Speaker 1:We tend to also avoid I should say this little caveat we tend to also avoid exercises where you're lying on your back during the last, uh, last trimester, just for safety purposes. You know, it's the same reason that you don't sleep on your back. It's, it's the same thing. Not that there's any real high risk associated with it, uh, we just kind of don't do it anymore, but a safe and sorry type of approach, uh, other than that you can do whatever you want. In fact, we find and when I say we, as in all the professionals in the world put together, find that, uh, women who exercise during the pregnancy have a significantly easier postpartum recovery than women who are not able to exercise, uh, during the pregnancy, because we have to remember that not everybody's able to exercise during pregnancy, right, I am only talking about people who are capable of doing so.
Speaker 1:Right, if your doctor tells you you need to have bed rest then for the vast majority of your pregnancy, then that is, of course, what you need to do. And there's, like I said, exercise during pregnancy makes postpartum recovery easier, but it doesn't mean you can't recover postpartum if you haven't exercised during the pregnancy. Just so that that's very, very clear. Doing the right type of exercises, things like woodchoppers and squats and lunges and all that sort of stuff, step-ups, things that basically keep your core going and keep your glutes going, and all that type of fun stuff they will help your postpartum recovery. Keeping your breathing right during pregnancy, all that core breath and all that sort of thing that I bang on about a lot in the HPMB program and just look up one of the videos. It's on YouTube. If you keep breathing like that during your pregnancy, it makes it postpartum recovery. And just you know, look up one of the videos. It's on YouTube. If you keep breathing like that during your pregnancy, it makes postpartum recovery also a little bit easier from a muscular perspective, right when it comes to diastasis recti and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, there you go. You can basically do whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Now I came across potentially the dumbest video I've ever seen by a guy called Nikonary, nikonet osteo. Now I am very careful when it comes to chiropractors and osteopaths and all that type of stuff. I know as in, I don't dislike them all. I respect some of them. I had Nigel Breyer on not that long ago and he's a chiropractor and I've done interviews with them before and some of them are really really good at what they do. Unfortunately, much like the health and fitness field, to be honest, outside the medical community, much like the health and fitness field in general, it is full of grifters. It is full of people who say things that kind of sound like they make sense and they really just don't. So I'm so I will see if I can play a little video here.
Speaker 1:But basically the guy is saying that's very common during C-sections, after C-sections, that the lower back is not aligned and the skull and the spine are not aligned properly. The lower back is not engaged and the lower there's no lumbar reflex. They are put in place, as he says, when the baby goes out through the vaginal, through the burping canal right and in c-sections, apparently, the baby, the lumbar reflex is not in place and he and his argument is in his reverse, so he doesn't have an arching back and an arching reflex and he keeps putting his legs up right and it makes everything more difficult, swallowing and blah, blah, blah, blah right. And, like I said, I will try to, I will link to the thing. It's just easier if you just link to the thing. Give him a, give him a click, and you'll be shocked at some of the comments on that, on that thread, about on that post, uh, by people who think this guy is a genius.
Speaker 1:But let's be very clear. There is zero. First of all, you can't. There's no such thing as not having a lumbar spine. That's literally what he says. The child does not have a lumbar spine. That is not a thing. You don't have part of your spine missing just because your mom gave birth through c-section right, the spine doesn't magically appear through the birthing canal.
Speaker 1:There is also zero evidence, zero evidence that you can't. This is how upset I am about this. You cannot reverse the lumbar spine, the region of the spine. That makes sense, right? If I said that about any other bone in the body, you'd just go oh, go. It's idiotic. If I said, ah, when you, uh, when you're born through a c-section, then, uh, your left leg will be reversing, your foot will be pointing backwards. You'd think I was an idiot, right, I hope you'd think I was an idiot, but that's fundamentally what this guy is saying for the spine, that that is just not. It's just not a thing.
Speaker 1:And I and I know there is the there are a lot of chiropractors as well, because this guy is an osteopath, which is you know. The level of quackery in this guy's post is astonishing. But there are also a lot of chiropractors out there that make claims that say, oh, you need to have a little adjustment when your baby is born, and all that sort of stuff because of the birth trauma, the trauma of giving birth. And some of them will slag off people with C-sections because there is, of course as I did episode about a while ago about this a few weeks ago where they are um, right, there's still stigma around c-sections and you know one of them here and I will again. I will um, yeah, but we'll make sure I will. Can I post that post that? I don't know if I can attach stuff to the thing, but basically they're saying how the C-section affects baby's health, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:So here, the rate of caesarean section deliveries has skyrocketed over the past several decades. Not surprising. The rate of chronic immune disorders, asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome has also increased significantly. During a c-section, the amount of pressure on a baby's neck is significantly increased. This pressure can cause the bones to shift out of alignment, putting pressure on the baby's nervous system. See what they did there. They, they just went from. A c-section causes chronic immune disorders, asthma, allergies, allergies. You don't have allergies because your neck is slightly put on the slightly. Infection causes chronic immune disorders, asthma, allergies, allergies. You don't have allergies because your neck is slightly put under slight pressure. Right, it's. Yeah, god help me when I see that.
Speaker 1:And how can chiropractors help? And then they say oh, you know, the mom's pelvis is in the right, we'll put the right mom's pelvis in the right position to prepare for birth. And basically they say you need to get one before you give birth, as if it's somehow your fault that you can't give birth. Actually, right, the baby is not coming out the normal way. That's because your pelvis is on the line and that could have been prevented. This is not true. This is just pardon my french.
Speaker 1:By removing sacral imbalances, we decrease the likelihood that mom may need a c-section. There is no evidence of this, none, absolutely zero. I can't hammer this point home enough, right? So another one whole family chiropractic, who are also a bunch of charlatans. They say that ADD, adhd or learning difficulties are caused by the bones being misaligned because of C-sections and birth trauma. That is just not. These people need to be shot. They need to be put up against the wall and shot. They are preying on on people's insecurities, on women's insecurities, and they say pay us a lot of money and and we'll let our quackery handle this right. None of this stuff is true, absolutely none of it. These people are completely and utterly full of it.
Speaker 1:And this is really important to understand, because when I did the episode about C-sections a while ago like I said a month ago, I'll link to it or just scroll three or four episodes back, it wasn't that long ago I made it very clear the vast majority of C-sections are medically scheduled. So in the US, 33% of all births are C-sections. In the UK, at least, in England, it's slightly higher, but about 10%, 15% of those are elected, apparently elective C-sections. So basically, you plan it ahead and the rest of them are just medically necessary, just good ideas to do it. And, as I always say, you listen to your doctor, right? These people are just trying to scare you into saying that, well, if you're one of the 80-odd percent of C-sections that will not have to happen because you know your doctor says so um, then, first of all, your baby will suffer unless you pay us loads of money and you could have prevented this by paying us loads of money to align your pelvis. It is just like, do you listen? Do you hear what I'm saying? Realigning your pelvis by, by cracking things, and and now, just just no. And I know that I'm waffling here, it's just, it's so difficult to not swear when I, when I see this stuff, it is. It is mind-boggling to me that these charlatans are allowed to practice and allow, are allowed to say these things online without getting sued. Your baby does not have attention deficit disorder because she had a C-section. There is no evidence of this and this type of chiropractor needs to be shut down. Shut down or shot down in the street Like the savages that they are. Pardon my French, I feel so strongly about this.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I don't mind all chiropractors, in the same way that I don't mind all personal trainers. But the field is riddled, riddled with grafters and I suppose there is an element that you get that right. But the field is riddled, riddled with grifters and I suppose there is an element that you get that right with people. Chiropractic was invented by a guy who said a ghost came to him and showed him how to do chiropractic. So you have to really understand that. You know, the whole field is built on a foundation of charlatanry whatever the term is, a term based on rather iffy ground. But there are a lot of people, a lot of chiropractors and osteos, I suppose, that have studied this for three or four years, that studied their field for three or four years, that studied their field for three or four years and that are trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 1:But the woo and the nonsense runs so deep through that particular field. It's really I am in the field of that. They're not doctors, right, they're not doctors. If you are chiropractors, you're not a doctor. In the same way, you know, technically you might have a degree and that allows you to call yourself a doctor, but in the same way that my PhD allows me to call myself a doctor, but mine is not in a health-related field and therefore I don't use a title right, and I think that's where chiropractors fall as well. It's not a medical, medical field at all. Um, and and therefore they, they should really stop that nonsense.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that's my rambling done have your C-sections. If you need to have a C-section, have a C-section. If you want to have a C-section, have a C-section. There is no evidence at all that your baby's lumbar spine will fall out when you have a C-section, that your baby's spine will be reversed. What does that? Your baby spine will be reversed. What does that even mean? Will be reversed.
Speaker 1:Anyways, this was a short episode because I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm boiling, I'm so angry. Uh, peter, at healthy plus nasal bodycom. Next week I have a wonderful interview with sari rose, baron um, and we're talking, uh, postpartum mental health and how your trauma, your uh, affects your baby, you raising your baby and all that and raising your child and all that sort of stuff. A wonderful, wonderful episode. You're gonna love, love her, um, and then after that, hopefully I will do some more questions and and all that sort of thing. Uh, so, peter, at healthy postnatal bodycom, and hopefully I will stay nice and calm and all that sort of thing. So, peterhealthypostnatalbodycom, and hopefully I will stay nice and calm. You take care of yourself no-transcript.