Stronger : the honest guide to healing and rebuilding after pregnancy and birth

'Full of stuff I wish I'd known. Should be on every mother's bedside table.'- Emma Redding, Buggyfit Founder Pregnancy and birth can stretch our bodies to their limit and beyond. Incontinence, birth injuries and birth traumas have been a taboo topic for far too long, and, until now, this has prevented women from fully regaining their strength. Stronger is the must-read guide to the bodily changes encountered by all women following pregnancy, with explanations, exercises and friendly, accessible advice to protect, stabilise and rehabilitate. It's time to treat what we pretend not to see, to let the help in and to grow stronger. Let's start now. "For many new mothers, 'strong' might mean being able to lift their baby, wear them in a sling or run after a toddler. 'Strong' could mean a functioning pelvic floor which stops you leaking. Each experience requires a strength that we are often expected to just have. In recent years there has been a welcome focus on post-natal mental health. But what we haven't seen is a focus on rebuilding physical strength after motherhood. Pregnancy and birth challenge our bodies in brutal ways that we are led to believe are normal. Back pain, painful scarring and incontinence are all seen as an unfortunate side effects of becoming a mother, but ones that should simply be accommodated. Symptoms related to pregnancy and birth are ubiquitous. But in most cases completely fixable. Pelvic floor dysfunction will affect more mothers than it won't. 50% of pregnant women will experience lower back pain and a third of these won't fully recover. Incontinence, birth injuries and birth traumas have been a taboo topic for far too long, and this has prevented women from fully regaining their strength. Did you know? 100% of women at full term pregnancy will have some degree of tummy muscle separation. 90% vaginal births result in some degree of birth injury. More than 25% of UK births are abdominal, requiring major surgery. 7% of post-natal women will suffer faecal incontinence. 30-50% of mothers will experience urinary incontinence. 50% of menopausal age mothers will suffer pelvic organ prolapse. Women's Health Physiotherapy is the number one treatment for all these complaints. Yet many women do not even know that it exists. Usually, women must either jump through hoops to gain a referral or pay to be seen privately. For many this renders post-natal physiotherapy either prohibitively expensive or practically impossible when new mothers have so much else to think about. How can women heal, recover, and grow stronger if these issues are brushed under the carpet and professional help remains out of reach? This is the must read guide to the bodily changes encountered by all women post-birth, with explanations, gentle exercises and advice to deal with all levels of change in a format that is accessible and easy to engage with for all women"--Publisher's description