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YES, YOU NEED AN *ACTUAL* POSTPARTUM REHAB COACH

(AND NO, YOUR COACH WHO HAD THE BABY ISN’T ENOUGH).

You wouldn’t trust someone without *proper* expertise to guide you through birth, and your postpartum recovery shouldn’t be any different. But sadly, the fitness industry offers new moms all kinds of generic workout programs, fear-based exercise substitutions and – at best –  a coach who’s “been there” but lacks the formal training to understand birth impact beyond their personal experience. 

Postpartum rehab isn’t just about avoiding certain exercises or taking things easy or building slowly. It’s about what you need to rebuild—pelvic floor rehab personalised to your birth experience and symptoms, unique-to-you breathing and pressure-management strategies, new postural stability and a bias to programming movement patterns that restore your long-term athletic function.

And you deserve at least that much. 

Pregnancy and birth change everything

Pregnancy and birth don’t just create a bump; they change your body at a structural level. Your tendons, ligaments, joints, and muscles all adapt to carry and deliver a baby. To support your growing baby, your body moves out of “optional function” and into compensatory patterns—muscles fire differently, your core cylinder stretches, and your alignment shifts significantly. These are amazing and needed adaptations in the moment, but they certainly leave their mark after the fact.

And that is why you can’t simply “go back to the gym” postpartum and why doing a modified version of what the class is doing just isn’t good enough.

Substitutions (alone) don’t work

Generic postpartum guidelines tend to focus on “substitutions”: crunches in the workout? Just do side planks. Jump squats? Let’s make them bodyweight squats instead. 

And honestly? It doesn’t do much for you.

These swaps may feel safer, but they don’t address the deeper issues caused by pregnancy and delivery. Your pelvic floor is weakened, core function is altered, alignment is off, and your joints may be unstable. Substitutions alone are a band-aid—they avoid discomfort, but they don’t restore optimal function.

What you really need is postpartum rehab

A qualified postpartum rehab trainer doesn’t just remove or replace exercises—they know what to ADD:

  • Pelvic Floor Re-education: Learning to contract and relax your pelvic floor safely, integrated with movement and adjusted for the intensity of what your asking from your body in that moment.
  • Core & Breath Integration: Learning a handful of breathing strategies to manage intra-abdominal pressure to protect your spine and pelvic floor as you progress to more load.
  • Postural Restoration: Strengthening the posterior chain and stabilising muscles to counteract the pregnancy and delivery changes that leave aches and pains in their wake.
  • Progressive Strength & Load: Building a PLAN to gradually reintroduce strength and impact to rebuild functional capacity and prevent injury.

These are not optional “nice-to-haves”. They are the foundation of safe, effective postpartum recovery.

The expertise really, really matters

As someone who lives and breathes the weekly research and literature in the prenatal and postpartum exercise space, lemme tell you: this stuff is COMPLICATED. It’s ever-shifting. We are learning more by the day. And it’s a full-time job to stay on top of it and be the best coach for you. 

And while someone who has “been there” can empathise, only a certified postpartum rehab trainer can guide your body safely, identifying red flags & building in individualised progressions based on your birth experience, delivery type, pace of healing and ultimate goal(s).

The bottom line

Postpartum recovery is not one-size-fits-all. And after all it’s done, your body deserves more than substitutions. It deserves an intentional, evidence-based strategy to restore strength, function, and confidence—so you can thrive as a mama, today and for years to come.

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