Postpartum: Return to Fitness
When should you return to fitness in the postpartum, and what considerations should you have when approaching fitness after childbirth? When returning to fitness in the postpartum, you will need to consider the type of delivery that you had. Did you have a vaginal birth or cesarean birth? Did you have any vaginal tearing? How […]
Labor: Conditioned Relaxation Response
A conditioned response for labor is a learned physiological response to a previously neutral stimulus. For example, in Pavlov’s dog experiment, he rung a bell whenever he fed a dog and eventually when the dog hears a bell being rung, he begins to drool having learned to associate the stimulus of the bell ringing with […]
SI Joint Discomfort and Pain During Pregnancy
What can you do if you have SI Joint pain? Discomfort in the back of the pelvis could be your sacroiliac joint (SI Joint) and tends to be more to one side than the other. It can feel like deep, glute pain more towards one side. And tends to increase with single leg movements, walking, […]
Baby Tuck Chin During Labor: Why It Matters & How to Help
First, why does it matter how your baby is positioned during labor? A baby with a flexed head, or tucking their chin towards their chest, presents a smaller diameter of their head to the cervix and pelvic openings. The head seems to mold better. And there is less resistance with a flexed head during the […]
3 Epidural Laboring Positions: Find Movement During Labor
Getting an epidural doesn’t mean that you now have to lie still in bed. We can still find tons of movement even with pain relief! Read this blog to learn three movements that you can do with an epidural!
Helpful Cues for Pushing
What are helpful cues when it comes to pushing? Our pushing cues are: Knees In, Ankles Out (Internal Rotation of the Femur) Allow for Space for the Sacrum to Move (Get off your back) Neutral Spine with Lat Engagement Belly Breath to the Baby Panting These cues tend to be the opposite of what you […]
The Pelvis: Muscles that Support the Lower Body
The Muscles that Support the Pelvis What if I told you that you could exercise to prepare your body for labor, and that helping your baby find an optimal position for birth begins during pregnancy? If we understand what muscles support the pelvis and influence it’s movement, we can ensure that we focus our fitness […]
SI Joint Dysfunction
By: Gina Conley, MS Exercise Science The SI Joints Dysfunction The SI Joints are two posterior pelvic joints that attach the sacrum to the ilium. The SI joints are a major junction where we transfer load between our upper and lower body; this means a lot of force and stress is moved through these joints. […]
The Pelvis: Muscles that Support the Upper Body
By: Gina Conley, B.S. Exercise Science and Certified Birth Doula The Muscles that Support the Pelvis What if I told you that you could exercise to prepare your body for labor, and that helping your baby find an optimal position for birth begins during pregnancy? If we understand what muscles support the pelvis and influence […]
Pain During Pregnancy? Could be 2 things
By: Gina Conley, B.S. Exercise Science, Certified Birth Doula If you’re having pain in the front of your pelvis during pregnancy, it generally is one of two things: Round Ligament Pain: Associated with a sharp, sudden pain in the lower abdomen on either side Pubic Symphysis Dysfunction (SPD): Associated with pain with single leg, sideways, […]
How Did MamasteFit Come to Be?
By: Gina Conley, Owner, Head Coach, and Birth Doula of MamasteFit In an instant—everything changed. Maybe it was more than an instant, but motherhood was life-changing. I could never be prepared for what I felt when I became pregnant, as I navigated my pregnancy, and when I became a mother. I had no idea what […]
Can you prevent diastasis & abdominal separation during pregnancy?
The answer is most likely not. By 35 weeks gestation, nearly 100% of pregnant women will have diastasis. Diastasis happens to nearly every pregnant woman that carries to term regardless of what she does during pregnancy. Diastasis Recti Abdominis (DRA) is the separation, or rather stretching, of the linea alba, the connective tissue between the […]