To begin, there are several things that are happening inside of your body postpartum.

Your uterus contracts, discharging lochia;
After giving birth, no matter what type of birth you had, your body gets rid of the blood and tissue that were inside your uterus. This is known as heavy vaginal discharge or lochia, this is all very normal and happens when the placenta detaches from the uterus as it leaves open blood vessels. This is when your uterus starts to contract and it will continue to do so after birth to close these vessels and minimize bleeding. As time goes on, the lochia will become less and less.

You experience significant changes in your hormones;
There is a large drop in estrogen and progesterone, which can explain why you are feeling blue. You may be considerably more irritable, weepy, moody, this can last up to two weeks. Anything more than two weeks, you want to check in with your mental health officer or midwife/doctor.

Potential tearing from birth is healing;
Inside the vagina and near the perineum can take time to heal physically and mentally, we need to adjust and monitor accordingly. It also depends on what type of tear.

Cesarean scars can take time to heal;
Mentally if you had a non-elective cesarean, this can affect your exhaustion levels post birth as the whole process may have felt quite alarming and hectic.
You may have used an anesthetic and could feel the effects afterward. Scars take time to heal and everybody is different, when exercising it's important to take that into account and to monitor pain, inflammation and colour of the scar area.

It can be tempting post pregnancy to want everything to get back to normal. You may feel pressured to ‘bounce back’ into your old body, those skinny jeans. Rushing back into anything after such a major life transition can be dangerous. It is important to understand what is happening within your body post pregnancy, so that you can set yourself a realistic timeline when it comes to exercising post birth. Most guides say 6 weeks but gentle movement is encouraged from day 2 or 3, this helps promote blood flow to the right areas.

Firstly, we need to identify what we mean when we talk about exercise and what exactly is happening within our bodies after birth. When we understand more of the process, we are able to become more aware of our body's signals and mental energy so that we can be kinder to ourselves. In this article, we will do exactly that.

So what exercise can mothers do in the first couple of months after pregnancy?

The general UK guideline states that at 6 weeks, you can begin gentle strength and conditioning. Pilates or yoga is an excellent segue back into fitness. It is gentle on the body and focuses on posture and alignment, which suffers greatly during pregnancy and postpartum and it is centered around the pelvic floor and core. Our postnatal program offers tonnes of pilates movement sessions, delivered in levels so that you can work your way up.

If however, you are more prone to hitting the gym, mothers should be more aware of how quickly they are increasing the weights, high impact exercise, and what signals their bodies are making during and post exercise.

It's ideal to start with functional bodyweight strength training and then increase with weights as you feel stronger. It's important to note that you need to omit any exercise that places unnecessary pressure on your abdominals or makes your vagina feel heavy in any way.

Postpartum it is crucial to include recovery days, adding in self myo-fascial release is a great way to enhance your mood and decrease any inflammation.

It's important to monitor your abdominal region for any doming and pelvic area for any pain. Watch out for these signs too;
-Peeing or pooping
-Strong pain in the chest area
-Heaviness in the vagina
-Complete exhaustion during or post-session (even later on)
-Back pains
-Any bleeding

Any of these signs warrant an immediate check-in with your health specialist.

One thing in particular to watch out for is your abdominals, at 6 weeks you want to check to see whether you have Diastasis Recti (the tummy gap). If you have 2.5 fingers or less, then you can resume your exercise program, but keep self monitoring it. However, if your gap is larger than 2.5 fingers, then you should check in with your women's health physiotherapist.

We also have to mention that most new mums are sleep deprives and lack proper nutrition.

When we lack sleep, our nervous system and immune system are heavily compromised and this will affect our lifestyle and mood.

In summary, there are many variables to consider when heading back into exercise after pregnancy. Guidelines often say 6 weeks, but many mothers are not physically or mentally prepared to jump back in. This is why we need to encourage more gentle movement to begin with and to approach exercise with a flexible plan that takes into consideration a new mother's energy, sleep, nutrition, mood, lifestyle.

If you are not ready Mama, don’t stress, your time will come.