Stronger The Honest Guide to Healing and Rebuilding After Pregnancy and Birth
Megan Vickers
Physiotherapist BSc MCSP MPOGP GREEN TREE
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK Copyright © Megan Vickers, 2021
Strength is about feeling more capable, having a body that is resilient and tackling challenges with ease, and it goes far beyond the physical. Achieving and maintaining strength are not just training goals, but life goals for ourselves and our families. We hear men encouraged to be strong and powerful and women supportive and caring, as though strength is reserved for only one gender. When the truth is that strength is just as important for women, and for mothers especially.
For many mums, strong means being able to lift their baby, wear them in a sling or run after a toddler. Strong might mean a pelvic floor which defies the squeamish “bladder weakness” adverts. Or it might mean strength powerful enough to tackle the legacy of pregnancy and birth following the trauma of baby loss. Each experience requires a strength that we often take for granted.
Stronger is all about empowering mothers to reach their goals. This is for all mothers, no matter how long “post-partum”.
Every chapter of my book has tasks for healing and rebuilding – including stretch and release work for posture and pain relief, activation exercises through to true strengthening and return to sport preparation, perineal and abdominal scar massage techniques, returning to pleasurable sex after baby and preparing healthy, healing snacks.
In addition there are key messages on “when to ask for help” and more importantly “what to ask for”. Pointing women in the right direction to get the treatment, prescriptions and support they need.
I’ve written this book as a complete guide. So women no longer have questions and even providing answers to questions mothers didn’t know to ask!
I really hope that one day ALL mothers have access to this and that this is the guide they receive in their hospital packs instead of incontinence pads and laundry tabs. I hope that you find it a super helpful resource.
Megan x