Today I am speaking with Gina Mundy, an attorney that specializes in childbirth cases. For over two decades, she has analyzed the mistakes that are made during labor and delivery. Drawing on this knowledge, she has authored the book "A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth" to help parents prevent these mistakes and have a healthy baby. Rather than merely getting involved after an unfortunate mistake was made, Gina has taken a proactive approach by getting involved before childbirth. &nbs...
Today I am speaking with Sophie Power, a mum of 3 most known for breastfeeding my 3 month old baby during the 106 mile UTMB ultramarathon in the Alps, (you may be familiar with the photo). She also represents Great Britain on the 24 hour running team. Sophie also founded SheRACES, a campaign for equality for women in racing, including deferrals for pregnancy. We talk about:-pregnancies and postpartum recoveries all being different-running with a prolapse-running faster in her 40s and aft...
Today I am speaking with Elizabeth Waterstraat, the founder of Multisport Mastery, Inc. and a certified multisport coach with over 20 years of competitive and coaching multisport experience. Since the inception of Multisport Mastery in 2007, Elizabeth has worked with hundreds of athletes, beginner to advanced, all ages, from all around the world. Through a detailed approach aiming to develop both body and mind, she has developed athletes from amateur to elite, beginner to world champion. Eliz...
Today I am speaking with Dr. Jenny LaCross, a certified athletic trainer and board-certified clinical specialist in women’s health physical therapy with almost a decade of clinical experience working with individuals with pelvic health, low back, and hip conditions. After completing her PhD in 2023 studying hip dysplasia in young active females, Jenny joined the University of Michigan Pelvic Floor Research group where she currently works as a postdoctoral research fellow under the mentorship ...
Today I am speaking with Mel Sulaver, a registered dietitian working to bridge the gap between women’s health and performance nutrition. As speaker, counselor, and coach, she works primarily with women in sport, focusing on disordered eating, amenorrhea, low energy availability and relative energy deficiency in sport. Mel believes there is an enormous amount of power at the crossroads of “athlete” and “mother” and is looking to challenge the narrative on what is possible throughout the fertil...
Today I am speaking with Lexi Thompson, owner and founder of All-Nighters Pediatric Sleep Consulting. She started her journey as a baby sleep coach when she had her daughter. Becoming a first time mom did not scared Lexi, due to her medical background as a NICU nurse. But what did scare her was the dreaded horror stories about never getting any sleep. Lexi was determined to not be “another sleep deprived mom”. Without much hesitation she became a certified sleep consultant, specializing in in...
Today I am speaking with Shalaya Kipp, PhD, whose current work focuses on sports bras during exercise and how they affect respiratory function. As a former competitive steeplechaser, she is an NCAA champion, and 9 time All-American. Shalaya has represented the United States at the World Championships and Olympic Games. Currently Shalaya enjoys stroller runs with her 9-month old daughter and 2.5 year old son. We talk about: -running economy -how we try on bras -reeval...
Today I am speaking with Juliet Starrett, founder & CEO of The Ready State, best selling author, podcaster, and three-time whitewater rafting world champion. She is on a mission to help people move more. Her book, Built to Move, gives the ten essential habits to help people move freely and live fully. She shares her experience shifting from an extreme athlete to motherhood and how those paths cross. We talk about: -being a world champion paddler -entering menopause -id...
1:00 Introduction 4:25 what &Mother does 7:07 addressing maternal health disparity 13:20 grants for mothers 15:10 support for negotiating contracts 18:12 guidance for pregnant pro athletes 26:02 addressing RED-S 29:04 Brennan’s athletic history 35:58 navigating postpartum 39:11 returning to workouts postpartum 48:00 supporting racesThe Active Mom Postpartum Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to Postpartum for active moms & the postpartum pr...
In today’s solo episode, I’m going to answer one of the most common questions I get in my DMs and emails: When is it safe to workout after I’ve had my baby? While there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this questions, there are some basically guidelines and milestones that are a good place to start when you’re making this decision for yourself. Of course, talking to a medical professional is a good idea, but if you don’t have access to someone who “gets it”, this is a good place to start!...
Today I am speaking with Dr. Sara Tanza, pelvic floor physical therapist, and Steph Bruce, professional runner for HokaOneOne NAZ Elite, mom, Celiac, Co-conspirator for Picky Bars, coach. Sara and Steph both, have been incredibly open about what it looks like to return to exercise after pregnancy and how they are active moms in their postpartum. We talk about: -forming the Dream Team -getting stronger with age -the importance of rehab -life as a professional run...
Today I am speaking with Andrea Herbert, co-founder of Gold Ivy Health Co. She is making it her mission to simplify the research and inspire women everywhere to own their health and life. As a mother of 3, wife, entrepreneur, and marathoner working to complete a marathon in all 50 states, Andrea juggles a lot. The combo of finding balance, staying aligned with her values, and having fun brings endless fulfillment and she wants more women to join her. Andrea has coached thousands of women to e...
Today I am speaking with Dr. Stephanie Waggel, a mother, physician, author, motivational speaker, teacher, cancer survivor, marathon runner, and founder of Improve Medical Culture. She has a degree in psychology, biology and medicine and has over 17 years of experience working in the mental health field. In 2023, Dr. Waggel became certified in perinatal mental health. Specifically, advanced studies in perinatal psychopharmacology (medication for pregnant people). She feels this area is unders...
Today I am speaking with a returning guest, Lisa Ryan, a former high school English teacher who completely changed her career after the birth of her children. Before having children, she was a competitive CrossFit athlete who then struggled postpartum with diastasis recti. Because of her experience, she became a coach to help women avoid experiences like hers. We hear about her coming to terms with getting a tummy tuck to fix her diastasis recti and how she was completely open about her exper...
Today I am speaking with Reshma Rathod, co-founded of Restore Motion, a physical therapy practice in Rockville MD, in 2004. She has been Primary Health Care Provider for the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) since 2007, and is also a member of the Hologic WTA Women’s Health Task Force. She has a passion for women’s health and understands the profound need for a women-focused, compassionate physical therapy practice that could support the female leaders who make our communities prosper. &n...
Today I am speaking with Brianna Battles, the Founder of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism. She teaches fitness coaches and practitioners how to understand the needs of their pregnant and postpartum clients (and sometimes their own bodies) so they can go out and be the expert in their community. As a strength and conditioning coach, she realized there was a need for more resources for pregnant and postpartum athletes. She believes the biggest impact can be had when coaches are trained how ...
Today, I speak with Dr. Ashley Winter, Board certified urologist who specializes in sexual medicine and postpartum hormones. After realizing that many of the common concerns that patients were brining to her clinic were not being addressed by the information she was being taught, she decided to do a fellowship in sexual disfunction. After working in managed health for five years following her fellowship, she decided to branch out into the tech side of medicine to help improve sexual health ca...
Today, we are celebrating our 100th episode! I’ve been doing the podcast for about two years now, and I’ve have interviewed some incredible guests! But today is my first solo episode. Think of this as a State of the Union” Pelvic Floor edition. I cover what I’m loving about the pelvic floor space right now as well as things I’d love to see change. We talk about:-state of the union-the need for more specialization in pelvic health-from pregnancy to menopause-growing the profession-pregnan...
Today I speak with Holly Brooks, a 2-time Nordic Ski Olympian, twin mom, licensed therapist working at the intersection of performance and mental health. She is also the co-founder of Moms Matter Now, a group focused on empowering, educating, and supporting women from pregnancy to early motherhood so they don’t lose their minds, selves or relationships. Her two passions are athlete & maternal mental health. Holly’s goal is to give moms tools to be models, not martyrs in their motherhood j...
Today I speak with Margo Kwiatkowski, an orthopedic and pelvic health physical therapist in Southern California. She has made it her life’s mission to provide valuable, evidence based, and accessible information about pelvic organ prolapse in postpartum people. Margo was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse after the birth of her first child in the summer of 2021. She knew all the statistics about pelvic organ prolapse and did “all the right things” but was still taken aback by the diagnosis....