Postnatal “Stress”
In relation to exercise
Stress! It is a word we hear a lot in todays society. We may use it ourselves on daily basis to explain emotions that we feel. Some suffer from chronic stress that effects their physical and mental health. But what I wanted to highlight in this blog is how “stress” impacts the body (so what is happening internally) and then to highlight just some of the things that your body might consider stressful. Even if you do not.
So what is stress???
Well simply, when your body is put under pressure your sympathetic nervous system (the system that makes you move away from a very hot thing when you touch it) goes into action it sends hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, rushing around your body making your muscles tighter. Ready to run. Your heart beats faster. To pump more blood to your arms and your legs so you can run fast. For a short period of time your reactions become much quicker too. All great for running away from bears! BUT we don’t really NEED that sort of response to things very often anymore. We mainly live in safe spaces with few things that will hurt us. But our body still reacts as if we were living in cave needing to run away from a hungry tiger when something that makes us stressed arises.
As a new mother you are under all sorts of new pressure, new experiences. For example constant night waking, constant contact with another human, the sheer responsibility of caring for a whole life that is not your own and the physical stress of birth (whatever your experience) all COULD create a stress response.
And I say could in capitals because some of you will fall into motherhood and not feel any of the above. BUT I think the majority of you will at some point feel one or all of these things. So if you are constantly in and out of your stress state or your “fight and flight state” and then you go and add a physical stress (like high intensity exercise) to your bundle you further increase the hormones of cortisol and adrenaline. Further draining your body of much needed energy and at some point your body will say enough is enough. You will become exhausted more emotional. Perhaps injured or unable to care for your baby.Because your body does not know the good stress from the bad, it is all stress… And one human can only handle so much!
Below is my experience of returning to movement post birth number one…
I was keen to move quickly and went for a run after 3 weeks. (It did not feel good but I pushed on determined I wasn’t going to let the new sensations of heaviness in my pelvic floor and tired legs stop me)
I decided running perhaps wasn’t my best option after trying a few more times and in lock down I joined my friends for HITT sessions online. I got that post exercise buzz but some movements (particularly high intensity ones like jumps or high knees put too much pressure through my pelvic floor)
BUT it was lock down, I felt I couldn’t go to the doctor as they were busy dealing with a crisis! I couldn’t seek specialist help as it was something I wanted face to face support with and so I carried on in my own way still resisting this new body that pregnancy and birth had gifted me.
On top of this exercise “stress” I was also under stress from breast feeding, regularly waking in the night, a baby that would only really sleep on me and actually we had no help because all of our family were so far away we weren’t even allowed to meet for a walk! Again another stress in itself that this precious time of our first baby wasn’t the amazing experience we hoped we would be able to share with our loved ones.
And at around 8 months post birth my body simply gave up. I tried to run one day and actually barely made it home… My legs just would not work. I had insane pain in my shins and I cried and cried and cried. A release I finally accepted and I let go a little…
On reflection what does this tell me now. I now know that “stress” comes in different forms. Exercise can be a really good form of stress it can increase our fitness and help us to feel happy and healthy IF we have a good balance in our general lives. However our body cannot distinguish good stress from bad stress. And if you have a whole load of the bad stress like lack of sleep, anxiety, drained from breastfeeding… then hard exercise is just another thing depleting your energy and your resilience and eventually some how your body will stop you.
Now many of you reading this will not have had this experience BUT I know some of you will. Or you will be feeling guilty because right now you don’t feel you have the capacity to think about movement like you used to. And this post is about saying that is ok!!! Please listen to your body the sensations and the feedback it gives. If something doesn’t feel right seek support (if you can) and never be afraid to say…
“Today I am going to rest”
If you are looking to return to movement, then first of all low impact movement like walking is fabulous! Ideally without baby in a sling to allow your body to find its ideal posture.
We also have some wonderful women in the North East who can help you return to movement safely!
I teach Pregnancy yoga and yoga/stability classes for postnatal mums. With added baby yoga.
StrongAFmums with founder Collette at Real Fittness Alnwick is a GREAT place to start if you are local to Alnwick and enjoy a gym, body weight and or weighted exercise. (Collette also offers full pre and postnatal 1-1 assessments which are frankly so awesome they need a whole other blog to explain!)
Our Northumberland Leisure Centres have various activities for pregnant and postnatal people under the banner of Mams on the Move too.
In addition to these skills I highly recommend hypnobirthing as a gate way to preparing your body for birth and enabling you to understand MORE about your stress response system, how it works and techniques to manage stressful moments. And for hypnobirthing there really is one EXEPRT in the North East and that is the fabulous Jessica founder of Positively Pregnant.
Your journey into and indeed through motherhood is a learning curve a monumental experience that can uncover more of your true self that you even knew existed. We have some amazing women in the North East who can support your journey when it comes to wellness and movement. But remember sometimes it is ok to REST.
