The Conception and Birth of Maternal Wellness

"Connecting with those you know love, like, and appreciate you, restores the spirit and gives you energy to keep moving forward in this life." ~Deborah Day

According to the Facebook Memories feature and my beloved TimeHop app, I posted the following exactly one year ago today, as a preface to the article below. It seems that this is when and where the seeds of Blossom Health and Maternal Wellness were planted: 

10/28/14

I can't say enough about this topic. As a prenatal massage therapist, I thought that I offered a nice service. As an occupational therapist treating countless repetitive use injuries- but never any related to pregnancy, childbirth, nursing, or motherhood- I overlooked a great many potential patients.  As a yogi & runner, I cheered on new mommies to just bounce back quickly, but there is SO much more to consider besides dropping 30+ pounds. Specialized intervention is sometimes necessary, as is self-care. There is a market for this kind of treatment, if docs, moms, and dads buy into it.

My Child Is Here, But My Body Is Not My Own

10/28/15

I don't think that even I imagined that less than 6 months later, these ideas, experiences, opportunities, and skills would align themselves to birth Blossom Health and Maternal Wellness, which offers perinatal fitness, massage, nutrition, education, breastfeeding support, and rehabilitation all in one place. 

Now for the buy in: moms, there are ways to help usher in normalcy, even if it is a slightly new normal. There are mechanisms and modalities to help alleviate pain, strengthen weakened areas, regain confidence. Your body will be different, your sleep habits will be different, your priorities will be different, and your emotional state will be different, but you should not be unrecognizable. You do not have to succumb to the abyss of post-baby everything. You are not weak for asking for help. Typically, when we think about postpartum ailments, we're only thinking about depression, which is good. Postpartum depression is real, affects many, and needs to be better understood and treated. However, there are also physical and physiological remnants of childbearing that do not have to remain indefinitely.

Daddies, despite what you may see on television, there is no metaphor, similie, mental image, or weighted vest that can adequately convey all that a woman's body and mind go through during and after the 40 weeks of pregnancy. Trust, anticipate, and listen. Your partner is amazing! She is a warrior! She has gone through battle and has birthed a miracle. She needs a massage. She needs an opportunity to exercise. She may even need therapy or chiropractic care. She is not a wimp. She is not looking for attention. She needs for you to understand and advocate for her. The easier and more complete her recovery, the better she will be able to take care of your family... and the less resentful she will be toward you, for the rest of her life. There's nothing worse than grandma oversharing at Thanksgiving about how her body was completely destroyed 55 years earlier by childbirth and how it is all grandpa's fault. Women remember those BC (before children) bodies and capabilities like they do the days of the week. Find ways to help her get back to that.

Physicians can help too. By listening to new moms, asking thoughtful questions, re-sensitizing themselves to the wonder of each and every birth experience, and being aware of pregnancy and postpartum community resources, they can assist moms in adjusting to life on the other side, with minimal pain and without involuntary peeing. 

We often hear about how the care for postpartum mothers in this country is amongst the least desirable and least helpful in all of the world. Our bodies were not meant to create a life, birth it forth, stick an artificial nipple in its mouth and return to data entry 6 weeks later (or whatever amazing career we have). We simply were not designed that way.

We were designed to be nurtured by our tribe and to be nurturing to our children. After giving birth, we need rest and restoration. Facilitating this recovery is the reason that Blossom Health and Maternal Wellness is here today. 

Here We Grow Again

Three years ago, almost to the day, I left my job in corporate healthcare in order to work for myself, full time, in my own wellness company, One Touch Wellness, Inc. All year, I had prayed for the strength, finances, discipline, faith, and favor to abandon my comfy direct deposit, health insurance, and 401K, to pursue a desire that had been burning within me since I was in college, 10 years earlier. My fiance', at the time, encouraged me, almost daily, to take the leap. After a month long yoga retreat in Costa Rica, I finally did.

Over the next week, I went on an organizing, workout, cleansing, and cleaning spree. By the end of the week, I was exhausted... I was also nauseous, emotional, and "tender". So, before beginning another week in that condition, on Mother's Day 2012, I took a pregnancy test, and passed with flying colors- pink, to be exact. It turns out that the strength, stability, discipline, faith, and favor needed was not for my business, but for my child and my family.

I had just begun teaching sunrise yoga at a fitness bootcamp. I continued teaching through my 32nd week. I also continued to hike up Stone Mountain and practice Bikram yoga. In my second trimester, I started taking pregnancy yoga, pilates, and water aerobics. I also quickly found another job and moved our planned December wedding, to August. My entire life was spinning out of my control. My everything was revolving around my child's embryonic development, as well as her future.

My daughter was healthy and so was I, but I had an unmanageable and constant nausea throughout the entire pregnancy, known as hyperemesis gravidarum. I also had a new husband who was living 3 states away, who was not privy to much of my misery. At the beginning of my third trimester, I moved to be with my husband, left my home, left my mother, and ultimately, left my business. 

I loved being with my husband and I loved caring for and nursing my child. My adjustment to a new space, new routine, new financial status, little support, and little social outlet was a lot to handle at once. I declare that my success with breastfeeding, after a challenging pregnancy is the major reason that I did not fall into the throws of postpartum depression.

My overall experience with pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding is what has driven me to create Blossom Health and Maternal Wellness.

I believe that I am purposed to help women to create a greater life for themselves than they are currently living. However, 2 years into motherhood, I found myself living a fraction of the life that I had been called to live. My life is more than 3 minute showers, skipped lunches, workout excuses, and 3 pair of yoga pants to last all week... without any yoga. I was not meant to study women's anatomy, physiology, and mental health, only to keep the information between random Facebook posts and me. It was becoming painful to not be doing more... saying more, teaching and helping more.  

Women have children every day, but each life is truly a miracle, and each mother needs to and deserves to be supported in each pregnancy. That need for support should not be discounted by family, friends, physicians, or the mothers, themselves, simply because everyday is someone's BIRTH day. The fitness, nutrition, education, and rehabilitation that we provide helps to support new and expectant mothers, so that they can spend more positive energy caring for their child. 

While I was in the initial stages of creating Blossom, there was all kinds of confirmation that this was to be. From phone calls to friends sharing news of their pregnancy to pictures of me nursing my daughter being plastered all over the city, the time is definitely now. In church, on Mother's Day 2015, three years after discovering my "YES", my pastor talked about women living in and believing in their own destiny. I am doing that through Blossom Health and Maternal Wellness, starting now, with your help. 

Happy Mother's Day, today and every day!

and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to BLOSSOM. ~ anais nin