Episode #4: #fitmom

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria welcome Brooke Cates, founder of The Bloom Method and passionate pre and postnatal fitness pioneer.

They discuss the #fitmom trend and research showing that influenced postpartum fitness leaves women worse for wear.

Full show notes:

History of PP fitness: https://www.eternalblossombirthandbeyond.com/the-history 

Historical overview of pregnancy fitness, not PP fitness, but SUPER interesting to see pregnancy fitness history from the 1700s (!!!) to present: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563105/ 

Great blog describing #fitmom influence: https://buildnurturerestore.com/body-image-postpartum-healing-versus-getting-your-body-back/ 

“A novel 2022 experimental study found that women exposed to body-focused social media posts targeted at new mothers experience not only higher rates of body dissatisfaction but also cultivated an unhealthy relationship with food, resulting in eating less and feeling guilt after eating (3).“

The #fitmom study: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-022-05089-w#Tab2 

“Our finding that this improvement in body dissatisfaction appeared to happen among mothers in our control group, but not for mothers in our intervention group, suggests that exposure to body-focused social media prevented intervention mothers from the progression of feeling better about their bodies as they move further from birth toward 12 months postpartum”

#fitmom hashtag has 29.5 million videos on IG

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7926552/ - Recovery of Abdominal Muscle Thickness and Contractile Function in Women after Childbirth

“Therefore, abdominal muscle exercises might help prevent postpartum symptoms; however, because deterioration of muscle function is significant in the first four months, careful attention should be paid to exercise intensity. The study limitation was a relatively small sample size, thus future studies should involve more participants.”

Pelvic organ prolapse Strenuous physical activity, exercise, and pelvic organ prolapse: a narrative scoping review

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10238337/

Eight prevalence studies were retrieved. Prevalence rates of symptomatic POP varied between 0 (small study within different sports) and 23% (Olympic weightlifters and powerlifters). Parity was the only factor associated with POP in most studies.

There is scant knowledge of exercise and POP in the postpartum period.