The Athlete's Guide to Childbirth Preparation announcement graphic

🥳🎉👏🏼It’s here!!👏🏼🥳🎉

Since I started in this work- the perinatal fitness, the birth work, the pelvic health advocacy- I’ve wanted to create a resource like this. While I can and do work with a spectrum of parents needing support during the childbearing year, I have a special passion for working with athletes, active womxn or anyone who otherwise places a high premium on their physical fitness and wellbeing.

In a time when obstetric providers are still not well-informed in topics of pelvic floor health, knowledge is key to being able to evaluate risk vs reward of the choices you make in your childbearing year. The more you learn, the better you can advocate for your pelvic floor health and wellness.

Do athletes (or active womxn) really need to prepare for childbirth in any special way?
Recently, I took a deep dive into the research on childbirth outcomes amongst athletes. If you want the full download on what I found, I invite you to read my recent post on the subject:

Childbirth Preparation for Athletes: Are There Special Considerations?

Anecdotally, in my own experience, in the experience of numerous providers I’ve spoken with, in the experience of other athletes I have interacted with, athletes can benefit from a few extra considerations as they prepare for labor.

In this guide, I offer four areas of consideration that I urge all athletes, or anyone who values their fitness, to consider while prepping for their birth. We talk mindset, building a supportive birth team, developing awareness of pelvic floor and a key consideration (specific to athletic womxn) for pushing out your baby. All of these areas of consideration are low risk, minimal effort and high reward.

If you are an athlete, if you’ve worked with athletes, I think it won’t be a surprise to you to hear that athlete’s often pack their athletic mindset in their hospital bag. They often treat labor and delivery like another athletic event. Tying their feelings of worth to the events that take place in the labor and delivery room. “Training” or preparing in ways that might not actually serve their needs when they are in labor. Enough. Let’s talk about how you can really prepare for childbirth.

Download, share the link, let me know what you think!

If you are an athlete, active womxn, or otherwise place a high value on your physical fitness and long term pelvic health, download this guide to learn 4 key considerations to guide your childbirth preparation.

Redmond, WA-based Seattle birth doula Laura Jawad, headshot

My mission is to make sure that having a baby is not a reason why you can’t do all the things.

Contact me if you have questions about exercise or pelvic health pertaining to pregnancy or postpartum. I work with people locally (Seattle’s Eastside: Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland and surrounding areas) and online to develop personalized pregnancy and postpartum personal training plans. I also offer labor support (doula services) within the greater Seattle-Metro Area.

Was this helpful?? Share the love!