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...

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...

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  -reevaluating your...

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  -identity shift...

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 races The Active Mom Postpartum Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to Postpartum for active moms & the postpartum professionals who help them in their...

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...

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 runner  -listening to your...

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...

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...

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...

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.    She...

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...

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...

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...

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....

Today I speak with Carter Norbo, a physical therapist, new mom, and member of the Rabbit Elite Team who ran at the University of North Carolina. In August 2023, she had twin boys at 29.5 weeks, but still went for an Olympic trials qualifying time on November 30th, at a marathon in Virginia. Even being so early in her postpartum, she came 73 seconds away from qualifying! Carter is still learning to adjust to life with running, work, and caring for the twins, but I wouldn’t trade it for...

Today I speak with Munira Hudani,  a Pre- and Post-Natal physiotherapist in Canada, and an emerging leader for the management of Diastasis Rectus Abdominis. After years of frustration in landing inconsistent results with her clients, and the dissatisfaction in having to say “we just don’t have enough research right now,” Munira began to challenge the conventional method to managing DRA. She realized that part of the inconsistent results came down to how DRA was being conceptualized. She...

Today I speak with Dr. Aliso Grimaldi, an expert in the management of hip, groin and lumbo-pelvic pain and dysfunction. She is also Principal Physiotherapist at Physiotec and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Because of her interest in the assessment and optimisation of lumbo-pelvic and lower limb biomechanics, Alison has collaborated with the European Space Agency on research. Alison is passionate about understanding why we develop problems around the hip and...

Today I speak with Laura Green, a comedic content creator who loves to stand in front of people and tell jokes. Her brain is a hamster wheel of self deprecating humor focused on the run and fitness industry which she attempts to communicate via short videos and storytelling. She runs a lot. And she also naps a lot. Laura lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two young boys. We talk about Laura’s experiences postpartum and how she handled returning to run after each of her...

Today I speak with Emma Brockwell and Gráinne Donnelly. Emma is a Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. She treats women of all ages with all women’s health related conditions. She is passionate about pre and postnatal rehabilitation and exercise. She specialises in supporting women back to exercise, particularly running, football and netball if they have any pelvic health dysfunction or are postnatal. She has co-authored the first ‘Returning to Running Postnatal Guidelines’ and has...

Coming in at #4 of our top episodes of 2023 is my conversation with Megan James.  She is a  PhD Student at Cardiff Metropolitan University. In her studies, she is exploring returning to running after childbirth. Her goal is to help bridge the gap between clinicians and research, and has collaborated with other researchers and clinicians on recent publications. We look at all of the different factors that can play into a mom’s experience in returning to run after having a baby.  Megan...

Today I speak with Dr. Izzy Moore reader in human movement and sports medicine at Cardiff Metropolitan University. After completing her PhD at the University of Exeter, where she focused on optimising female running gait, Izzy completed a two-year post-doctoral position at Cardiff Metropolitan University working directly with sports governing bodies to inform injury prevention and management policies.  Izzy’s current research focuses on female athlete health, sports injury epidemiology and...

Today I speak with Danielle Friedman, an award-winning journalist and a regular contributor to The New York Times’ Well section, where she has written about everything from the joys of being a slow runner to the importance of pelvic floor conditioning. She is also the author of Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World, which was selected as a New Yorker and Amazon Best Book of 2022. She lives in New York City with her husband and their two young sons.    She is...