Pelvic Health Network Podcast

Physical therapists routinely use models and anatomical images to help patients understand their injuries. Why would we stop doing that after birth? Acute care pelvic health physical therapist, Dr. Meredith Grady, PT, DPT, says she is often the first person to fully explain a mother’s birth injury using a pelvic model. She shows patients where they tore, how the pelvic floor and surrounding struct...

Emily Gill laminated referral cards and placed them on every monitor in labor and delivery and the postpartum unit. If OB/GYNs had to remember to order OT and PT manually, she was going to make postpartum rehab hard to forget. Emily developed her OTD capstone around a major gap in Cesarean recovery: mothers spent 2 - 4 days in the hospital yet received very little rehab support before their first...

It started with mothers on ECMO at WVU Medicine, a Level 1 trauma center. Dr. Marley Sisler had a capstone idea for her doctoral degree in occupational therapy. Today, mothers at her hospital after every vaginal and Cesarean delivery, live and stillbirth, receive an evaluation of their mental health and functional recovery by a rehab therapist. The postpartum recovery program she built has reached...

When I first discovered Hannah Poulton's work, what impressed me wasn't simply that she specializes in scar rehabilitation. It was that she questioned why women were expected to recover without first being prepared for surgery. After 25 years as a physiotherapist, including 17 years with the NHS, Hannah left a successful leadership career to build an internationally recognized practice foc...

Duke University Health System saved their hospital $815,000 by offering physical therapy on the maternity unit and through telehealth. How do we measure the savings for a mother and her family when we address her mental and physical function sooner after birth? Resources:1. Duke Health Inpatient/Telehealth Postpartum PT Program Benefits Patients: https://obgyn.duke.edu/blog/duke-health-inpatientte...

Most postpartum recovery conversations start too late. This one started with a woman who collapsed trying to get upstairs after birth. She had been discharged home after a complicated delivery. No rehab consult. No functional assessment. No equipment. No one evaluated whether she could safely navigate her own home. By the time a physician finally reached her weeks later, she had been confined to h...

Four days after her C-section, Jenna couldn’t lie flat. She was short of breath. Her blood pressure kept climbing. She went to OB triage and was told to go home and rest. Instead, she went to the main emergency department with ongoing chest pressure, where her systolic blood pressure rose above 180 and her BNP registered at 1650. She was treated for postpartum fluid overload and acute heart failur...

Across the country, occupational and physical therapists are beginning to bring early rehabilitation to maternity units. In this panel, hospital-based clinicians share how they built programs for high-risk pregnancy, cesarean recovery, and early postpartum care, and why rehabilitation should be part of standard recovery after birth. Learn more about the Enhanced Recovery After Delivery (ERAD®) ini...

Why do randomized controlled trials often miss the mark for rehabilitation research? How can occupational therapy and physical therapy show system level value in maternal health, postpartum care, and hospital workflows? In this conversation Dr. Rebeca Segraves sits down with two past presidents of the American Occupational Therapy Association — Dr. Amy Lamb and Dr. Alyson Stover — to explore pract...

What if everything you’ve been told about diastasis recti isn’t the full story? In this episode, Antony Lo @PhysioDetective  an internationally recognized physiotherapist from Australia, shares why: slowing things down with deep core activation and breathing exercises can backfire why people deserve support in their own goals for strength, function, and appearance, and why most are far more capabl...

Occupational therapists Lindsey Vestal, OTR/L and Lara Desrosiers, MSc. OT Reg. (Ont.) share how trauma can impact the experiences that mothers have after birth and the work of rehab therapists providing early care across settings. We discuss: 1. Their personal motivations behind creating the Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Certification program and the Trauma-Informed Maternal Care training 2. Thei...

Jenna and Rebeca Segraves discuss why they advocate through Enhanced Recovery After Delivery for occupational and physical therapy to be accessible to moms within the first 7 days of giving birth. Learn more about Enhanced Recovery After Delivery

Dr. Addy Javes, PT, DPT is an acute care physical therapist and author of what is considered to be the first case report published in the U.S. on physical therapy in the hospital after birth. She shares the story of her patient who was physically active before delivery and who received PT in the hospital after her unexpected c-section. Dr. Javes describes how patients who recover with PT in the ho...

Why are new moms often denied proactive occupational and physical therapy after an open abdominal delivery known as a cesarean section? In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Michelle Figueira, PT, DPT, a former director of rehab, shares her background as a key influencer behind launching inpatient postpartum rehab services across 12 hospitals. She reveals why hospitals, especially for-profit ones,...

Physical therapist, Dr. Lashonda Jones shares her personal experience with c-section recovery and the lack of resources available for new mothers. She discusses the importance of creating a standardized rehab protocol for cesarean delivery, emphasizing the need for education and support for both mothers and healthcare providers. The conversation highlights essential recovery practices, the role of...

Mothers and their birth providers face significant risk within the first few days of childbirth. We discuss what questions every mother should be asked while she is still in the hospital after birth to avoid unnecessary harm.

Dr. Sabina Khan, PhD, OTD, OTR/L shares her personal and clinical experience with occupational therapy after birth, including the support she gives to teen moms during their vulnerable period of life.

Dr. Keshia Bradford is an acute care pelvic health therapist who is transforming postpartum recovery with physical therapy in the hospital. We discuss what you need to know to offer occupational and physical therapy services in the hospital during high-risk pregnancy and within 24 - 48 hours after birth. Learn more: https://enhancedrecoveryafterdelivery.com/

Meeting Royce Porter, OTR/L was a game changer. Not only does he provide occupational therapy to women in the hospital after birth and hysterectomy, he addresses postpartum depression and mental health concerns related to an unexpected surgery as early as day one of recovery. As a practicing therapist in both the hospital and outpatient settings, he sees no reason for women to wait 6 or more weeks...

In part 2 of this series, Alexa Pasco details her story just four months after her birth. Her experience reminds us that what happened to her could happen to anyone. The last play we have with preventing heart failure and preeclampsia in the first week after delivery is educating enough people to stay alert and stay involved. The worst that could happen is for people to not offer a hand when they...

A woman who had everything working in her favor experienced medical neglect on multiple occasions after her birth in a U.S. hospital system. After going through her case, it's apparent that the U.S. healthcare system has started to prioritize the most vulnerable in our society who need the most attention. Which is a good thing! Yay! Yet, this means that lower risk individuals, specifically middle...