After being cleared to return to exercise, your trainer should perform an in-depth  postpartum screening process.  This important step, should help your trainer gather important information and could also help raise your attention any conditioning where a referral to another health care provider should be encouraged. Examples of what’s not normal include, but are not limited to:

• Bleeding or passing clots past six weeks postpartum
• Pelvic or back pain
• Urinary or fecal incontinence
• Downward pressure or heaviness in the pelvis
• Protruding tissues around the vagina

Included in this screening process, should also be a form of standing and movement screen. During pregnancy and the immediate postnatal period, the increase in weight through the anterior part of the body may result in postural changes. Coupled with an increase in breast tissue size and changes in repeated movement patterns (such as feeding, carrying, etc), a mums body can quite easily be out of alignment.  Having these issue identified early will ultimately promote the healing process, reduced pain, better movement and activation of some deeper muscle groups.

A functional movement screen should also help your trainer foresee potential issues at the outset so that a program can be tailor to your needs.