Functional Wellness: Shifting the Paradigm in Women’s + Maternal Health
When I first began my journey into pelvic floor therapy I raised a lot of eyebrows:
“Do occupational therapists even do this sort of thing?”
“Don’t you work with babies and children?”
“And you use yoga with your clients?”
My answer to all these questions: Yes.
Full transparency - I never expected to work with adults. I went to graduate school with an interest in pediatrics, so when I got the opportunity to work with children (specifically from birth to age three) I took it. When working in Early Intervention and in post-neonatal intensive care (NICU) settings, I often left sessions feeling as if I were missing a piece of the puzzle. The further into my career I got, the more I learned that the work was never just about the child. It was the full family unit and especially the caregivers. I came to the realization that therapy is not truly successful without addressing the mother’s/caregiver’s needs as well. Over time my attention during sessions shifted from being child-focused to family-focused, because in the end one hour with me amounts to nothing if a parent isn’t able to carry out the strategies we work on together during the other 167 hours in the week.
This change in focus opened up an entirely new perspective for me. After delivery, mother and child may not be physically connected anymore, but they are still impacted by each other’s physical and emotional stressors. Whether it’s physical pain, medical complications, or even mental health, their wellbeing remains deeply intertwined.
In my mind, being a pediatric OT was no longer enough.
To try and gain a better understanding of what was missing from the current standard of care, I reached out to over 20 different women. I wanted to learn both the good and the bad of their journeys through fertility, pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. Each woman had a powerful and unique story. One of the biggest takeaways from these conversations was that even along the smoothest of roads, every single woman felt a sense of isolation and lack of support at some point in their experience. Postpartum Mood Disorders, unexpected cesareans, the IVF process, prematurity, anxiety, bowel and bladder problems, intimacy and relationship issues, miscarriages, aches and pains, dismissive statements by medical professionals, ...the list goes on and on.
Their stories stuck with me. On the way to work one morning I shared one of their stories with my mom over the phone. To my surprise, my mother shared hers.
During her pregnancy with my older brother, my mother developed preeclampsia. Due to high blood pressure, he was born three months early via emergency cesarean and spent 8 weeks in the NICU following his birth. My mom told me how she really didn’t have much choice or input throughout the entire process. She shared that she was stitched up and released within a few days with no real protocol for follow up. Her provider even threatened to “forbid her” from visiting her newborn because she insisted to go see him everyday over the vague instructions of “caring for herself.”
For the first time, I had a glimpse into what my mom went through.
Trauma.
Her feelings of fear, isolation, helplessness, and anxiety would be perpetuated by his ongoing medical issues. To this day, she puts her role as a mother above her own needs and anything else in her life.
We got off the phone and I wept in my car at the hospital parking lot.
No one should ever feel helpless or dismissed when it comes to their own bodies, their care, and their children. Medicine has certainly advanced in the last 30-something years, and still, women are not empowered to be active and equal participants in their own healthcare and that of their children.
I put in my two-weeks notice that day.
It would be quite the understatement to say that my brother’s complex care has influenced my life. It only seems right that he, and of course my mother, are my inspiration as I start Functional Wellness, a practice that seeks to shift the paradigm around women’s & maternal health.
Where women are seen and heard--where you are viewed as whole--where your physical symptoms are carefully considered within the context of your emotional, mental, and social wellbeing-- where you are the expert of your own body.
So for every woman, no matter where you are in your journey:
I see you.
I’m listening.
You know your body best.
Your story matters.
Contact Functional Wellness today!
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