As a physiotherapist, Kayla Morosin thought she was pretty well versed in the physical changes that would happen to her body during pregnancy and afterbirth.
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But even with her background, the Mount Keira health professional was "shocked and unprepared" in the days after the birth of her first child.
"After giving birth, if you're lucky, women's health physio may pop in to check on you in hospital," she said.
"But the truth is, you're not absorbing anything. You're dazed and exhausted and the last thing you want to do is think about exercise. At this point you're just trying to stay awake and survive!"
Ms Morosin said she remembers a lot of focus on her son and how he was doing, but not much on how she was faring.
"I just felt like this was such a crazy experience, physically, emotional and everything - but there was a bit of a gap in looking after the mother," she said.
"I just felt like I was sort of floating along, waiting for my body to recover on its own.
"I thought, if I know as much as I do when it comes to pelvic health and safe exercise and I still feel unsupported, then there must be women out there who are flying completely blind."
Keen to have a better experience during the pregnancy and birth of her second child, Ms Morosin has educated herself more in women's physiotherapy and pelvic floor health, incorporating this at her co-owned private practice Evolve Health Illawarra.
And now, to make it easier for people to access the care they need in the tricky, sleep-deprived weeks after birth, she's started an offshoot called Evolving Bellies which will allow her to offer women appointments at home or via telehealth.
"With my first baby, I wasn't sure how I hadn't died yet from the sleep deprivation, so the thought of driving in that state even panicked me," she said.
"As a mum with two young children, I know that in those early weeks, you don't want to leave your house - you might even be scared to leave, to get your baby into the car working around naps or breastfeeding.
"So I can offer home visits to people in the Illawarra, and also, for people in regional and remote areas, can do women's health consults via telehealth for people who can't physically get to an appointment."
Ms Morosin hopes that by making these services as easy and accessible as possible, she might be able to help women who would otherwise not seek help.
She also wants bring conversations about pelvic health issues - like prolapse and incontinence - out in the open.
"I want to help people understand pelvic health a bit better because I think the shock after birth of bladder leakage and incontinence and things like that is still taboo," she said.
"But if you talk with your girlfriends about it - and if one person is brave enough to come out and say I'm experiencing this - I guarantee half of them would say the same thing."
"I want people to know we're all in the same boat and if we spoke about it a bit more, we would all feel much more comfortable and we'd actually be getting the help that we need and the education we need."
Her new venture is designed to help women at all stages of their pregnancy or after birth.
"My long term goal in the future is to create programs exercise programs based on where women are at in their pregnancy and postnatally, with safe evidence based education and exercise for them to do in the comfort of their own home as well," she said.
"My main thing is to basically encourage women to continue to exercise so that they feel strong enough and healthy enough during their labour, and also their recovery tends to be a lot quicker if they're fitter physically."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
