Postnatal Pilates in Sydney CBD

Mums and bubs classes, once you are cleared after birth

Postnatal Pilates is a small group class you do with your baby beside you, taught by a physiotherapist. It is the clinical Pilates we teach in the main studio, rebuilt around what pregnancy and birth changed: your pelvic floor, your abdominal wall, your posture and the way you lift and carry all day. Classes run in 10-week terms at $55 a class, on George Street opposite the QVB.

Most women come for one of two reasons. Something is not right, usually leaking, heaviness, a lower back that aches, or a stomach that still feels switched off months after the birth. Or nothing is actively wrong and they want to get strong again without guessing which exercises are safe at six weeks, at six months, and when they go back to running, weights or a normal Pilates class.

Either way the class is taught to the body in front of us rather than to a routine. That is why it works whether this is your first baby or your third, and whether you are six weeks or six years past the birth.

Who the class suits

• Women around six weeks after birth, once their doctor has cleared them
• Women recovering from a caesarean, where the abdominal work is staged more slowly
• Women with abdominal separation, or a core that does not feel connected any more
• Women with leaking, heaviness or a pelvic floor that does not feel the way it did
• Women with back, neck or shoulder pain from feeding, carrying and lifting
• Women further out from birth who want to return to running, the gym or Pilates properly

If you are still in pain, leaking heavily, or something feels wrong rather than weak, start with a one-on-one assessment rather than the class. Our pelvic pain physiotherapy page explains what we check and what treatment looks like.

Why the class is taught by a physiotherapist

A fitness instructor can run a mums and bubs class. A physiotherapist can tell, mid-class, that the way you are breathing is pushing down rather than lifting, check whether the gap between your abdominal muscles is closing or widening with a movement, and notice a healing or prolapse sign that needs treating rather than exercising. That is why these classes are physiotherapy consultations rather than gym classes, and why most health funds rebate them.

Every physiotherapist teaching here is trained and certified in The Fix Program for Pregnancy. The program itself was designed by physiotherapists and is endorsed by obstetricians, and the studio has taught it for years.

What happens in a class

Each class starts with breathing and the pelvic floor, because everything else builds on that connection. From there the work moves through positions you use at home with a baby: lying down, sitting, standing, and on hands and knees. You will do postural work for the upper back and shoulders that carry a growing baby, strength work for the hips, legs and deep abdominal muscles, and mobility where feeding and carrying have made you tight.

Mats, Swiss balls and resistance bands do a lot of the teaching. They let us progress an exercise safely without asking your body for more than it should give that week. Your baby stays on the mat beside you and is sometimes part of the exercise, which is good for both of you.

There is education built in as well: how to get up off the floor while holding a baby, how to lift a pram and a capsule without bracing your stomach, and what to expect from your body in the months after birth.

How your program changes as you recover

In the first weeks the class is quiet. The work is breath, pelvic floor, and finding the deep abdominal muscles again, so that the connection is there before any load arrives.

Once that is reliable, the class turns towards posture and endurance. Feeding, settling and carrying change how your upper back and shoulders work, and the exercises follow. Hip and leg strength comes next, because that is what carries a baby up the stairs and a pram along George Street.

Later still it becomes a strength class. We rebuild the capacity for running, weights and the Pilates you did before pregnancy, with the pelvic floor checked against the load rather than assumed to be ready. If you had a caesarean, the abdominal work is staged around how the scar is healing rather than the calendar.

If something is already a problem

Postnatal problems are common, and most of them are treatable rather than something to wait out. Start with the page that matches what you are feeling:

• Pelvic pain physiotherapy for leaking, heaviness, urgency or pain
• Lower back pain physiotherapy for an ache that started with lifting and carrying
• Neck pain physiotherapy for the stiff neck and shoulders that come with feeding

You do not have to choose between treatment and exercise. Many women do both: a short course of one-on-one physiotherapy to settle a problem, with the class running alongside to keep everything else strong.

When it is safe to start

Obstetricians differ in what they recommend, so medical clearance is compulsory before you start. We suggest a specific Pilates based program like this one from around six weeks after labour, or when your doctor clears you. Different births need different recovery time, and an episiotomy, a pelvic floor injury or a caesarean are all reasons to go more slowly at the start, not reasons to sit still.

Gentle pelvic floor exercises can begin much earlier, once a physiotherapist has taught you what a correct contraction feels like. You have a new demanding little one, so find the time that works for you and your baby. There is no rush, and starting three months later is not a failure.

Download the medical clearance form and bring it completed to your assessment.

Prices, term and how to book

Every new client starts with a one-hour one-on-one assessment. Your physiotherapist takes your history and the details of the birth, checks your posture, how you move, and how your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles are working, and records a baseline so your progress can be measured rather than guessed. You then join the class with exercises chosen for where you are starting from.

Because the classes are physiotherapy consultations, most private health funds rebate them under physiotherapy extras, and we issue a full receipt for each term. Medicare does not cover group classes.

Book online or call (02) 9264 0077. No doctor's referral is needed to book the assessment.

Book your postnatal assessment

Enjoy our FREE ONLINE Postnatal Workout

What class members say

The same classes to do at home

Between classes, or in the weeks you cannot get into the city, you can do the same physio-led work through The Fix Program Online. The post-natal library starts with breathing and pelvic floor work and builds towards the floor work you do in class, and the free workout above is a good way to try it before you book.

Related reads

• Post-natal Pilates with bub
• Abdominal separation after baby
• What is normal after having a baby?
• Pelvic floor muscle injury in labour
• Exercise risk and the pelvic floor

Why The Fix Program?