Emily Stanwyck is a birth doula, a BIRTHFIT Coach, a strength and conditioning coach, wife and mother. Emily has been in the fitness world for almost 10 years and has dedicated her life to helping others. Finding BIRTHFIT closed the circle of this desire to serve. Since becoming a mother in 2018, Emily has made it her mission to build a business that is inclusive of every phase of the motherhood transition.
In this episode we cover:
Why it’s important to train fitness in pregnancy
How fitness during pregnancy looks different than general strength training
Understanding intensity parameters in pregnancy
Using fitness to train mindset for birth
The importance of diaphragmatic breathing
Ways to encourage the healing of diastasis recti
Why a woman might choose to birth at home
Follow Emily on intagram at @emilystanwyck and view her soon-to-be released website emilystanwyck.com
For Family Success coaching, email: emily@birthfit.com
Favorite quotes:
“Fitness isn’t everything but it is a really good tool for birth mindset.”
“Being mentally tough enough to just ride it out comes with training and for some that training looks like meditation, but for me, it’s fitness.”
"Having a strong diaphragm-to-pelvic floor 360-degree muscular structure is the best way to prevent a diastasis recti that doesn’t heal.”
"We live in a very coddled society where we don’t want to experience pain, and that carries over to birth."
“Anytime I attend a hospital birth I always say, ’Thank God I did this at home.’”
Rapid fire questions:
Bad advice in your profession: “Don’t lift more than 5 lb”
Health/Wellness purchase under $100: personalized supplementation (slippery elm bark for the gut)
Mark’s favorite purchase under $100: voodoo floss bands
Book that changed your life: Mindset by Carol Dweck
What is Birthfit?
Initially founded by chiropractor and doula, Lindsey Matthews, Birthfit is a community of industry leaders providing fitness programs to cultivate connection and enhance awareness through efficient, sustainable movement.
According to their website "BIRTHFIT is a state of readiness and willingness to surrender and trust. The transition into motherhood and parenthood is perhaps the most physical, mental, and spiritual experience of any human’s life. We want you to be ready in body, mind, and soul so that you may truly experience this shift within your heart and on a cellular level. We are a team of leaders, educators, doulas, practitioners, coaches, therapists, men, and women involved in our local communities and part of the greater BIRTHFIT Community."
Birthfit as an organization and their individual leaders offer a variety of services including prenatal and postpartum training programs, both online and in-person. Having taken their in-person professional seminar myself, I can vouch for the thoughtfulness and care that goes into the approach towards supporting women along their motherhood journey. We look forward to continuing to explore concepts along this theme with other leaders in the Birthfit community as well.
To learn more about Birthfit visit birthfit.com and follow along @birthfit