"It Makes Me Trust My Body"

When Fleur made her first appointment with me following her midwife’s recommendation, she was only 8 weeks pregnant. One and half years prior to that, though, she had had a big ovarian cyst removed surgically, followed by diastasis recti, stress incontinence and pain. The diastasis healed, but Fleur was aware that her pregnancy could bring back some symptoms and wanted more awareness of what was going on in her pelvis. Simply put, Fleur wanted to make sure that her pregnancy could develop in the smoothest way possible. Fleur also had occasional neck pain and headaches but didn’t mention it originally as she focused on her pregnancy and pelvic well-being.

We had our first session and Fleur noticed the difference it made for her. It felt right for Fleur to take a package of ten individual sessions – and we continued to collaborate through the following months.

At the moment of writing, Fleur is over 36 weeks and has zero back pain, pelvic pain or other discomforts whatsoever. And the work we did together turned out to bring much more than that.

“I knew I had issues in my pelvis. If my bladder was full and I had to walk or sneeze, I would leak, so I knew my pelvic floor muscles were not trained right. My midwife told me that it would be good to start connecting to my pelvis more and learning how to use and move it better right at the beginning of my pregnancy. That’s how I came to see Alina. It ended up being way more than that, but it was the initial reason. After the surgery and the cyst in my belly, I felt my body was not “working” properly.

I was not fully aware of my body and its movements. I would often cross my limits and not be in tune with my body that much. Now if something is “off” and not feeling right, I know exactly: oh, I did this and this and I was not paying attention then and then. I know why I went over the limit, and I also feel like I know how to resolve it.

Even with my neck pain - when I notice a lot of tension, I can make sure that I sit right and rely on my spine, and I feel that I can relax my muscles ... I am more aware of every part of my body and can listen to it properly.

And it makes me trust my body better in preparation for birth. I know that I can listen to it but also respond in a better way without thinking too much. I believe that’s the major outcome.”

Having greater awareness of different parts of her body and the ability to form connections turned out to be useful to Fleur from the get-go. Her job was quite physical and required a lot of lifting but with some adjustments, Fleur was able to keep working until a month before birth without any issues:

“I was able to implement things I was learning with Alina straight away. Already after a few sessions, I could feel a difference, and this job was not such a burden on my body because I knew what I was doing and how I was moving. It was even in the little things I learned: feeling my spine, as if stacking its parts on top of each other, making sure I didn’t lean on one leg too much, and keeping moving. All tiny things, but together they made a big difference.

I knew that pregnancy was going to be hard on my body no matter what due to the extra weight in my growing belly. At the beginning of our work together, my body was not that big yet and I was not even experiencing any pregnancy-related pain. But I noticed the difference quite quickly, I knew that it would help me all the way through and that’s what happened, eventually. I kept doing the same physical work until a month before birth and didn’t have any issues.

As long as I paid attention – I could feel it in my body when I needed a break, and I would sit for a bit … it really helped me. And that’s what I knew after the first month: this work was going to support me throughout the rest of my pregnancy. And also postpartum, because all the things Alina taught me I know are going to help me afterwards as well: to get my pelvis back together, to make sure I don’t have too many issues. Because many women do have lots of issues after birth, and I know that everything Alina taught me and all the audios [recordings of the movement lessons] I have will help me with that as well.”

Fleur had to drive to our weekly appointments from Raglan and it was a big commitment, especially with lower energy levels during pregnancy. But she was determined to make it work – and I totally admired her perseverance:

“Every time I left Alina’s office, I could feel the difference. And that gave me reassurance and motivation, I would tell myself: “because of the difference it makes, it’s worth it, just make that drive, go there”. And it was the case, every time I would feel it.

It’s hard to take time for yourself, especially when being pregnant and working. Alina was giving me audio lessons to do on my own, and that was a challenge, with a lot of stuff going on. But I knew I was going to see her every week and if I missed some audios I could listen to them later and take the time then. It really helped that I could be gentle with myself.”

My work is centred around each person, there is no script that I use, and at the beginning of each session, I often ask what is that people would love to do today, and what to address. Fleur found that it was challenging her in a good way:

“This goes in hand with not being fully connected with one’s body yet – and I think it’s a good thing - as soon as I walk in, Alina would ask me what I wanted to work on. Sometimes it was really challenging because I would be rushing in and didn’t take the time to be with myself. I think it’s really good that she did it because it also makes you more aware of your body. But challenging in a good way.”

To make our work more efficient, I always suggest people do homework in the form of daily awareness tips or audio recordings of movement lessons that I select for them. There is no pressure to do it, but many enjoy, and Fleur appreciated that these recordings were there for her to use later on:

“It’s really helpful that you give the audios so you can listen to them later if you haven’t fully consumed it yet – I think it’s really nice. It was super easy to work with the audios. And it’s nice to know it’s there for afterwards. The guidance on the recordings was easy to follow, but it’s also because we worked on it in person: I already refer to what we spoke about and that was like a reminder. That’s really lovely because it’s a lot of information and mostly it’s all new – but you can listen to it again, and do the “exercise” again if it hasn’t fully clicked yet.”

When we listed the specific results that Fleur got out of our sessions together, we got this:

• No lower back pain at 36.5 weeks pregnant

“Because I feel how to move my body and tilt my pelvis, and how to do exercises if I need to”

• Recurrent headaches and neck pain are gone or managed at the early stages

“I used to get headaches quite often, and neck pain, and I sometimes still get it, but you gave me some tricks to relax my jaw and stack my spine and relax my neck muscles too – those are the biggest”

• Greater comfort while the pregnancy was developing

“I was uncomfortable at first and I am not uncomfortable anymore now. I feel so good even though I am so far along – that’s a major result!”

• Trust in her body to birth well

“Giving me trust for my upcoming birth – on how my pelvis works, how to move it, how it all goes down, aware of my soft tissues”

• Awareness of her body and its parts and ability to make instinctive adjustments to prevent pain or discomfort

“I think I make adjustments in my pelvis, and in my back unconsciously all the time – my feet can be swollen after a long concert, for example, but my back is all right”.

“I initially came to Alina to support my pregnancy, but in the end, she supported me in so many different areas where I had pain or was uncomfortable. I got the extra knowledge of why I would get headaches – just things I didn’t link and didn’t think I would come to her for. She helped me with this as well.

The biggest a-ha moment that comes to me weekly is when my body is feeling tired and easily slouching – instead of slouching, which I can feel is straining my muscles, I now make sure that I stack my spine and it feels so much easier to sit, and that’s a game-changer. Something I think of and do every time. Now I can feel the difference also in my lower back. With my belly in front, I would sit “backwards” [towards the tailbone], and now even when I am in the car for two hours, if I stack my spine and I sit up “straight” I am way more comfortable. Really good.”

I asked Fleur how she would explain the work that we did:

“Alina helps people learn how to properly use their bodies, and how to move them in a natural way without being forceful. She creates this awareness about your bones and structure, limiting all the muscle pain. With Alina, you recreate this connection between your head [mind] and your body, and how to use it. Most of us move through life without actually knowing how to move. What our body should be doing, how it should be feeling … she helps you link that awareness with your body, how to interact with it and how to keep it moving. That’s how it felt to me.”

And who would benefit from doing this work?

“Anyone struggling with long-term chronic pain that keeps coming back - they don’t know what it is with their body, which is probably about how they move it / use it. Anybody with a chronic condition that keeps coming back - you have then to make sure you move properly and learn, go and see Alina! Women expecting a baby, but not only. Postpartum mums, especially if they didn’t come to see Alina in pregnancy, to get that knowledge for afterwards.”

Fleur seemed to be so empowered and knowledgeable on how to prepare for recovery and how important it was. I remarked that doing this early in pregnancy seemed to be a good investment to get her comfortably through her pregnancy and prepare her for postpartum.

“Starting early was really helpful because I could still lay on the table and didn’t have my belly bothering me in any way, getting good movements familiar before it got less comfortable.

And with postpartum, I hear so many women talk about the discomfort – they are up and walking and doing stuff within a couple of days … I want to tell them “Just rest and wrap your pelvis, make sure that all come back together because this is the time you need to heal!” But if they don’t get that knowledge from a professional and it’s just me saying it – it hits differently. It’s really helpful for people to get that message from someone they can trust.

I know people who had ab separation from their pregnancy, they would get up too quickly and it would get worse. I feel like there is a lot of knowledge missing there.”'

Because we worked so closely, Fleur will be very mindful of her postpartum recovery and know how to minimise the risk of abdominal separation (diastasis recti).

Thank you so much for this opportunity, Fleur, I feel privileged to be a part of your journey :)