Why I Chose Pilates — and How It Helped Me Rebuild Postpartum

PC: Sarah Hill Photography

After my first baby, I didn’t immediately begin healing and strengthening my body in an effective way. Really, I was just surviving while I adjusted to motherhood. It took me well over a year to begin understanding that I needed new tools to care for this new version of myself.

Movement has always been a big part of my life. I’ve always been naturally athletic, and as a child I played team sports and rode horses competitively. As an adult, I’ve taught hundreds of yoga classes and enjoyed activities like road and gravel biking, backcountry skiing, and rediscovering my passion for dressage.

But after my first baby, I realized that simply returning to the activities I loved wasn’t enough to help me feel strong and balanced in my body anymore. I was experiencing a lot of back pain, and my dressage trainer told me in nearly every lesson that I was sitting very crooked in the saddle.

“Pick yourself up and move your seat way over to the right. You’ll feel like you’re sitting off to the right, but now you’re actually just in the middle of the saddle,” she would say.

Even seeing the chiropractor every two weeks wasn’t solving the problem.

So I looked for something else, and that’s when I booked a private Pilates session.

Working with a skilled teacher helped me begin to understand the imbalances in my body and what I actually needed to regain strength. Through Pilates, I realized I had lost connection to my deep core and glutes, and that the left side of my body was significantly weaker than my right. Before Pilates, I also had no real understanding of why diaphragmatic breathing mattered — or how fundamental it is to strength, stability and healing.

What I discovered through Pilates was more than exercise. It was a system that helped me understand my body in an intelligent, practical and supportive way.

That experience inspired me to become a Pilates teacher myself.

I enrolled in mat Pilates teacher training and soon after completed a Perinatal Pilates Specialist training. Currently, I'm enrolled in a Reformer Pilates training program at Balanced Body. Through these programs, I deepened not only my understanding of the Pilates method and its impact on my own physical and mental well-being, but also my knowledge of the female body and how to support it through the phases of preconception, pregnancy and postpartum.

Because of my Pilates practice and education in fascial conditioning, I experienced fewer common aches and pains during my second pregnancy. I also felt more confident, more supported, and more prepared for birth. During my second labor and delivery, I was able to draw on the strength, awareness, and preparation I had built — and overall, I experienced a calmer and easier birth.

Now, 13 months postpartum, I know that healing doesn’t have to be rushed to be powerful.

I’ve intentionally rehabbed my core and continue to build strength. I haven’t experienced leaking since six weeks postpartum. I feel physically stronger than ever, and I’m able to enjoy the activities I love without pain. Most importantly, I trust that caring for my body consistently and intentionally will continue to support me not just now, but for years to come.

This is the kind of movement I’m now passionate about sharing with other women — movement that helps you stay strong and active during pregnancy, and rebuild with intention and confidence postpartum.

I’m proud to offer a weekly prenatal mat Pilates class launching this May in Longmont, CO, as well as 1:1 and small group private Pilates sessions in person and virtually.