Welcome to an Every Mother Review to help you discover what you really get when you participate in the Every Mother program.
Hey there mama, are you here looking to decide if Every Mother is the right postpartum healing program for you? I’m a doula that has worked one on one with hundreds of moms through their birth. One of the most common questions I get is about healing fully after birth. After I had my two daughters, I wanted to feel good in my body again.
So do most of the moms I work with. They worry that the changes they feel may be permanent. They don’t want to ache, leak, or have painful sex. And they want to return to physical activities like bike riding, running and hiking.
Every Mother has become a staple recommendation in my practice. But it wasn’t always. Over the years, I’ve recommended several different programs and tested out many postpartum programs. But, time after time, this one comes back as the one my clients get results with. I bring you this Every Mother Review based of my diastasis recti healing journey, and the feedback from my own clients,
Here’s what I love about Every Mother, and where you might run into a few obstacles. I hope this helps you take your first steps into your healing journey.
What Can You Expect To Accomplish With Every Mother?
One of the things I want to be really clear about in this Every Mother Review is what you can accomplish with Every Mother.
Every Mother is a program specifically designed to help mothers through pregnancy and postpartum healing. And yes, if you missed your postpartum window, and are trying to heal Diastasis Recti (abdominal separation), or pelvic floor pain, even years later, it can still work for you.
When I work with moms postpartum, I hear them say things like:
- I am worried I won’t be able to go back to my hobbies. I don’t know if I will survive without biking, hiking, tennis, pilates, or whatever it is that that particular mom loves
- I don’t want my body to hurt, it feels different and foreign and it just aches. Backaches, aches in the pelvic floor that don’t go away, shoulders that kill especially after breastfeeding – these interfere with a moms feeling joy and being present throughout her day.
- My partner wants to have more sex, it’s been a while since we had the baby, but it still hurts. I don’t know what to do.
And I know these women are not alone. 46% of moms quit physical activities they love because of one pelvic floor dysfunction – urinary incontinence. One in five moms is still having painful sex a year and half after having her baby. Are you noticing things like this? Then its to work with a physical therapist, or do a program with a physical therapy approach.
This is about healing, restoring, coming back into your body and repairing what was overextended.
How Does Every Mother Help Address These Issues?
Every Mother is different from other postpartum exerise programs. It has multiple paths for the different obstacles you may face after giving birth (or even during pregnancy).
I found that many other programs offer many different levels, beginner, intermediate, advanced. But, they fail to recognize that there is a difference between having a pelvic floor that is too tight and creating painful sex, and one that has been over stressed and is causing a persistent aching downward pressure.
With Every Mother, you begin by taking quiz about your symptoms. Based on that, you are given a path. Each day, you are then given about 20-30 minutes of breath, core work and full body work. All of it focused on restoring your functional movement and comfort in your body.
As you continue down the path and master the basics, you are brought into full body work.
For equipment, you might use light weights that are less than 3 pounds, a yoga mat, a couple resistance bands. But, mostly you will be doing deep breathing, core activation and release and body weight work.
At the end of the workouts, you are asked if the workout was too easy, too hard or just right. This helps you know if you are on the right path. If it is to hard, you can adjust paths or reach out for professional help from a physical therapist. If it’s too easy, you can move up to a different path.
When Can You Start Every Mother?
Can You Use Every Mother In Pregnancy?
Every Mother is really for Every Mother. This is a symptoms based program and a phase based program. So whether you are pregnant, in the first weeks after baby, months into your postpartum period or years into your postpartum life, there is something here for you.
When should you start using Every Mother if you are currently pregnant?
If you are still pregnant, you can switch to Every Mother to have specific core and pelvic floor exercises to help you prepare for birth and recovery any time.
I recommend starting here if you are new to exercising. But, if you have a program you love that still feels good on your body, it’s okay to stay with it.
Switch over when your regular exercises no longer feel aligned in your body. This will be different for everyone.
For example, a weight lifter with years of experience may be find to stay with their current routine. Whereas a mom who is just feeling the spark of curiosity towards exercise will benefit from these workouts right away.
There are separate paths for first trimester, second trimester and third trimester.
When Can You Use Every Mother After Giving Birth?
Every Mother has both an Early Postpartum and Surgical Recovery Path. These are BOTH meant to be used as soon as you feel the ability to move. They are incredibly gentle movements, mainly focused on deep breathing and core activation through your breath. They are aimed at helping speed your recovery in the first weeks after giving birth.
Some of these are incredibly short – only 2-10 minutes. They help your bring awareness to your body and increase blood flow to areas that are healing. They do not interfere with your primary postpartum recovery goal – rest.
Much of the surgical recovery sequences can be done from your bed. You don’t even have to get up.
The deep breathing, and simple core and pelvic engagement will help improve blood flow and speed up recovery so you are back to comfort sooner. So they can be an essential part of healing your stitches faster after giving birth.
As you progress through the weeks, you will be challenged with longer and more full body exercises. There is a significant difference between what is suggested at week 1, vs week 6.
And hopefully, if you’ve followed the program, you will be at a workout level that is just right for your healing throughout that time.
What About Symptoms Based Approach?
Not everyone begins Every Mother in pregnancy or the 6 weeks postpartum. For me, I didn’t recognize that I had a prolapse or diastasis until my 6 week checkup. I knew I had to do something about it, but I wasn’t sure what.
Every Mother has moms covered for other problems that are common after having a baby.
The Classic Reclaim Path guides you through 12 weeks of recovery. It is designed for women who have had some experience with exercise in the past, who like to move and has a focus on restoring diastasis recti symptoms such as
- a core that feels week, or unzipped.
- Backaches, that are often caused by the poor posture that is almost inevitable after a pregnancy and lack of core support.
- Stiff and aching shoulders due to breastfeeding and
- a pelvic floor that is feeling heavy or achey. However, there is a slightly different path for moms who have an overactive pelvic floor that cannot release. Don’t worry, when you answer the quiz at the beginning, you will be put on the right path.
These sensations in the body are symptoms based. It doesn’t matter if you had a baby 6 weeks ago, or 6 years ago. If you haven’t done anything to heal your core after giving birth, it is common for these symptoms to linger. The good news is that they can be fixed any time you start giving your body the attention and movement it needs to heal.
Every Mother Review: How Long Of A Membership Should I Buy?
I remember after I had my first baby, I had so many new expenses, plus we went from two incomes to one. I had to be careful about how I spend my money and many of my clients do too. Every Mother is quite affordable, but we should still talk about how long of a membership to buy in this review.
To summarize the different ways you can use Every Mother, keep in mind the different paths:
- pregnancy – with separate paths for each trimester,
- immediate postpartum for vaginal or surgical birth
- 12 weeks of reclaim that is meant to use AFTER the first 6 weeks,
- and one path I haven’t mentioned yet, Remlaim Phase 2 which is another 12 weeks of recovery, but a bit more challenging.
If you are using the program in pregnancy, immediate postpartum and beyond, It makes sense to purchase a year membership. This is the best deal and most affordable.
If you are already postpartum and looking at the general Reclaim Paths, it will take you about 5 and a half months to complete, if you are consistent. So it makes sense to buy a 6 month membership.
However, if you are the type of person (like I was) that is consistently inconsistent, meaning some weeks you will hit every day and other days you might hit only one or two, then it may make sense to purchase a full year, just in case.
Every Mother Review: Is There Anything Every Mother Won’t Do?
Yes, Part of the recovery process that some moms ask me about is losing weight or getting back to their pre-baby shape. Addressing abdominal separation will go a long way to your body looking the way it did before. In fact, returning to regular exercise without properly relearning how to move and engage your muscles can cause the symptoms mentioned here to worsen.
However, goals about weight and body are okay to have. Keep in mind that it took your body 9 months to create your baby. So it is okay if it takes time to go back. However, I found that the Every Mother program was not great for torching calories, gaining a six pack or losing weight. It is extraordinarily good at healing the post partum body and getting it out of pain.
I am forever grateful for the year I spent taking it slow, living as a beginner and actually healing. My body can now do all the things I love without leaking, or being in constant pain, or aching. I can have pleasurable sex, orgasms and generally feel good in my body.
These are gifts that I gave myself through focusing on healing first before returning to fitness and the other activities I love.
Where To Go If You Want To Lose Weight?
If you are not in any pain, have good abdominal movement and control, have already worked with a pelvic floor physical therapist and have their okay to move into fitness, you may be better of looking at an exercise program like BODI.
This platform has many many more exercise programs and will help you move into more movements meant to build strength, lose weight and build muscle.
There are programs for every level and are constantly expanding their offerings. I recommend that if you are graduating from Every Mother and looking for a slightly challenging next step after to look at Elise Joans Barre Blend or Andrea Rogers XB Pilates. Both of which are inside the BODI platform.
As a Bodi partner, if you sign up through my link, please feel free to reach out for guidance on which programs to start with. I love helping people find the program that is right for them. There is truly something for everyone from weight lifting, to body weight, to barre and pilates and dance programs.
Every Mother Review Conclusion
I love the Every Mother program. While I believe that every mother deserves time with a physical therapist after having a birth, sometimes it’s just not available. For me, it was nearly impossible to find someone covered by my insurance. Plus, the days after having a baby are overwhelming and busy enough.
I love that Every Mother puts healing in each mother’s hand. In YOUR hands. It really does provide a complete path from pain and discomfort to strong and functional movement. -Which results in comfort and ease in your body..
Because it provides a path with a beginning and finish, a graduation so the speak. I see many more of my moms complete it than other programs that have random level one, two or three classes. Because even with levels, they may or may not be appropriate for their symptoms. Whereas with Every Mother, they have a path adjusted to their specific needs.
I LOVE when I get a text from a mom who says “finished phase 1, went for my first bike ride to celebrate and NO PAIN!”
Returning to our bodies, our hobbies and our bright personalities requires us to feel good and comfortable in the house we live in – the body we live in. There is no need for a modern mom to live in discomfort with tools like these available and waiting to be used.
So what about you? Are you going to start your journey to feeling great in your body again?
