WHEN

03/09/2026

Your pelvis changes throughout pregnancy and birth.

Hormonal changes increase mobility through the joints and ligaments of your body, including your pelvis. This happens whether your baby is born vaginally or by caesarean. After birth, your pelvis needs time to regain strength and stability.

So, what can you do?

WHEN recommends appropriate exercise to progressively strengthen and stabilise the pelvis - particularly before returning to high-impact exercise.

If you're experiencing pelvic pain, weakness or other symptoms, seek advice from a health or allied health professional who specialises in this area before starting an exercise program.

And this is another area where the bigger conversation matters. We need to stop thinking about postnatal recovery purely as “recovery from birth”.

Pregnancy itself is a major physical event. Women's postnatal healthcare needs to reflect that.

when.org.au

02/09/2026

Vaginal birth is the biggest risk factor for pelvic organ prolapse.

An estimated 407,265 Australian women are living with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse, with more than 219,000 cases attributed to vaginal birth.

But experts say the risks and signs are not being adequately communicated before birth.

Women deserve to know how to protect their pelvic health -before they give birth.

Urogynaecologist Dr Oliver Daly says women should be given more information about prolapse during prenatal appointments so they can prepare themselves physically and mentally, and hopefully prevent significant future trauma.

Read the full article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2026-09-01/pelvic-organ-prolapse-in-australia/107074650

31/08/2026

“So many of the women I see have had traumatic births, and our check-in is often the first time anyone’s asked them about it.” - Mariam Chaalan, GP and mother.

We need postnatal care that treats the health and wellbeing of the woman as an ongoing priority - not an afterthought.

The Senate’s women’s health inquiry will examine Australia’s postpartum care, as advocates warn of the risks to new parents of a fragmented system.

31/08/2026

A huge thank you to Happy Kat | Postpartum Recovery Kit for generously donating 85 postnatal care packs. They’re being posted off to the winners of our giveaway today.

Thank you, Happy Kat, for supporting women and the important work of WHEN.

30/08/2026

Rest is not laziness. Especially after birth.

After having a baby, women are expected to heal from birth, function on broken sleep, care for a newborn, keep life moving and somehow “bounce back”. But the postnatal body doesn’t simply bounce back.

Whether you’ve had a vaginal birth or a caesarean, the weeks and months after birth involve significant physical and hormonal changes - much of which is invisible.

Incontinence. Prolapse. Musculoskeletal pain. Hormonal changes. And for women who are breastfeeding, lower estrogen can also affect tissue healing.

Needing rest while your body is navigating all of this is a basic physical need.

Rest and healing is part of postnatal health.

In The Seven Deadly Sins podcast series, Peta and perinatal psychologist Frances Bilbao unpack the pressure placed on women after birth - and why we need to stop treating rest as something women have to earn.

Link in bio.

when.org.au

30/08/2026

Pregnancy ends. Its effects on a woman's body don't necessarily end with it.

During pregnancy, hormonal changes increase mobility in the joints and ligaments of the pelvis. The abdominal wall changes to accommodate a growing uterus, and the pelvic floor experiences months of increased load.

After birth, these structures need time to recover, rebuild strength and regain stability.

This is true even after a caesarean birth. While the experience of birth is different, WHEN explains that the hormonal and physical changes to the pelvis have already occurred during pregnancy.

Recovery doesn't neatly finish at six weeks. Many women reach their 6–8 week check expecting that the physical changes of pregnancy and birth should have resolved. For most women, full recovery will not yet be complete.

Yet once the baby arrives, the conversation becomes about feeding and caring for the newborn. Those things matter. But so does the woman.

Postnatal healthcare shouldn't only ask whether she is coping well enough to care for her baby. We should also be asking how she is recovering, what has changed in her body, what symptoms she is experiencing and what support she needs.

Read more in the WHEN Library at when.org.au

27/08/2026

Leaking. Pain. Exhaustion. Women are often told these experiences are “normal” after having a baby. But there’s an important distinction between something being common and something being fine.

When “normal” becomes the end of the conversation, women can be left without the information, assessment or support they need.

Postnatal health shouldn’t be about learning to live with symptoms simply because lots of women experience them.

Common doesn’t mean you should have to put up with it.

Learn more about your health after pregnancy and birth through WHEN’s evidence-based resources at when.org.au

27/08/2026

“We prepare women for birth. Not for who they are after it." - Peta Titter, Founder and CEO of WHEN, featured on Fertility News.

Read the article: https://fertility.news/voices/peta-titter-23353/

25/08/2026

Everyone talks about preparing women for birth. WHEN asks - why aren’t we preparing women for what happens to their bodies and lives afterwards?

when.org.au

25/08/2026

What if we stopped talking about postnatal health as simply “recovering” from birth?

Pregnancy and birth can create lasting changes to a woman’s body and health. Yet so much of the conversation still centres on “getting back” to where she was before.

WHEN believes we need to rethink how we prepare women for this stage of life. Postnatal health isn't a six-week recovery period. It can have implications for a woman's health for years to come.

Women deserve to understand those changes before they experience them - not once they’re already navigating them.

Learn more about postnatal health through WHEN’s evidence-based resources at when.org.au