Home Page   Future Study Days    List of Qualified Instructors  Training information   Application Form 

    Information for Instructors      Typical Guild Study Day  Information for Mothers   Video and Book Reviews

   Conference  Search

This book is apparently written by postnatal fitness expert Sally Lewis, and takes the form of a 10 week plan aimed at 4 week postnatal women, ie., her week 1 equates to week 4.

After enjoying Your Health After Birth, this book was rather a disappointment.

My first criticism is the occasional use of what I would call bad, potentially demoralising wording. Examples are, in relation to stretch marks, "Ideally, you will have been massaging them with oil while pregnant", and, concerning pelvic floor exercises, "Hopefully, you will have been doing these throughout your pregnancy".

Such comments are likely to make the reader feel that they have been doing something ‘wrong’ if they have not been massaging their stretch marks, or doing their pelvic floor exercises (even though certainly the latter is a very useful exercise). But these minor criticisms pale into insignificance when compared to the ones I have about the exercise section.

Firstly, the only description of pelvic floor exercises is the one of stopping urine mid-stream, and there is no description of the muscles themselves, nor their importance throughout life. Next, the explanation of rectus muscle distention is OK, but the photographs given to accompany the abdominal retraction exercise are not good – there is no discernible difference between the two stages.

The biggest problem concerns the advice given regarding aerobic exercise.

Nowhere could I find reference to keeping exercise low impact, or joint protection, or anything else like it. The only safety advice given is to warm up and cool down adequately. Examples of suitable aerobic activity includes skipping, jogging, running, step, and "most sports", and one of the photos shows the model skipping.

On close scrutiny of the 10-week plan itself (which you have to find at the back of the book), the suggestion for aerobic activity moves from marching on the spot for 7 minutes and stair climbing (5 minutes of) in week 1, (remember that is the equivalent of week 4), to 1 hour’s walking, 2 minutes skipping, and 5 minutes stair climbing at the end of week 3 (week 6). By the time you get to the end of week 10 you are expected to be able to skip for 10 minutes and jog for 10 minutes, on top of 15 minutes of pelvic floor, 16 x 3 sets of curlups, 12 x 3 sets of press-ups, 12 x 3 sets of lunges, and 12 x 3 sets each of bicep curls, with weights, and tricep dips!! Incidentally the press-ups described are not simple box press-ups, but leaning forward on the knees with legs raised, with a view to moving to full press-ups! The assumption also from the information in the book, is that this plan is applicable to anyone, regardless of their previous fitness level / exercise history.

In summary, although there are some nice sections about other areas relevant to postnatal life, for example, relaxation and massage, diet, etc., the exercise section is enough to stop me recommending this book to anyone.

OK, it only cost me £2.00 (RRP £12.99), but you would have to be Jane Fonda (or the 2003 equivalent) to cope with the exercise level in the plan, and my feeling is that it is verging on dangerous advice to newly postnatal women. Very concerning since it claims to be written by a postnatal fitness expert!