The Leaders Bringing Early Rehab to Maternity Care

Why This Physiotherapist Started Preparing Women Before Surgery | Hannah Poulton

When I first discovered Hannah Poulton's work, what impressed me wasn't simply that she specializes in scar rehabilitation. It was that she questioned why women were expected to recover without first being prepared for surgery. After 25 years as a physiotherapist, including 17 years with the NHS, Hannah left a successful leadership career to build an internationally recognized practice focused on scar rehabilitation, patient education, and earlier recovery. Today she teaches clinicians around the world, hosts the UK's Scar Symposium, and is completing PhD research investigating cesarean section scars and pelvic floor function. In this episode we discuss why recovery should begin before surgery, how scar tissue affects movement and pelvic floor function, why education changes outcomes, and what healthcare professionals can do to better support women after childbirth and surgery. Learn more about Hannah: https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk [https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk/] https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk/usacourses [https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk/usacourses] https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk/scar-symposium-2027 [https://www.hlp-therapy.co.uk/scar-symposium-2027]

What Happens When Recovery Waits 6 Weeks?

Duke University Health System saved their hospital $815,000 by offering physical therapy on the maternity unit and through telehealth.How do we measure the savings for a mother and her family when we address her mental and physical function sooner after birth?Resources:1. Duke Health Inpatient/Telehealth Postpartum PT Program Benefits Patients: https://obgyn.duke.edu/blog/duke-health-inpatienttelehealth-postpartum-pt-program-benefits-patients2. Implementation of an Acute Care OB and Postpartum Telehealth Program at Duke Health: https://www.aptapelvichealth.org/info/implementation-of-an-acute-care-ob-and-postpartum-telehealth-program-at-duke-health3. Postpartum Recovery Hospital Directory: https://pelvichealthnetwork.org/hospital4. Grow an OB Rehab Program in the Hospital and Home after Birth: https://enhancedrecoveryafterdelivery.com/program/

Build a Physician-Led Postpartum Recovery Program

Most postpartum recovery conversations start too late.This one started with a woman who collapsed trying to get upstairs after birth.She had been discharged home after a complicated delivery. No rehab consult. No functional assessment. No equipment. No one evaluated whether she could safely navigate her own home.By the time a physician finally reached her weeks later, she had been confined to her couch. She could not get to the bathroom independently. She was using a bowl because she physically could not make it across the room.A home health referral for occupational therapy and physical therapy was finally placed at 5 weeks postpartum.In this conversation, physicians, physical therapists, and innovators in maternal health discuss a question that is becoming harder to ignore:What happens when we discharge mothers based on medical stability alone, without assessing whether they can actually function at home?We discuss:• Why some maternal fetal medicine physicians automatically order PT and OT after complex births• How postpartum rehab programs are reducing readmissions in hospitals across the U.S.• What therapists are identifying in the first days after discharge that vital signs at rest often miss• Why movement, function, blood pressure response to activity, and home setup matter after birth• The growing role of telehealth, wearable monitoring, and remote postpartum recovery supportFeaturing conversations with clinicians working to build physician-led postpartum recovery pathways in hospitals and homes.This is not a conversation about “bouncing back.”It’s about whether mothers are being assessed for the realities they’re returning home to.

Endurance runner's experience with home health OT after C-section

Four days after her C-section, Jenna couldn’t lie flat. She was short of breath. Her blood pressure kept climbing. She went to OB triage and was told to go home and rest. Instead, she went to the main emergency department with ongoing chest pressure, where her systolic blood pressure rose above 180 and her BNP registered at 1650. She was treated for postpartum fluid overload and acute heart failure. Jenna is an ultra-endurance athlete and cofounder of Enhanced Recovery After Delivery®. In this conversation, she shares what warning signs were missed, what happened during her postpartum readmission, and the role of home health occupational therapy after discharge from the hospital. Topics discussed: * Postpartum readmission * Acute heart failure after C-section * Home health OT * Return to running after birth * Early postpartum rehab 1. Start your postpartum rehab practice within the first week after birth: https://courses.pelvichealthnetwork.org/postpartum-rehab-practice 2. Grow an OB rehab program in the hospital and home: https://enhancedrecoveryafterdelivery.com/program/ 3. Find hospitals offering OT and PT in the hospital after birth: https://pelvichealthnetwork.org/hospital

The Leaders Bringing Early Rehab to Maternity Care

Across the country, occupational and physical therapists are beginning to bring early rehabilitation to maternity units. In this panel, hospital-based clinicians share how they built programs for high-risk pregnancy, cesarean recovery, and early postpartum care, and why rehabilitation should be part of standard recovery after birth. Learn more about the Enhanced Recovery After Delivery (ERAD®) initiative: https://enhancedrecoveryafterdelivery.com/program/ Find hospitals in the U.S. that offer occupational and physical therapy after birth: https://pelvichealthnetwork.org/hospital