Jen (00:01.23)
Welcome to the Mum Safe Movement Podcast. I'm your host, Jendugard, and today you get me. I wanted to do this episode where almost, so this will be released on Monday before onboarding to become a Mum Safe Trainer closes for this round on Friday. So Friday, the 31st of May.
And throughout this open period, I've been doing a lot of kind of deep diving and I know why I do what I do. But sometimes the message doesn't quite go deep enough when you put it out into the world. Sometimes it can feel a little bit superficial. Sometimes it's like, I need to explain that more. And I just haven't figured out how to do that in, I don't know, seven characters or.
10 slide posts or whatever it may be. So I wanted to share this episode with you around why I'm I'm safe and why now. So I think when you've been doing something for a really long time, like I have, you've got a lot of time to reflect on what it is that you're doing, why you're doing it and why the heck you've stuck at it for such a long time.
And while the Mum Safe logo and the brand itself is still really just a couple of years old, the foundations on which it stands are not. This journey for me started back in 2008 when my son was born. I was thrust into my own postpartum journey and back then at 27, I can tell you it was very much about getting my pre -baby body back.
I named my blog Body Beyond Baby and so this journey began. My blog morphed into what then became my business, Body Beyond Baby, a group exercise sessions with onsite childcare, which was born in October of 2008 when my son was just three months old. I was young and being a mom,
Jen (02:17.614)
was kind of easy. I had a sleeper and I know not everyone does and we didn't get a sleeper second time around but the first one he was a sleeper. So I didn't quite know what I was going to do with myself. I'd been a personal trainer in a big box gym before that and this business that I thought I thought I could take my son along to was the perfect evolution and solution from what I had doing been doing beforehand.
So at this point, I'd done a basic pre and postnatal certification to support the work that I wanted to do with working with mums. But back in the day, the course was really just a pregnancy course. And once I found myself hands on working with real mums bodies, I realized that I did not know enough. And also there just wasn't enough education out there for me to keep learning as a personal trainer.
So I found myself inside the four walls of the physiotherapy clinic in Bondi Junction. And I formed a working relationship with its founder, Joe Murdock. I worked alongside Joe for many, many years and she's still a big supporter of what we do here at Mumsafe today. But back then I wanted to learn everything that I could from her that I couldn't find anywhere else. I used to go into the clinic,
about once a month, if not more times with trainers and say, what are we digging into this month? Like, what are we going to learn? I also believed that as trainers, we couldn't possibly give our mom clients the best possible service if we didn't work hand in hand with a, what we now call pelvic health physio, but we called for many years a women's health physio. So it became my mission inside of Body Beyond Baby to ensure that 100 % of my mom clients,
went to see a women's health physio, whether they were symptomatic or not within 12 weeks of coming to work with us. We probably achieved around 95 % of clients booking that appointment within the first 12 weeks of them coming. And the remaining five got there eventually. And I stand by this today. I know that I cannot do the best possible job that I can without the support of a pelvic health physiotherapist as a personal trainer who chooses to work with moms.
Jen (04:45.966)
I need my eyes on the inside. And I know that if you want to be the most effective trainer in this space, so do you. And so when I was creating what was what is now known as mom safe, in what it was way back then, its first iteration was the body beyond baby affiliate team. One of the criteria to become known as a body beyond baby affiliate was that trainers have to be partnered with a women's or pelvic health physiotherapist.
And not just a one -way referral partnership, but one that involved two -way conversation and one that meant we as trainers could understand what was being said to our clients and actually use it to make sure we were creating the best and most effective sessions possible for each individual client within that group environment.
During this time, I also created Safe Return to Exercise, which is my pre and postnatal certification, which I'm incredibly proud of and has been taught a lot across lots of different countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Bermuda, China, the UK. But this message is not about Safe Return to Exercise. It's about Mum Safe. And why Mum Safe? And why now? So here's what I know. I know...
that not every trainer that works with mums holds a pre and postnatal certification. I know that not every certification that they do carries the same weight, credibility and content. I know that even when a trainer completes a certification, they don't always implement what they've learnt.
And I know that some trainers tick the box of certification to cover themselves and go back to doing what they were doing beforehand without implementing any of that valuable knowledge. And I know that no matter what certification trainers do hold, that mums in the big wide world have absolutely no clue about the difference. And I know that none of this is good enough. So Mum Safe is built on years and years.
Jen (06:58.99)
decades of passion and frustration. Frustration that moms are still not given a standard of postpartum education to help them to understand their body and move forward into the exercise or movement that is right for them in an informed, safe and effective way. Frustration that perinatal education is extremely limited and often just includes information about the birth and her options.
not about her body and her helping her to understand that body and to be empowered to choose the best possible option for her. A frustration that in the fitness industry, we do not provide clear information during our initial certification phase that helps a new trainer move from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence and helps them to understand that they don't yet have enough knowledge to properly train mums, which is a mass
yet special population. It comes from frustration that the criteria for our exercise professionals who do work with mums is not clear. Frustration that tells us that statistics say that 42 .7 % of the general population walking through the doors of a gym or fitness facility are mums, but we still don't see on mass change.
Frustration that even some facilities, brands and trainers that do pitch themselves to mums are simply not upholding best practice. They're doing things like skipping pre -exercise screenings, not providing adequate alternatives for common things that we see in our pre and postnatal population. And sometimes having their trainers and instructors not hold any pre and postnatal certifications, figuring it will just be okay, despite clearly marketing to mums. None of this is okay.
MumSafe is built on the knowing that it is not that hard to sort this all out and do it better. It's built on the passion and the knowing that when women are educated about their body, they can then take ownership of their journey and make decisions that are right for them. They can advocate for themselves, demand better care, and they're autonomous in the way that they move forward.
Jen (09:24.846)
MUMSAFE is built on the knowledge that there are absolutely fantastic trainers out there doing all of the right things, holding all of the certifications, creating the partnerships with fantastic pelvic health physiotherapists, upholding their industry registrations and the correct insurances and being committed to their ongoing education. But they are simply not getting the recognition and status that they deserve because there is
no other way for moms to distinguish their greatness from all of the other noise out there. We are built on collaboration over competition because we know that when we support each other in business, instead of tearing each other down, we achieve so much more.
At Mumsafe, we know that one of our voices has a small impact, but together our voices are loud and they grow louder and louder every day. We know that together we go far. So why now? Because even after 16 years of working in this space, not enough progress has been made. What is happening right now is simply not good enough.
The government has not implemented enough to support pregnant and postpartum mothers and mothers of all stages. And that many of our gyms and fitness options still fail moms on a daily basis. And we know that these things need to change and we could have so much more impact if they do. There has never been a better time.
to redefine what it means to be the gold standard in pre and postnatal exercise and be unapologetic about the high bar that we set for our trainers. There has never been a better time to take a united approach to ensuring that every woman holds the power to her own body through providing her with the education and information that she deserves through her pregnancy, postpartum and beyond that.
Jen (11:36.366)
There has never been a better time for you. If you're listening to this, the trainer that knows they are the best or aspires to be the best, because we will help you to achieve the best possible standards, to join forces, to join the team and to add your unique and incredibly important voice to our growing army of Mumsafe trainers. Trainers who are dedicated.
to raise the standard for moms within the industry and beyond. And know that while they're doing that, they are supported every single step of the way. I know that this journey is long. It's already been long and we're only just getting started. But I can feel the momentum coming and I can feel the change in the air. And I know that when we stand together,
we will reach a point where no mother ever says, why did nobody tell me? So my question to you is, do you now understand why mom's safe? And do you now know why now is the time for you to join this mission to ensure that all moms are looked after safely and effectively throughout their pregnancy, postpartum?
and into the years of motherhood that come after that. Are you with us?
