A snapshot of my day: I’m typing this with one hand, my baby girl is nursing, falling asleep as she lies curled up on her nursing pillow (the hilariously named My Brest Friend), and I’ve finally replied to the thoughtful birthday greetings on my FB wall. I’m over two weeks late, but hey, at least it’s still October. Plus, it’s 9 am, I’ve brushed my teeth and had breakfast. Score!
In between coping with sleep deprivation and the potent cocktail of first-time mummy hormones, I’ve been doing a lot of postnatal healing work. At some point, I hope to write articles or even a book on this, but at this stage, this blog post is all I can manage.
To anyone who’s given birth, I strongly recommend that you purchase Katy Bowman’s DVD, “Down There“.This DVD was a thoughtful gift from my sister, Aisyah ❤ Katy demonstrates a series of exercises to help you reconnect to your pelvic floor and strengthen the surrounding muscles. Actually, these exercises are fantastic for any woman struggling with pelvic floor issues – childbirth isn’t always the main cause of a weakened pelvic floor, but it definitely exacerbates existing vulnerabilities.
So if you know any first-time mums or anyone expecting, think of purchasing this DVD to help mummy along her healing journey. If you’re living in Sydney and looking for a lady physio who specialises in pelvic floor health, look up the wonderful Heba Shaheed.
Raidah Shah Idil is a student counsellor, poet, writer, and creative instructor with a passion for YA (young adult), fantasy, sci-fi and detective fiction. She was born in Singapore and moved to Australia at the age of 12. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales in 2005.
After working as a marketing copywriter and studying the Islamic Sciences in Amman, Jordan for nearly two years, she returned to Sydney, got married, then moved to Malaysia. While working as a part-time tutor at Axiom Learning, she works as an online counsellor for Seekershub Global. She has completed her Diploma of Counselling through the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Her full-time job is raising her baby daughter. Everything else is squeezed in between. Literally. Her writing has been published in The Feminist Wire, SISTERS magazine, Daily Life, Lip Mag and Venture Beat. Raidah’s poetry was recently published in the ‘Armed With Only Our Souls’ online DDFS chapbook by New York poet Caits Meissner. Her debut double-featured novel, “Finding Jamilah and the Story of Yusuf” was published by MyLegacy publications in early 2014.
In her spare time (ha), she reads, listens to audiobooks, goes on walks, and is always on the lookout for tasty noodle soup. She currently lives in a green, leafy suburb in Kuala Lumpur with her husband, three small children and mother-in-law.
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Raidah Shah Idil 