FAB (Fitness After Birth) Stories - Amy Spencer

This week's FAB mum is Amy Spencer.  She is featured in our series of FAB (Fitness After Birth) Mum Stories, where we celebrate mums who are actively embracing motherhood with Ready Steady Mums.
http://readysteadymums.blogspot.com/2011/08/fab-fitness-after-birth-stories.html

Amy is a physiotherapist and used to be a figure ice-skater - so she knows all about core strength. Her 11 month old daughter Sophia does too... she is just moving on from crawling to walking.

Amy with Sophia http://goo.gl/8IWDl

Amy: I had a very long labour and had to stay in hospital for a week after birth. I felt exhausted and completely 'broken' when I got home. My body didn't look or feel anything like it was before, I had very little strength or stamina to do anything. Even walking down the road to the local shop was an effort. I thought I would never be able to get back to how I was before pregnancy and birth.

Joining Ready Steady Mums helped me to 'get myself back.' My physical confidence and self-esteem were really low. I was very active before getting pregnant but getting started seemed like almost an impossible task with a baby and as I was so weak since the birth I was worried about getting injured and staying safe during exercise.

In the early days becoming more fit and healthy kept us both calm and helped me become more confident as a mother. Now Sophia's on the move it allows me to run after her and lift her safely all day!

I have started to do regular exercise classes at my local gym that I wouldn't have had enough confidence to join. I have also reached my goal of returning to running and having strong abs and core stability.

I hope you all enjoy Ready Steady Mums too.