Description
It takes great knowledge and skill to train pre and postnatal women, yet very few coaches working at schools, sports clubs and gyms have even basic experience or qualifications to call on.
So if you’re a coach or trainer and your athletes, students, or clients are (or will be) pregnant or entering motherhood, this course will help you advise and support them on their journey.
Just 8% of PTs and even fewer sports coaches are pre / postnatal-qualified, yet more women than ever want to train and compete during two unique life stages.
From physical and emotional health to setting healthy expectations, there are very specific considerations (and challenges) when training pregnant and postnatal women.
This introductory course gives coaches the knowledge you need to offer safe and suitable levels of advice so you can better support those in your care.
This course offers an introduction for those working with pregnant and postnatal athletes. From training in pregnancy to returning to sport, you’ll grasp some of the physical, practical and emotional challenges where exercise meets motherhood, as well as the professional help that’s out there.
Course membership – available in autumn 2023
Do this course and you will…
- Better understand the emotional, physical and practical challenges of these lifestages and how it can impact sport and exercise;
- Appreciate and acknowledge your scope of practice in supporting pre and postnatal women;
- Be able to offer effective support (within your remit and skillset) for pre and postnatal females;
- Recognise signs of stress, anxiety and other mental health red flags in pre and postnatal females;
- Build a trusted network of qualified professionals;
- Know which professionals to refer athetes onto when specialist help is required;
- Be able to safely support a woman’s return to exercise after she has a baby;
- Increase your understanding at this lifestage and appreciate exactly why an individualised approach is required.
Course Modules:
1. Support During Motherhood
In this module we list and discuss considerations for women considering starting or growing a family. There are many ways to have children and, as a coach and perhaps part of her inner circle, you can understand the options she has as well as the role you can play in supporting her choices.
2. Training in Pregnancy
Until recently rest is best was the prevailing philosophy regarding sport and pregnancy. Not now. More women than ever want to train in pregnancy, and return to competition quickly after, so this module offers the info you need to support safe training (and safer expectations) in pregnancy.
3. Return to Exercise
Every woman is different. Every pregnancy, childbirth and experience of motherhood is different. This module offers clear, evidence-based guidance on how to support a new mum’s safe return to exercise, and how to work with her unique situation, body, health and priorities when doing so.
4. Return to Training and Competition
Return to exercise is one thing. Return to training and competition is another. This module offers insight and understanding around the factors that’ll inform and influence her timeline to return and how you, as coach, can support her back to full-speed in her chosen sport.
5. Support for Mental Health
This module presents the numerous different barriers and struggles for women in the pre and postnatal stages and the potential impact on her mental health. As a key part of her support network, you can understand her situation and be able to offer an appropriate level of support.
6. Nutritional requirements
Nutrition is absolutely fundamental for pre and postnatal women to fuel, grow, heal and recover. This module offers an overview of nutritional requirements during these lifestages, and helps coaches understand how to inspire positive food behaviours at a time when they can be complex.
7. Pelvic Health
Pregnancy is often the first time a woman ever considers her pelvic floor. This module helps you, as coach, to understand this underappreciated power centre so you can inspire women in your care to engage with healthy practice. We’ll also teach pelvic floor exercise and how to fold it into your work.
8. Breast Support and Kit
The pregnancy and postnatal stages trigger life’s biggest-ever changes in breast size and shape. And that’s before the challenges of breastfeeding. This module helps you, as coach, to support breast health and safety, and to understand the importance of sports bras in easing posture problems.
Features
One and a half days of online learning
12 months access (with the option of extending for £40 a year)
Practical / instruction videos
Downloadable infographics
Content mapped to the CIMSPA Girls and Women’s Standard
Certificate of Completion (with CPD points – currently being endorsed by CIMSPA)
Don’t miss out on a unique opportunity to grab vital knowledge, directly from the experts, and use it immediately to make gains in performance and life
Course membership – available in autumn 2023
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