The Bump Plan: Your guide to fitness and exercise during pregnancy and the postnatal period from @thepilatespt and founder of The Bump Plan, complete with illustrated workouts

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The Bump Plan was created in 2020 and came from a lifelong desire to help TTC, pregnant, and postnatal women enter into these amazing times of their life strong and prepared for the myriad changes that happen to their bodies along the way. During pregnancy your uterus finishes very high up by the diaphragm which can make it difficult to breathe efficiently. Spending some time doing breathwork, and relearning how to breathe fully, can help stimulate the muscles of the core and pelvic floor. It can also help calm you down as it stimulates the Vagus nerve; a nerve that runs from the brain to the abdomen, responsible for relaxation. Speak to your doctor or physio You must wait until around seven days after your Lochia (your postpartum bleeding) has stopped and until any stitches have healed (which is usually about six weeks postpartum), to go swimming," says Hollie. Speak with your doctor about swimming before you plan your next pool trip. General strength training

Birthing people are understandably more at risk of prolapse (where the pelvic organs drop down into the vagina), but a functional pelvic floor can really help reduce the risk of a prolapse, and help you exercise safely with a prolapse. It can also help prevent the cliché “sneezing and weeing” that so many parents suffer with (and that has been normalised far too much).

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Fact: the way you breathe scientifically changes during pregnancy. It’s for this reason that you might feel out of breath more easily, and it’s also why you need to pay even more attention to proper breathing. Many think they need to wait six weeks to start being active again. However, Hollie Grant, Founder of The Bump Plan, says this is outdated advice, and can cause new mums to assume that all movement is off the cards immediately after childbirth. The glutes – the glutes are the muscles that help to support the weight of your growing baby. They will aim to hold the pelvis in position, as your bump gets heavier. It’s therefore really important that you keep your glutes active and functional during pregnancy with exercises such as squats, lunges, adapted deadlifts and clams I would advise that exercise be low to moderate impact initially and higher impact exercise is gradually reintroduced after around three months of this, if there is no pelvic floor or abdominal wall dysfunction," Holly adds. Whilst not directly fitness-related it’s important you know the symptoms of both Postpartum Haemorrhage and DVT, both which are very rare but very serious, and know to call your countries emergency number as soon as possible.

Lucy Gornall, pre and post-natal fitness trainer speaks with fitness expert Hollie Grant, founder of The Bump Plan, to bring you tips for postnatal workouts. Please seek advice from your GP or midwife before continuing with your exercise routine or trying a new workout after giving birth. The Bump Plan has now helped over 30,000 women around the world and it’s only just getting started. We have incredibly exciting things planned for the brand in the near future which are going to help women and mothers even more be the strongest and most prepared they can be during these incredible phases of their lives. Whilst exercising postnatally is incredibly safe for most of us, there are a few safety considerations we should keep in mind. Remember that for those of you in the early stages of parenthood, there is a lot you can do – but you have also just carried a baby for 9/10 months, and birthed them, so we need to be mindful of this when we exercise.A strong core is so important as a parent, and a little understanding of DRA, or using a programme that is designed for those with DRA like The Bump Plan, will be incredibly helpful.’ A deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot that forms in a deep vein of the leg, calf or pelvis. Whilst DVT is still rare during pregnancy and after birth, it is more common in this period than at other stages of your life. Here’s exactly what she wants women who have just had a baby to know. 1. Gentle recovery can begin, early doors

Avoid high impact exercise until after six weeks (you may be able to start sooner if you regularly exercised before giving birth) Our structured schedule of ttc workouts will challenge and boost your cardio fitness ahead of the demands of pregnancy. Pilates and functional movement will improve your posture and build a strong and resilient body when preparing for pregnancy. Discover comprehensive updates about the changes and developments happening to both baby and your body while you’re pregnant, and learn how best to plan ahead. Like Marion, I too find it difficult to see how there is any tax saving and yet it is said that the tax rate on the bonus can be reduced from 41.8 per cent to 8.4 per cent. Can anyone reconcile those percentages?The tax saving arises from the fact that SMP is rebated against the employer's PAYE/NI bill, and can be greatly magnified by a correctly timed bonus. With a nod and a wink you can pay the employee a lower bonus, knowing that HMRC will top it up. Or consider the case of a director or the director's wife, where the bonus might be entirely at the discretion of the company, and just happens to coincide with the period when HMRC will magnify it by about 60% at low cost to the employer. Postpartum haemorrhage (also called PPH) is when a woman has heavy, uncontrolled bleeding after giving birth. It’s a serious but rare condition. It usually happens within 1 day of giving birth, but it can happen up to 12 weeks after having a baby. About 1 to 5 in 100 women who have a baby (1 to 5 percent) have PPH.