Welcome to the Mom & Baby PT Blog!
Pelvic floor to pediatric rehab, and everything in between. Here at the Mom & Baby PT Blog we are going to have some fun exploring how best to nurture our bodies and those of our babies as we grow happy and healthy families.
Who am I?
Hi there! I'm Dr. Sabrina Thorpe PT, DPT, PCES. I'm the owner of Holistic Family Physical Therapy and Wellness, a mobile mom and baby PT practice in Wisconsin. I am a wife and a mom to three beautiful girls who are all four years old and under. When I'm not a full time domestic engineer, I'm a physical therapist. In my clinical practice, I have worked with everyone across the lifespan from newborns and micropreemie NICU grads all the way up to elderly folks who are 100+ years young. I've even met a handful of folks who are involved in the lives of the great-great grandchildren. Do you know how incredible that is?! Great-great grandchildren. So amazing. #goals.
How my mom and baby practice came to be
Despite my diverse clinical background, my passion lies in serving moms and babies. When I was pregnant with my first daughter five years ago, I started to have issues with incontinence at only four months pregnant. I had very little pelvic floor knowledge at that time, but I knew therapy was an option and that I didn't have to live the way I was. So I pushed my at-the-time OB-GYN to give me a referral for pelvic floor therapy and away I went! A few sessions later my incontinence was better controlled and I went on my merry way. I got pregnant with my second kiddo and ended up needing a c-section. Now, I was very well acquainted at this point with the ins and outs of acute care physical therapy in the hospital. We PTs were called in to consult on pretty much every patient who had major abdominal surgery. I was flabbergasted that when I was taken back to my room after surgery, there was no talk of any sort of rehab or physical therapy. I actually asked for a walker to help me get to the bathroom for the first time after surgery and the postpartum nurses laughed at me! They thought I was joking, but I was completely serious. Instead, I was told to hang onto the nursing staff my first time standing and trying to get to the bathroom (yikes, injury waiting to happen for all involved), and then tossed an abdominal binder and told to put it on and walk the halls for the remainder of my stay.
Well, that lit a fire under my hinder. That is unacceptable care for women who have just had major abdominal surgery (that involves taking the uterus out of the abdominal cavity, I might add). To top it off, I developed prolapse after my c-section, much to my surprise at the time. I came to the realization that there was so much about pregnancy and postpartum that did not need to be suffered through if only women were equipped with the right knowledge and access to the right provider. Also, as a PT I was a little clueless on how to fix myself, so how were other moms managing? So I decided to do something about it, and thus Holistic Family Physical Therapy and Wellness was born! I started with Dr. Sarah Duvall's Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist certification, made my way to Herman & Wallace pelvic floor continuing education, and have most recently been branching out into the world of craniosacral therapy with the goal of being able to apply this form of body work to my littlest clients.
Why the blog?
I've got a lot of sass that needs an outlet that isn't my husband and kids, so I've decided to give writing a try. I've been feeling called to write for some time now, but I couldn't figure out what the heck to write about! I thought about writing a book, short stories, journal articles, etc. But nothing appealed to me. I wanted to be able to write as if I was talking to someone. Then my wonderful hubby suggested I try blogging. I decided, after stubbornly refusing to entertain the idea previously, to give it a try. And now here I am, writing a blog post like I said I never would.
That's definitely a theme in my life. Every time I say "I'd never do that," or "I definitely wouldn't like to do that," the powers that be turn that around and humble me a bit. Pelvic floor, babies, house calls, craniosacral, private practice- all of these are things that if you had asked Sabrina 10 years ago if she would be doing, her answer would have been a resounding "No way, not a chance!" Yet here I find myself, doing all the things I said I'd never do.
My hopes for you
I'm not a big blog reader myself beyond visiting blogs that Pinterest links go to for recipes. And I'm a normal human like you who skips all the words and gets right to the recipe. That being said, I don't plan on doing many recipes here, so hopefully you won't skip over my words thinking it's all fluff! I'd like to do something different and give you all meat and potatoes, if you will. I also want to show you that you are not alone. There are people out there fighting the same fight you are with all of the physical ailments that can arise as a result of being a mom who is trying to keep herself and her family healthy and well. Hopefully I'll make you laugh a little bit, even if it's just an internal chuckle, and validate some of the feelings you're having as you navigate nurturing your body while growing a happy and health family.
If you're interested in connecting with me in real life to establish care, I am currently taking new clients. Click the contact button below to get started!