How Your Nervous System Affects Postpartum Core Recovery

You’re showing up for yourself — eating nourishing foods, moving your body, doing the exercises your provider recommended. You’re committed. You’re trying. And yet… something still isn’t clicking.

 Your core feels disconnected. Your belly hasn’t flattened the way you expected. Maybe you’re leaking when you sneeze or lift your toddler. Your back aches. Your posture feels off. And most of all — you just don’t feel at home in your body.

So you wonder: Do I need to try harder? Push more? Do something different?

Let me gently stop you right there. You are not failing. Your body is not broken. And you’re not alone. The answer isn’t more effort — it’s more safety. Because no matter how committed or consistent you are, your core cannot fully heal if your nervous system is still in survival mode.

As a pelvic floor physical therapist who’s walked alongside thousands of women through the sacred (and often disorienting) postpartum chapter — I can tell you this: many high-achieving, deeply devoted women find themselves stuck in symptoms, not because they’re doing something wrong…

But because their body doesn’t feel safe enough to heal. 

In this blog, I’ll help you understand why that happens — and what to do instead. Let’s explore what it means to restore from the inside out.

What Pregnancy and Birth Do to Your Nervous System

Pregnancy is miraculous — and intense. Your body transforms in extraordinary ways to grow and sustain life. Your posture shifts. Your diaphragm compresses. Your breathing becomes shallower. And without even realizing it, your nervous system starts adapting to keep you going.

But those adaptations — while necessary — often disconnect your core from its natural rhythm and coordination. Then comes birth.

Whether your labor was fast or long, medicalized or unmedicated, vaginal or surgical — birth is a major physical and neurological event. It floods your system with hormones designed to protect you and help you deliver your baby. These responses are primal. Sacred. Wise.

But sometimes, your nervous system doesn’t get the message that the danger has passed. Add in postpartum sleep deprivation, hormone shifts, the emotional intensity of new motherhood — and your system may stay locked in high alert… Like you’re still bracing. Still scanning. Still surviving.

And when your body thinks she’s still in danger, she won’t prioritize healing. Because healing requires safety — not just physically, but physiologically and emotionally.

How a Dysregulated Nervous System Blocks Core Healing

When your nervous system is dysregulated — and for many postpartum women, it is — healing doesn’t stop because you aren’t trying hard enough. It slows because your body is prioritizing survival over repair.

Here’s what’s often happening beneath the surface:

Tissue repair slows down. Healing is a parasympathetic process. The connective tissue between your abdominal muscles — especially the linea alba — requires low cortisol and good circulation to regenerate. When stress hormones stay elevated, that repair process is interrupted. The tissue doesn’t get the signal that it’s safe to rebuild.

Your core stops working as a coordinated system. Your diaphragm, deep abdominals, pelvic floor, and spine are designed to function as a reflexive unit — responding automatically to movement, breath, and load. But reflexes only fire when the nervous system feels safe. In a body that’s bracing or guarding, this coordination breaks down, even if the muscles themselves are strong.

Your pelvic floor may be holding — not weak. This one is huge. Many women are told they’re “weak,” when in reality their pelvic floor is chronically tense. Stress, trauma, and pressure create gripping. And a muscle that’s always holding can’t respond, lengthen, or support the way it’s meant to. Tension often disguises itself as weakness.

Your breath stays shallow and restricted. When breathing is limited — stuck high in the chest or locked in the belly — your system stays in alert mode. This affects everything: digestion, circulation, pelvic organ support, continence, and pain. Without full, coordinated breath, pressure has nowhere to go.

So if you’ve been doing everything you know to do — exercising, strengthening, showing up — and progress still feels slow, it’s not because your body is resisting you. She’s protecting you. What she needs isn’t more effort. It’s a different kind of support — one that doesn’t push, but gently reminds her: You’re safe now. You can exhale.

The Invisible Weight of Postpartum Anxiety

Even if you’ve never considered yourself an anxious person, the postpartum season can introduce a completely new layer of emotional and physiological intensity.

Your nervous system is suddenly responsible for constant vigilance — feeding schedules, sleep cycles, safety checks, emotional attunement — often while your own sleep is fragmented and your hormones are rapidly shifting. At the same time, there’s immense cultural pressure to “bounce back,” to recover quietly, quickly, and without needing much support.

 All of that adds up.

 Some signs your nervous system may be stuck in overdrive include:

 • Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep — even when your baby is resting

 • A jaw that’s always clenched, teeth grinding, or shoulders creeping up toward your ears

 • A constant sense of being “on edge,” wired but exhausted, or easily overwhelmed

 • Digestive symptoms like bloating, urgency, constipation, or reflux

 • A racing mind that won’t slow down, even during moments of rest

 • Feeling disconnected from your body — like movement feels awkward, foreign, or hard to access

These are not personality flaws. They’re not signs you’re “bad at relaxing.” They are messages from your nervous system that it’s been carrying more than she can sustain alone. When your body is living in a state of constant readiness, it can’t shift into the rhythms required for repair, integration, and healing. Muscles stay guarded. Fascia stays dense. Breath stays shallow. And your core — which relies on fluid coordination and safety — struggles to find its way back home.

These signals aren’t something to push through or ignore. They’re an invitation. An invitation to slow down. To soften the alarm. To offer your body the kind of support that tells her: you don’t have to hold it all anymore.

And that’s where real postpartum healing begins.

The Foundation: Restore → Reclaim → Renew

True postpartum recovery doesn’t begin with reps, routines, or return-to-fitness timelines. It begins with safety. It begins when your body is reminded — in both subtle and specific ways — that it’s finally safe to let go, recalibrate, and heal.

That’s why the first step in this method is never to push harder. It’s to restore the foundation that healing depends on: a regulated, responsive nervous system.

 Here’s how we do that:

🌀 Restore balance through breath. Diaphragmatic decompression breathing isn’t just soothing — it’s the doorway back into your core. As you reconnect with your breath, your vagus nerve signals safety, your pelvic floor begins to respond reflexively, and your body exits survival mode. This is where healing starts.

 💫 Reclaim deep coordination with hypopressives. These gentle, rhythm-based, breath-coordinated movements retrain the core from the inside out — without bearing down, tucking, or straining. They help your diaphragm, abdominals, and pelvic floor remember how to move as a unit again, creating real stability without pressure.

 🌿 Release before you strengthen. We don’t build strength on top of tension. We unwind first. By softening what’s been holding (often unconsciously), we create space for real function to return — function that’s reflexive, fluid, and built to last.

🌺 Renew trust in your body. As you reconnect with your core in a way that feels supported and integrated, you’ll begin to trust your body again — not because she looks or performs a certain way, but because she feels whole, responsive, and deeply yours.

This is not about bouncing back. It’s about coming home. And your body is ready.

What Healing Looks and Feels Like Inside The Core Recovery Method®

When your nervous system begins to downshift from chronic defense into trust and ease… when your breath becomes your anchor instead of your afterthought… your core doesn’t just strengthen — it remembers. Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I guide you step by step through this remembering.

Through calming breathwork, hypopressive training, fascial release, and gentle movement flows, you’re not just checking exercises off a list. You’re rebuilding the language of your body — breath to pelvic floor, diaphragm to spine, awareness to action — from the inside out.

 As the patterns of tension unravel and safety returns to your system, you may begin to notice:

💫 Your belly feels more supported — not because you’re sucking in or “holding,” but because your deep core is engaging reflexively, in harmony with your breath. What once felt like effort starts to feel like ease.

 🌬️ Your breath flows with more freedom — deep into the ribs and pelvis, restoring your diaphragm’s ability to create lift and decompression. This breath doesn’t just oxygenate — it signals safety, re-patterns posture, and unwinds stress held in the tissues.

💧 Leaking becomes less frequent — or disappears, as your pelvic floor learns to respond without gripping or overcompensating. It becomes part of an integrated system again, no longer isolated or overworked.

🕊️ Jaw and shoulder tension soften. As your pelvic floor unwinds, so does the rest of your system — because these patterns are connected. What releases in one part of your body echoes throughout.

 🌿 Your posture shifts naturally — not by forcing alignment, but through balance. Your spine finds its center. Your organs decompress. Your body remembers uprightness without strain.

🌺 You feel grounded, centered, and steady — not just in your movements, but in your self. Your nervous system no longer whispers “danger.” It says, “We’re safe now. You can rest here.”

This is the moment postpartum recovery becomes more than just “rehab.” It becomes reunion. Your breath moves you. Your core holds you. And your body responds not with fear — but with trust. The Core Recovery Method® helps your body remember what she’s always known: You don’t need to push harder to heal. You need to feel safe enough to receive the healing that’s already available.

Leah’s Story: A Calmer Body, a Stronger Recovery

Leah joined The Core Recovery Method® during her second pregnancy, hoping for a different experience than her first. What she discovered was more than a new set of exercises — it was a completely new relationship with her body. Through breathwork, nervous system regulation, and deep core awareness, she moved through pregnancy, labor, and postpartum with a sense of strength and ease she hadn’t known was possible. 

“I started incorporating my hypos the day after labor to help with healing, and not only did I bleed way less than I did with my first baby, I also had no issues getting in and out of bed because I still had core strength." 

By learning to coordinate her breath and gently release her pelvic floor, Leah created the conditions for an easier labor, faster healing, and a body that felt truly supported — even in those tender early days.

“At 4 weeks postpartum with baby number 2, my waistline was smaller than at 12 weeks postpartum with baby number 1! That was a pleasant surprise."

Leah’s story is a powerful reminder that when we support the nervous system and restore natural core coordination, postpartum recovery doesn’t have to feel like a struggle. It can feel steady, empowered, and deeply aligned from the very beginning.

A New Way Forward in Postpartum Healing

If you’re feeling the weight of fatigue, physical changes, and the pressure to “get back to normal” — and nothing seems to be helping — I want you to hear this: It’s not about pushing harder. It’s about offering your body a different kind of support.

The Core Recovery Method® is a self-paced, doctor-guided program designed to support healing on every level — physical, emotional, and energetic. With dedicated guidance for postpartum recovery, it gives you the tools to rebuild from the inside out, at a pace that honors your body’s wisdom.

Inside the program, you’ll learn how to:

🌬️ Regulate your nervous system with calming breathwork and intentional, nervous-system–led movemen

🌀 Restore your core and pelvic floor connection through reflexive, pressure-aware strategies

💪 Rebuild strength with hypopressives and other gentle, evidence-based tools that support your body without strain

As you move through each phase, you’ll begin to feel more supported — by your breath, by your body, and by your own inner knowing. You’ll move differently. You’ll feel steadier, stronger, more connected. You’ll remember that healing isn’t something you force — it’s something you allow.

Your body already holds the wisdom. She just needs space, safety, and the right support to remember.

Join me inside The Core Recovery Method® and discover how healing your core begins with calming your system — so you can finally feel at home in your body again.