Prepare to Push (TM)

Your Key to Birth Preparation & Postpartum Recovery


What is Prepare to Push ™?
Prepare to Push™ is a program focusing on pelvic floor and core health and wellness during pregnancy and postpartum. The pelvic floor and core are prime stabilizers for the body and key players during pregnancy and birth. Unfortunately, they are mostly ignored until there are issues. And for many women, issues occur during pregnancy and the birth process. Many of these issues can be prevented or lessened with targeted care of the core and floor. 


This program is built on the premise of preparing the body physically for birth. Think about it this way, if you tried to run a marathon without preparing at all, what would happen to the body? And yet, the birth process has been physiologically compared to as many as 6 back to back marathons. Muscles that haven’t been prepared, have likely been weakened by pregnancy, and probably even came into pregnancy not in an ideal position due to lifestyle, are not going to fare well through those 6 marathons (an ultramarathon). Preparing the body can help reduce common complaints of pregnancy, reduce the risk of labor dysfunction, and support a better recovery. And even though it is Prepare to Push™, it also has an entire recovery section. 




Mummy Tummy, Pelvic Girdle Pain, and Hemorrhoids, Oh My!


Many of these discomforts and prolonged issues of pregnancy and postpartum are not addressed until it is too late. Mummy tummy aka diastasis recti, pelvic girdle pain, symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD), hemorrhoids, urinary or rectal incontinence, and prolapse are many of the conditions that can cause pain or altered lifestyle during and after pregnancy. All of these conditions have one thing in common - the core (the pelvic floor is part of the core!). However, when the pelvic floor and core wellness are a focus of pregnancy and postpartum, the risk of suffering from any of these discomforts is reduced. This allows for a more comfortable and confident pregnancy and postpartum period. 


For some moms, these issues last for years, research shows that if someone suffers from incontinence at 12 weeks postpartum, 92% will still be dealing with it 5 years later. This means that parenting a 5-year-old who wants to run and jump and play and wants you to run and jump and play with them, is going to be a lot more difficult. Caring for your core and floor during pregnancy and postpartum can help you be the mom you want to be for your 5-year-old and every age!





But isn’t incontinence just an inherent part of being pregnant and birthing a baby?


This is a myth that has been perpetuated for years! But there is zero validity to this! Even though incontinence is very common during pregnancy and beyond, it is not normal! It is treatable and you can improve your chances greatly of not even developing it by focusing on building strength and flexibility in the core and floor during pregnancy! 


I’m doing my Kegels, that’s enough, right?


Unfortunately, no. Kegels are usually taught as a static exercise, which means they would be great if all we did all day, every day, was hang out in the same place and position as we are when we do our Kegels. But that isn’t how we live life, especially as parents! We are lifting, we are moving, we are active, so our pelvic floor and core need to be strong and flexible to handle those situations. So just Kegels aren’t typically going to be enough. All of the supportive muscles need to be able to work together, therefor they must be trained to work together. (Most people aren’t doing Kegels correctly anyway) 


AND your pelvic floor and core muscles need to be flexible as well, and static Kegels don’t help with that. If they aren’t flexible, they can’t handle the pressure from sneezes, laughs, and jumps! 


What will I learn that I can’t learn on Tik Tok?


You will learn about the key players in the core and floor, some of the supporting players in core and floor function, and how they affect your everyday life, pregnant or not. You will also learn how they affect your pelvic stability, internally and externally, during pregnancy. You will learn how to help these key players shine in their roles during birth, and how to recruit these muscles to work and to be flexible for pushing! And finally how to prepare for a recovery that will support your body to heal so you can be your strongest self as a mother. 



The Prepare to Push curriculum includes:

  • Why Prepare to Push
  • What really IS the core
  • How to connect to the core
  • How pregnancy, birth, and lifestyle can interfere with ideal function
  • What is diastasis recti
  • How to check for DRA (diastasis rectus abdominis)
  • Healing a DRA postpartum
  • Pelvic floor function and dysfunction 
  • Aren’t kegels enough?
  • Prevent dysfunction and restore function with the core breath
  • More about the pelvis
  • How comfort measures and birth positions affect the core and floor
  • Getting the body ready for birth
  • Exercises and releases for birth
  • Exercises to avoid during pregnancy
  • Preparing your pelvic floor for birth
  • Recover- honor your body
  • Restorative exercise for your postpartum body

You will also gain access to a library of exercises for building strength and flexibility and a one month challenge with daily fitness routines specifically designed to help you Birth LIke a BOSS!

I am Laura Nance and I will be your coach as you Prepare to Push(™) !


I have been in the birth field for over 20 years, first as a doula and educator, and then as a personal trainer focused on core and floor health. My journey into core and floor health began after I had been working with families for over 10 years. Up until that time, I had parroted the things I had been taught, namely that incontinence is inevitable and there was nothing but surgery for things like diastasis recti and prolapse. And then, I started hearing these crazy ideas that these things weren’t true at all! As I did my due diligence and learned some of these “new” techniques, practicing on myself and some other moms whose babies weren’t so baby-ish (anywhere from ages 6-13), I became excited for the possibilities and MAD that I had been lied to and then even more mad that I had perpetuated those lies! Nothing drives passion like anger! And that is how I got to this point of passionately wanting to share with every pregnant person out there how you can have a strong pregnancy, birth like a boss, and have a postpartum period that allows you to recover and restore your body. 


Prepare to Push(™) was birthed from the collaboration of pelvic floor physical therapists, a personal trainer and a doula. There may be a lot more programs out there today, but Prepare to Push is the OG in physical preparation for birth and is unique in the combination of the original creation team. I acquired P2P in 2022 and have grown it to dive deeper into postpartum recovery.