WHEN

09/09/2026

This morning, founder of WHEN, Peta Titter spoke with nurses and midwives at the Royal Hobart Hospital for Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week about what self-care actually looks like for women working in healthcare.

We talked about the mental load women carry, the emotional load healthcare workers take home from caring for others, the importance of debriefing, menopause symptoms, physical fitness, exercise and simply getting outside into fresh air.

The main message was that self-care matters - but we need to stop making women individually responsible for fixing exhaustion that is being created by workload, caring responsibilities and the systems around them.

07/09/2026

Advice for movement and exercise during pregnancy often comes with one big reassurance:

“It’s safe for the baby.”

But there’s another question we haven't been nearly as good at answering:
What does it mean for the woman’s body - not just during pregnancy, but afterwards?

Take running.

Research is reassuring when it comes to the developing baby. But WHEN found that we still don't have adequate research telling us what running during pregnancy may mean for a woman’s pelvic floor, joints, ligaments and connective tissue in the longer term.

And running isn't the only example.

During pregnancy, your body is changing enormously. Your ligaments become more flexible. Your pelvis changes. Your abdominal wall stretches. Your pelvic floor is carrying increasing load. Your balance, breathing and cardiovascular system change too.

Yet research into how exercise interacts with these changes - and what that might mean for women's bodies months or years later - is still limited.

Even something as common as pelvic girdle pain affects around 44% of Australian women during pregnancy.

There are also unanswered questions around abdominal exercise, loaded single-leg exercises and the long-term impact of different types of exercise on pelvic and musculoskeletal health.

So what are women supposed to do?

WHEN isn't saying don't exercise. Exercise during pregnancy has important benefits.

We're saying women deserve the full picture.

Modify as your body changes. Listen when something hurts, feels heavy or doesn't feel right. Look after your pelvic floor and joints. Get individual advice when you need it. And understand that “safe for the baby” doesn't automatically answer every question about what's best for your body.

Most importantly, women deserve honesty about what we know and what we still don't know.

Because pregnancy research shouldn't stop at:
“Was the baby okay?”

We need to keep asking:
“What happened to the woman?”

06/09/2026

Why Peta started WHEN.

In a recent episode of The Art of Pilates, WHEN founder Peta Titter joined Louisa Tabues for a conversation about women’s health, pregnancy, postnatal care and exercise.

In the episode, Peta shares the story behind WHEN and what drove her to create an organisation focused on improving women’s health education, research and support.

The full episode goes much further - exploring returning to exercise after pregnancy, pelvic health, and some of the persistent myths and misconceptions around exercise during pregnancy.

Listen to the full episode: Rethinking Pregnancy Pilates & Postnatal Recovery.

Louise Taube-Principal Pilates Trainer

03/09/2026

Your pelvis changes throughout pregnancy and birth.

Hormonal changes increase mobility through the joints and ligaments of your body, including your pelvis. This happens whether your baby is born vaginally or by caesarean. After birth, your pelvis needs time to regain strength and stability.

So, what can you do?

WHEN recommends appropriate exercise to progressively strengthen and stabilise the pelvis - particularly before returning to high-impact exercise.

If you're experiencing pelvic pain, weakness or other symptoms, seek advice from a health or allied health professional who specialises in this area before starting an exercise program.

And this is another area where the bigger conversation matters. We need to stop thinking about postnatal recovery purely as “recovery from birth”.

Pregnancy itself is a major physical event. Women's postnatal healthcare needs to reflect that.

when.org.au

02/09/2026

Vaginal birth is the biggest risk factor for pelvic organ prolapse.

An estimated 407,265 Australian women are living with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse, with more than 219,000 cases attributed to vaginal birth.

But experts say the risks and signs are not being adequately communicated before birth.

Women deserve to know how to protect their pelvic health -before they give birth.

Urogynaecologist Dr Oliver Daly says women should be given more information about prolapse during prenatal appointments so they can prepare themselves physically and mentally, and hopefully prevent significant future trauma.

Read the full article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2026-09-01/pelvic-organ-prolapse-in-australia/107074650

31/08/2026

“So many of the women I see have had traumatic births, and our check-in is often the first time anyone’s asked them about it.” - Mariam Chaalan, GP and mother.

We need postnatal care that treats the health and wellbeing of the woman as an ongoing priority - not an afterthought.

The Senate’s women’s health inquiry will examine Australia’s postpartum care, as advocates warn of the risks to new parents of a fragmented system.

31/08/2026

A huge thank you to Happy Kat | Postpartum Recovery Kit for generously donating 85 postnatal care packs. They’re being posted off to the winners of our giveaway today.

Thank you, Happy Kat, for supporting women and the important work of WHEN.

30/08/2026

Rest is not laziness. Especially after birth.

After having a baby, women are expected to heal from birth, function on broken sleep, care for a newborn, keep life moving and somehow “bounce back”. But the postnatal body doesn’t simply bounce back.

Whether you’ve had a vaginal birth or a caesarean, the weeks and months after birth involve significant physical and hormonal changes - much of which is invisible.

Incontinence. Prolapse. Musculoskeletal pain. Hormonal changes. And for women who are breastfeeding, lower estrogen can also affect tissue healing.

Needing rest while your body is navigating all of this is a basic physical need.

Rest and healing is part of postnatal health.

In The Seven Deadly Sins podcast series, Peta and perinatal psychologist Frances Bilbao unpack the pressure placed on women after birth - and why we need to stop treating rest as something women have to earn.

Link in bio.

when.org.au

30/08/2026

Pregnancy ends. Its effects on a woman's body don't necessarily end with it.

During pregnancy, hormonal changes increase mobility in the joints and ligaments of the pelvis. The abdominal wall changes to accommodate a growing uterus, and the pelvic floor experiences months of increased load.

After birth, these structures need time to recover, rebuild strength and regain stability.

This is true even after a caesarean birth. While the experience of birth is different, WHEN explains that the hormonal and physical changes to the pelvis have already occurred during pregnancy.

Recovery doesn't neatly finish at six weeks. Many women reach their 6–8 week check expecting that the physical changes of pregnancy and birth should have resolved. For most women, full recovery will not yet be complete.

Yet once the baby arrives, the conversation becomes about feeding and caring for the newborn. Those things matter. But so does the woman.

Postnatal healthcare shouldn't only ask whether she is coping well enough to care for her baby. We should also be asking how she is recovering, what has changed in her body, what symptoms she is experiencing and what support she needs.

Read more in the WHEN Library at when.org.au

27/08/2026

Leaking. Pain. Exhaustion. Women are often told these experiences are “normal” after having a baby. But there’s an important distinction between something being common and something being fine.

When “normal” becomes the end of the conversation, women can be left without the information, assessment or support they need.

Postnatal health shouldn’t be about learning to live with symptoms simply because lots of women experience them.

Common doesn’t mean you should have to put up with it.

Learn more about your health after pregnancy and birth through WHEN’s evidence-based resources at when.org.au