Alycia Hatzi remembers falling pregnant for the first time and being shocked that local fitness trainers didn't know how to cater for her changing body.
"When we are pregnant, our body goes through immense changes and we have our pelvic floor to think about, we have our abdominals to think about," she said.
"The average personal trainer doesn't have the accreditation to properly screen a woman or a pregnant woman or a postnatal woman to check if their pelvic floor health is OK, if their abdominals are OK, to perform exercises that they might be prescribed."
In her fitness and pregnancy journeys, Ms Hatzi, a personal trainer herself, described an astounding lack of education around postnatal fitness.
"We really want to push that it's normal and expected for a woman and a postnatal woman to have a thorough screening, which involves all these extra questions."
The mother of three has launched the campaign #DontHideMumma, which aims to encourage mothers of all shapes and sizes to take photos of themselves, rather than just their children, to celebrate bodies in all shapes and sizes.
"We know as mums, they hate getting their photo taken, they're deleting photos of themselves because they don't like certain aspects of their body or they don't feel confident in their postpartum bodies," Ms Hatzi said.
"So, we take photos of ourselves and share them, to normalise the postpartum body. We also want to embrace the changes that have happened from pregnancy and motherhood and our postnatal journey."
Healthcare model doesn't serve women
Women's Health Loddon Mallee chief executive Tricia Currie said women living in rural and regional Victoria faced extra challenges when seeking support in prenatal and postnatal healthcare.
"It's not necessarily easily accessible for women, particularly in rural areas," she said.
She has called for more investment in a nurse-led model of maternal and child health.
"That is so that women aren't travelling hundreds of kilometres to seek the support that they actually need through their pregnancy or after the birth of their babies," Ms Currie said.
Ms Currie also highlighted a need for more psychologists in the regions, and more psychological support in maternal health.
"[That would] help to understand not only how your body works, but how you're impacted emotionally and psychologically," she said.
"The data tells us that anxiety and depression is really prevalent, [in] both prenatal and postnatal women."
Calls for free physio
Mother-of-two Zeina Hayes started seeing Ms Hatzi when she ran into trouble exercising while pregnant with her second baby.
"I had my first one and got back into exercise pretty quickly," she said.
"I just started doing my own thing and found that my body just couldn't cope with it, [I] had sore hips and everything. Then I fell pregnant with my second one.
The sore hips and abdominal separation she experienced during and after pregnancy had her confused about what she could do and where to turn.
"No-one really talks about it," Ms Hayes said.
Ms Hatzi has called for better postnatal care, and better prenatal and postnatal education in the fitness industry.
Free postnatal physio appointments for women would be a great start, she said.
"Funded women's health physio appointments that are ongoing, not just like a one off or a group session would be good," Ms Hatzi said.
"We want them to have at least four sessions in the first 12 to 24 months of their postpartum journey, because that's when these issues can arise."
