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Not everybody has time to sit down and read the whole paper. Not everybody wants to. I get it. But you do need to read beyond the abstract, so let's do it together.
For this summer rewind episode, I'm bringing back my 2024 conversation with Dr. Rita Deering, PT, DPT, PhD, one of the authors on the two international Delphi studies and consensus statements on postpartum return to running. This is the one where we take the research apart.
Rita walks through what a Delphi study actually is and how this one ran. Over 100 clinicians and coaches from around the world, three rounds, anonymous voting so nobody gets swayed by a name they respect, and a 75% bar for consensus. Then the piece that made these two papers different: once the panel agreed, the authors went and checked those recommendations against the published literature. Sometimes the literature did not cooperate.
(Her explanation for why they couldn't just put everybody in one room together is one of my favorite things anybody has said on this show. You'll know it when you hear it.)
🔹 What a Delphi study is, and why that literature check after the vote matters so much
🔹 What everyone agreed on: a period of relative rest, gradual increases in duration and intensity, starting with a walk-run, strength training all the way through
🔹 The variables that have nothing to do with mileage: sleep, fatigue, lactation, fueling, hydration, mental health, social support
🔹 Where it got contentious: support belts, back extensors, lower extremity strengthening, and the honest problem that for some of it there just isn't literature yet
🔹 The hardest line in the whole paper. Somebody can be ready to return before 12 weeks AND still deserve protected parental leave. Both are true.
🔹 Why so many people getting this care are self-referred and paying out of pocket, and who that leaves out
🔹 Screening for REDs in a lactating athlete, when a missing period may be completely normal
🔹 The question that lives in my DMs: does running early postpartum increase your risk of prolapse?
Both consensus statements were selected as editor's choice and are open access, so when we're done you can go read them yourself. No paywall, no institutional login, no favors required.
Rita's on Instagram at @ritadeeringphd.
If you could get one research question answered tomorrow, funding no object, what would you ask?
The Active Mom Podcast — a real mom's guide to pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause & beyond, for active moms and the professionals who help them get there.
Quick-hit conversations with moms, providers, and researchers... because you don't have a lot of free time (you're probably listening at 1.5x right now).
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