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This should not be revolutionary in 2026.
They asked the women. Went out across Canada, asked postpartum women what they were actually desperate to know, and let the answers drive it. What came back was mental health and sleep.
That's the 2025 Canadian postpartum guideline.
Dr. Margie Davenport, PhD, was primary author on it. She's the director of the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health at the University of Alberta, and this is her fourth time on the show.
(Yes, we're already talking about Green Jacket choices)
Quite honestly this one turned into a state of the union on pregnancy and postpartum exercise guidance. What we finally have. What changed. And the part she says nobody ever asks her about.
The how.
Not "is it safe." We have a LOT of that now. HOW do I use it. On Monday morning. With this patient. At mile two. On the pitch, in the moment, when you've got about four seconds to decide.
🔹 What the 2025 Canadian postpartum guideline actually changed, and how they built it
🔹 Why six weeks was never the right number, for anybody
🔹 The Get Active Questionnaire for Postpartum, and what changed about needing clearance before you move
🔹 The 140 beats per minute rule in PREGNANCY: ACOG put it out in 1985, pulled it in 1994, and women still hear it in 2026. Margie has more heart rate data coming.
🔹 Sleep and mental health, in a guideline instead of a footnote
🔹 Vaginal vs cesarean, and the gap researchers hadn't thought to split out
🔹 Informed risk: how you counsel climbing, soccer, cycling, skiing
🔹 Inside the IOC consensus meeting she chaired this year
🔹 FIFA's Female Health and Performance Project, free, with a pelvic health module in it
🔹 Margie as an athlete on her national team years, and the label she gives herself now (which I did not accept)
Dr. Davenport's whole personality is: tell me why. And if you can't give her a good reason, she's doing it anyway. I love that about her.
Press play. And then tell me, what's the postpartum question you've been trying to get answered that nobody will answer?
TIME STAMPS:
00:00 Fourth time on the show
01:59 Why she left the lab for social media
03:32 The 140 rule that will not die
05:51 The question nobody asks: the how
06:44 Frameworks instead of hard timelines
08:44 Two C-sections, same day, two very different postpartums
10:48 2021: the first heavy lifting in pregnancy study
14:24 What the 2025 Canadian postpartum guideline changed
15:37 Sleep and mental health, because that's what women asked for
16:00 Vaginal vs cesarean, and the gap nobody had split out
18:17 The Get Active Questionnaire for Postpartum
19:54 The six week clearance problem
23:50 Informed risk
27:41 Three points of contact on the wall
33:58 Inside the IOC consensus meeting
38:03 FIFA's Female Health and Performance Project
43:06 Where physios can actually be effective
46:20 Margie on her own athlete journey
55:37 What's coming out of her lab
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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