Postnatal Rehab: Episode 85 with Grainne Donnelly

What can I say about today's guest? If you're working with postnatal women or female athletes, then Grainne Donnelly will be a familiar name to you. One of the busiest and most productive people in women's health - Grainne is a clinician, PhD researcher, educator, writer, editor of the POGP journal, business owner and mother of four!

In today's chat, we discussed lots of different topics under the postnatal umbrella, from diastasis to sport & exercise to compression garments and the importance of functional and clinically relevant research, with a nod to evolutionary development of the pelvic floor!

At Pelvicon last year, we got a glimpse into her PhD research looking at compression garments and the pelvic floor, so we get into the weeds with this today: compression garments - do they work? What should we consider when it comes to recommending them? Are they good for everyone?

Grainne, along with Emma Brockwell & Tom Goom, completely changed the conversation with the Return to Running Guidelines in 2019; the 6R Framework on Returning to Sport Postnatally (BJSM 2021), her chapter on pelvic health in sports medicine, her 2025 paper on rugby & pelvic health - you can find all of her recent publications here

I'm a huge GD fan - it really is hard to think of someone who has done more to advance the evidence base for postnatal recovery from a physio perspective, so if you get the chance to learn from her - grab it!

Grainne's online courses are available at absolute.physio and they are on sale for the summer - you can find her on instagram as @absolute.physio and she will be teaching a precon at Pelvicon about real time ultrasound in pelvic rehab and of course, the book she's editing on Pelvic Health in Sports Medicine will be out in April 2026

Want to take a deeper dive into women's health, from the comfort of home, and at your own pace? All of my online courses, from Female Hormonal Health to Hysterectomy Rehab, Breast/Gynae & Bladder/Bowel Oncology Rehab to Female Pelvic Pain, Bowel Health to Back Pain - all of the info is at CelebrateMuliebrity.com or follow along on Instagram @michellelyons_muliebrity

Until next time, Mx (and don't forget to celebrate muliebrity!)