Spotlight Saturday: Pine Integrated Health Centre

This week we focused on motherhood and the mental health around motherhood. So naturally we thought that we had to showcase a community agency that supports mothers in particular! We are so thrilled the Pine Integrated Health Centre agreed to participate in this weeks spotlight Saturday. And spoiler alert- they are amazing. 

Pine offers a variety of services including right now- telehealth services!

Telehealth services available at this time include:

• Counselling
• Physiotherapy including pelvic floor physiotherapy
• Dietician and Nutrition Services
• Lactation Consultation
• Workshops and classes

Other services include:

• A large variety of therapy services
• Motherhood related physiotherapy
• Lactation Consulting
• Acupuncture 
• Massage
• Nutrition
• Fitness (yoga, fit barre, mom and baby yoga, all about balance)
• Workshops (Caring for Your Body with Compassion, Talking Wellness Baby, Bump to baby, Intuitive Eating Workshop, Raising Intuitive Eaters, Clinical Pilates)

They are located at Suite 201, 6720 104 ST NW, Edmonton AB, T6H 2L4 (the C-Health building).

Contact:

Phone: 587-885-5598

Email: info@pinehealth.ca

Website: www.pinehealth.ca

They also have an amazing blog that you can read! Here is an example of one they have written:

Becoming a Mother…

My first child was born six years ago, and I remember that labour and birth well. It was empowering and exhilarating. It was also long, physically exhausting, and resulted in some tearing to my pelvic floor. I loved my baby instantly but, in the days and weeks after he was born, I remember accumulating a huge sleep debt, wincing with movement as my perineal tears were healing, dreading every feed as I struggled with breastfeeding, being shocked at the shape of my new body, and feeling lost as to how to care for myself without being able to use what I was used to: sleep and exercise. Going through postpartum rehab for my own body, and navigating the system to find resources for my struggles in breastfeeding and mental health, I quietly, then loudly, became an advocate for change in the maternal healthcare system. 

The greatest contribution that I could think to make was opening a centre with a multidisciplinary team of health professionals to provide specialized support to women through pregnancy, postpartum and parenthood. 

What is the fourth trimester?

The fourth trimester is the time between birth and 12 weeks postpartum. It is a time of incredible change and marked vulnerability for mothers and their new-born babies. During pregnancy, a woman is followed closely by her birth care provider with a standard four appointments in the last month of pregnancy, alone. After birth, this intense following is continued for the new baby, with close monitoring for them during the first days, weeks and months of life. Contrarily, in this time, care for the new mother drops off and rather than being checked in with about how she’s managing physically, mentally, emotionally, nutritionally, environmentally, or otherwise, the burden falls to her to raise any of these issues to a care provider.

The fourth trimester is also the time when a woman is physically recovering from pregnancy, labour, and birth. The amount of cellular energy it takes for grow a human, a placenta, and all other fetal structures is incredible. Pregnancy also impacts every single system in the mother’s body including blood volume, lung function, metabolism, digestion, even memory. But no other system is more impacted by pregnancy than the musculoskeletal system. Pregnancy changes the shape of the abdominals and strains the pelvic floor. It also changes a woman’s posture and loads her body with extra weight.

You can read more here!

So don't hesitate mamas! This is an amazing community here to support you through any stage of your journey in motherhood. Head on over to their site to see what you could access from them and they are more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

Happy long weekend!