Climbing Postpartum: Life as an adventure mum

It can be tricky to find balance between sport and family life, no more difficult than with a newborn. Learn how Bogong Sponsored Athlete and adventure mum Ashlee Hendy has navigated her climbing career immediately after her pregancy. Get to know Ashlee Hendy: Bogong Sponsored Athlete and her thoughts on Climbing During Pregnancy in her previous Bogong Blog posts here.

It’s hard to know when the right time is to sit down and write about your postpartum experiences. Because in a way, it’s a very open-ended road. I’m a mum now, and I always will be, the post-partum journey doesn’t really have a finish line. But in the blink of an eye, my daughter is six months old and it’s a milestone that really helps me to see just how far we have come. When you’re in the thick of being a new parent, time is a bit of a tricky concept and in a lot of ways I still feel like I’m not quite ‘qualified’. It’s not that I’m lacking confidence, just that life is very dynamic and everything still feels new. The process of physical recovery isn’t fully complete, but it’s come a long way. The process of mental adjustment is likely to be an ongoing journey, with different challenges popping up at different stages, probably for the rest of forever. Still, now seems like a good time to do some reflection and sharing.

To start, it’s probably important to share some of the details of the birth, because it has an impact on the physical recovery that is relevant for climbing. During the late stages of my pregnancy, I became very unwell. To keep a rather long story short, I had to have a caesarean delivery at 36 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. We live in Natimuk, and the birth took place in Horsham hospital. Some babies are fine when they arrive 4 weeks early, but Ella required assistance with breathing for the first few days of her life, and so she was airlifted to Melbourne to be treated in NICU. She was 2.6 kgs at birth, a good size for her gestation but still a very small baby. Meanwhile, my pre-eclampsia did not resolve with birth, and I suffered several seizures in the days following delivery. After a few days of painful separation, waiting for me to stabilise, I was also airlifted to Melbourne. The first week was extremely stressful, and although it sounds dramatic, it’s probably fairly accurate to say that we were both lucky to make it without any long-term consequences.

Since Ella never got the chance to grow to full term, I didn’t suffer with severe abdominal separation (assessed as about 2.5cm at 6 weeks post-delivery). The caesarean was a big blow to my core strength, but still nowhere near as bad as I had anticipated. Having experienced it firsthand, I now believe that c-sections have a fair amount of undue stigma attached to them. The effects of the pre-eclampsia on my organs and cardiovascular system really slowed me down, and six months on, it still feels like this is the most noticeable physical effect of my pregnancy. After lots of hard work and excellent guidance from a women’s physiotherapist, my abdominal region basically feels like it’s been put back together, and just needs a little more tightening up (like, the last 20-30%). My upper body strength also feels like its running at about 80% capacity, and my finger strength perhaps even a little better than that. And my ascents on rock basically seem to reflect this – but more on that later.

When weighing up the pros and cons of starting a family, one question I really wanted answered was “if, and when, will I get to climb at my peak again?” Of course, since every pregnancy and every child is different, it is very difficult to answer this question accurately. Pre-pregnancy, the physical recovery was ALL I thought about, but in reality, I have learnt that this is only one piece of the puzzle. It’s probably not even the biggest piece. You’ve also got sleep (just kidding, no you don’t!), breastfeeding, maternity leave, and partner/family support all factoring into the mix. These are the factors that will determine how much and how well you get to climb. Oh, and you wont care that much. Or at least, not as much as you thought you would. My mindset has changed such that every opportunity to be outdoors feels like a bonus, so even though the total time climbing and the difficulty of the routes has reduced, the enjoyment of those moments has increased dramatically, especially when I can share those times with my beautiful new family.

So climbing wise – what have I actually done? Despite recommendations to rest completely for 6 weeks, I got itchy feet at 3 weeks post birth and decided that the abdominal strain of sneezing was probably going to be more risky than an easy top rope. And thanks to the physio work I did pre-birth and soon after, I wasn’t having any…’issues’ when I sneezed. When I discovered that my pre-pregnancy harness fitted, I started with a grade 13 classic at the Organ Pipes. One climb, baby asleep in the travel bassinet at the bottom, then home again – success. A few days later I did a 15, then a 17, and so it went for a few weeks, top roping to about grade 20, being careful to avoid rooflets or anything steep that might engage my core. My motto was ‘quit while you’re ahead’ and I did a good job of sticking to it.

At 6 weeks I was given the all clear by the doctor to start light strength training such as pilates/yoga (I didn’t mention the climbing…). I was shocked to find that when laying on my back, I was actually too weak through my core to achieve a stable ‘tabletop’ position. I had lost a LOT. But I was able to start working on it. At about 7 weeks I was able to dead-hang on my arms and maintain a stable core without my pelvis ‘tipping’ forward. Prior to this, I couldn’t hang at all; my pelvis would tilt due to abdominal weakness. I didn’t always find the time to shower daily, I’d often forget to eat and drink enough, but I ALWAYS did do my core exercises. Even if it meant doing sets at 10 pm, while waiting for the washing machine to finish, trying not to pass out from tiredness, and praying the baby wouldn’t wake, I ALWAYS did my exercises.

7 weeks after Ella arrived, I did my first trad lead, a cruisey Arapiles 14 called Strife on the Gravy Train. I would recommend sport climbing first rather straight to trad, but with Arapiles as my local crag the only option for an easy route requires racking up. It was great for my headspace and the crux was the weight of the rack pushing downwards on my c-section scar. At 8 weeks we road-tripped to Nowra and I took my first lead falls on the comfort of bolts. Across the two weeks that we were there, I progressed from deliberate small falls near the bolts to fully committing on grade 25/26 sport routes, including both whips and sends. I maintained the ‘quit while you’re ahead’ approach and felt like I could ‘try’ at anywhere between 40-70% depending on how steep a route was. I only had one wobble, with some shooting pain in my core a result of trying a bit too hard on a steep 24, with no lasting consequences. Route selection was critical. The crux was still the sleep deprivation. You have to be pretty psyched to go out climbing when you are getting sleep in 2 hour blocks. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of psyche in our household.

We returned to the Wimmera and I had my 12 week physio session, abdominal separation was improving and I was given the green light for running, pull ups, and some more intense core strengthening exercises. Progress was amazing and by not overdoing it, I was seeing very small improvements every time I tied in. Blocks of sleep at night were slowly getting longer and breastfeeding was feeling a lot more comfortable. Ella was in a blissful stage where she would regularly nap in her crag bassinet, and I was able to work my way through some Arapiles classics that I was quite familiar with. When Ella was 3.5 months old I managed to send Smear Campaign, a bolted 28 that I had never tried pre-pregnancy. At 4 months I did the direct start to Have a Good Flight (27), which had actually spat me off about 2 years prior when I had been in great physical shape. Still, while on the wall I was often holding back or feeling like I was gingerly dancing around my core ‘injury’ and taking care not to push myself too hard.

Now at 6 months, I am just starting to feel like I can try as hard as I like, and that I am no longer nursing an injury. My finger strength might be getting close to pre-pregnancy, shoulders and power still lacking, and core by far the furthest behind. I’m still a few grades off my peak performance, but I couldn’t be happier with my progress. The feeling of strength returning is amazing, and the joy of climbing with my husband and daughter at the crag supporting me is hard to beat. The crux is still the sleep deprivation, and managing general fatigue from all the extra daily responsibilities of keeping a tiny human alive and happy. Chris and I work hard to make sure I get opportunities to rest, train and get out climbing, but even with the best intentions, it’s common for gender stereotypes to prevail. I often default to take on more of the caregiving duties, getting less sleep and fewer offers from others to get out for a short baby-free session. Having a very mobile and energetic baby is now starting to become more of a challenge. Instead of selecting routes based on my physical limitations, we are picking crags that are baby friendly or opting for bouldering in an effort to ensure we both get enough time on rock to keep us sane. Sometimes you just have to turn around and go home, and try again tomorrow. Sometimes you have to cancel your plans because you realise you are simply too tired and probably shouldn’t even be driving, let alone belaying or cleaning anchors.

To be honest, it feels like the horrendous weather over the winter and spring has been more inhibiting than the new family dynamic. Perhaps I’m just being optimistic, even a bit biased, because I really love my daughter and I don’t care too much if that means I climb a little less.

Stay up to date on Ashlee's climbing and journey as a mum out adventuring by following her on Instagram here. Be the first to know about new Blog posts and Bogong news by following our own Instagram and Facebook.

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