NY Liberty Doctor: Sports Can Help Us Treat Pregnancy

Yahoo

15 hours ago

Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty shoots a basket while Natasha Howard #6 of the Indiana Fever defends during the first half at Barclays Center on July 16, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. Credit - Ishika Samant—Getty Images
I treat professional athletes for a living.
I'm the primary care sports medicine doctor for the New York Liberty. As a former Division I athlete myself, I'm honored to remain connected to the sport I love—and treat some of the world's most elite players. I know I've been tasked with caring for a historically marginalized population at a time when the healthcare system is finally starting to value female athletes. I take this responsibility seriously—and coordinate care year-round for the team, treating everything from acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries to sore throats and earaches.
But after the birth of my second child, I found myself on the other side of the exam table—trying to manage diastasis recti, a postpartum condition where the abdominal muscles separate, causing pain and weakness.
Even with world-class care and clinical training, I'm still on the mend eight months later. That makes me one of the lucky ones. Most women don't have access to the resources I do and they're left navigating complex, often painful recoveries on their own.
The reality is pregnancy affects nearly every organ system, yet most women receive little to no guidance on how to protect or rebuild their health. Our healthcare system waits for problems and then scrambles to respond. It rarely works to prevent them.
We're long overdue for a shift to a proactive model of perinatal care—care that supports women before, during, and after pregnancy—and integrates musculoskeletal medicine, physical therapy, and nutrition.The science is clear. Pelvic floor and core-strengthening exercises can significantly reduce the risk of wide-ranging complications, including urinary incontinence, severe perineal tears, diastasis recti, and low back pain. These interventions also improve delivery outcomes by increasing the likelihood of vaginal delivery and shortening the second stage of labor.
General exercise, even at lower intensities, is a proven preventive tool. Just 140 minutes of prenatal exercise weekly can reduce the risk of gestational diabetes by 25%. Women who exercise more than three times per week for 25 minutes have a 39% lower risk of developing gestational hypertension, which can progress to preeclampsia.
Exercise also helps manage excess weight gain during pregnancy, which is linked to a host of issues, from birth canal trauma to more complicated postpartum recovery. And it has been shown to improve overall mental health—an important consideration, given that perinatal depression affects "approximately 1 in 7 people during pregnancy or within the first year after childbirth."
Resistance training, in particular, can be highly beneficial when properly modified. Women who continue these routines during pregnancy are more likely to have the foundational strength to continue them safely and confidently after birth. Those who stop often face greater hurdles getting back.
And providing holistic healthcare during the postpartum stage matters just as much. Regular physical activity after childbirth supports a smoother recovery by improving cardiovascular fitness, reducing depressive symptoms, enhancing sleep quality, and promoting overall physical and psychological well-being. Experts recommend 150-300 minutes of moderate activity per week postpartum, along with strength training and stretching.
Yet this evidence still isn't reflected in standard care. Too often, healthcare professionals only intervene when something goes wrong. And it's on women to seek out pelvic floor physical therapy, find out which movements are safe, or identify the right specialists. Many don't know where to begin—and many OB/GYNs aren't equipped to guide them. That leaves countless women isolated, misinformed, or resigned to believe that chronic discomfort is simply part of motherhood.
That's what I set out to change after the birth of my first child. I helped launch a perinatal program at the Hospital for Special Surgery (one of the country's largest women's sports medicine centers) to bring proactive, integrated medicine into the pregnancy and postpartum experience.
The term "sports medicine" is really a misnomer; the goal isn't just to treat athletes, but to help people recover and stay strong through major life transitions. We should think of it as "movement medicine."At HSS, we've built a model that connects women with physical therapists, nutritionists, and physicians trained to support every stage, from preconception to postpartum.
And we're not alone. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has built a similarly comprehensive model, integrating musculoskeletal and wellness care into routine perinatal services. This scalable, evidence-based approach should be available to all women.
It's time other healthcare systems followed suit and abandoned outdated protocols. The standard six-week postpartum visit is too late to identify emerging issues, let alone intervene. During pregnancy, support is often limited to monitoring the baby's development, with relatively little attention paid to the mother's health unless overt complications arise. That's a failure of care.
Many barriers are solvable. One persistent myth is that pelvic floor therapy or nutritional support aren't covered by insurance. In reality, they often are when doctors provide diagnoses such as "weak pelvic floor" for pelvic floor therapy or "dietary counseling" for nutrition. Our team works within these frameworks every day.
The issue isn't feasibility. What's missing is awareness and a healthcare culture that prioritizes proactive care over damage control.
Physicians, especially those in systems with movement medicine or women's health expertise, must lead the shift in the standard of care. OB/GYNs aren't always trained to recognize musculoskeletal issues or connect patients to the right specialists. It's on us to change that—to ensure providers are informed, and patients feel supported from the start.
As a physician, I know this model works. As a mother, I know how desperately it's needed. It's time to support women with the comprehensive perinatal care they've always deserved.
Contact us at [e-mail].