About Me
Who I Am
Hi there, I am Stephanie Brown. It is impossible to define who you are in a paragraph. So in a nutshell, here is the important professional stuff.
I have been practicing physiotherapy since 2007 after graduating from Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S. My career has led me through many different areas of practice including hospital-based care, private practice, orthopaedics, sports therapy, and pelvic health.
I feel extremely lucky to have had such a wide range of clinical experience. My true passion lies in the field of Women’s Health Physiotherapy with a special focus on prenatal and postpartum care.
My Journey
My passion for pelvic health started while I was pregnant with my second child.
I had both my children vaginally with the assistance of wonderful midwives. Unbeknownst to me, my first labour and delivery was actually quite difficult. I say this because until having a second child and talking to hundreds of women about their childbirth experience, I had nothing to compare it to. In hindsight, I see how traumatic and difficult that birth was on my body.
Even as a highly educated health professional I did not know what to expect with childbirth. I did not fully understand how it would change my body. I did not know what things were normal and which were not. No one ever told me or talked about it. The focus was all on me when I was pregnant but after I had the baby that focus shifted to the newborn. I felt left in the dark. So like most women I carried on as normal. I went back to my regular exercise routine at 3 months postpartum and I leaked pee the first time I tried running on the treadmill. I chalked this up to “I just had a baby so this is normal”. Eventually things seemed to get a little better. There were aches and pains that I never experienced before in my pelvis but I ignored it. I thought it was normal.
Fast forward to my second pregnancy and things got worse. I was peeing my pants every time I coughed, sneezed or laughed too hard. I was also diagnosed with a prolapse and that is when my midwife referred me to a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist. Life changing moment! I was blown away by what she told me. She educated me on an area of my body I realized I knew little about. Through all my training as a healthcare professional this was never taught to me in such depth. I felt empowered. I felt reassured. I felt hope. From that day forward I knew that more women needed to know what I had just been taught. I took my first post graduate course in pelvic floor physiotherapy a few months after that appointment and have been practicing exclusively in this area ever since.
My Why
It has been my passion and goal to educate other women on pelvic floor health so that no woman needs to say “why didn’t anyone tell me this before?” Whether you are pregnant, postpartum, peeing your pants, experiencing pain with sex, going through menopause, or dealing with organ prolapse I can help!
There is hope and you are not broken. When we have knowledge, we have the power to change. When we feel supported and understood, we feel more confident. When we are able to heal our body, we end up stronger more amazing versions of ourselves.
Let’s do this together!
My Qualifications
The Physical Therapy Approach to Women’s Incontinence
The Physical Therapy Approach to Dyspareunia (Painful Intercourse)
Physiotherapy for Ano-Rectal Disorders
Bellies Inc. Core Confidence Specialist & Pre/Postnatal Fitness Specialist
Yoga Exercise Specialist
Pilates with a Pelvic Health Perspective
Special Considerations for Caesarean Section: Preparing for and Recovering from Belly Birth
Fundamental Concepts in Perinatality Physiotherapy, Through Pregnancy, Delivery and Beyond
Breastfeeding Conditions - Maternal and Infant Factors
Trauma & The Pelvic Floor: Treating Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault and Birth Trauma
Management of Pelvic Organ Prolapse with Pessaries in a Physiotherapy Setting
External Approaches: Treating Pelvic Pain and Dysfunction