Lara Morgan Lee, MD, Chicago, IL (2026)

03/31/2026

3 Things You Might Bot Know About Postpartum- From a Sports Medicine Physician for Moms 🩵🎾🫶🏼

And if you want more of these, let me know I have a ton!

1️⃣ You relationship with the scale:
It can be triggering, especially if you’ve struggled with it before. Know how you feel going in, and then decide: use it as a tool or skip it entirely. Your mindset matters more than any number.

2️⃣ Decide your sleep setup early:
if you had a C-section, getting in and out of bed can be tough. Plan your sleep arrangements to protect your recovery and energy. Pro tip: having the nursery recliner where you want to sleep (we put ours in by the master bed) is key.

3️⃣ Figure out the PT plan now:
Every pregnancy. Every time. And no one wants to be calling their insurance in early postpartum, or contacting offices to see who can see them and when. Save the mental load! Do it before hand.

This is how you postpartum like an athlete. With care that fills the gap so you can have your best experience ever.

03/30/2026

You went back at 6 weeks and they told you… what?

Tell me below 👇🏼

“Cleared”?
“You look great”?
“See you if you need anything”?

The system is failing you. Medical care should not end at 6 weeks.

‼️ We leave moms at healed, not recovered.

And that is a problem. Not just for today, for your long term health.

That ends here.

03/29/2026

If you’ve been doing “postpartum core exercises” and still don’t feel strong… it is because no one showed you how to actually rebuild after birth.

So you did what anyone would do in 2026.

You went to social media.

And it gave you:
breathe
engage your deep core
do a few tiny drills
be careful
hope it works

That is not a rebuilding process.

🚨 That is postpartum recovery getting reduced to low level rehab with no progression back to strength.

Why? Because it is easy to sell.

So you are out there wondering why your core still feels off.

Why you are scared to lift heavier, run, jump, do abs, or trust your body again.

Why carrying your baby, getting off the floor, pushing a stroller uphill, working out, or just moving through life still does not feel right.

Because being told how to “activate” is not the same as being taught how to rebuild.

And you deserve more than vague cues, fear based advice and hope that actually makes you feel worse not better.

You deserve what we would give any athlete after a major physical event:
education
a return to play plan
progression
strength
support for set backs
constant reassessment to ensure you SUCCEED.

👉🏼That is how postpartum recovery should work.

👩🏻‍⚕️ This is sports medicine for moms.

No more guessing.
No more fear-based rehab.
No more care gap.

Follow if you want postpartum recovery explained in a way that actually helps you get stronger 🔥

03/27/2026

The internet made crunches the villain of postpartum recovery.

And now you’re out there terrified to do one sit-up…

but somehow you carry a car seat, push a stroller uphill, get off the floor holding a baby, and just “get back to working out.”

It makes no sense 🤯

The question was never: “Are crunches bad postpartum?”

It is: Is this the best exercise your body can tolerate well right now for maximum benefit?

That is a different conversation.

I am so tired of the fear based recovery marketing to moms.

Don’t do this. �Definitely do this.
Don’t ever do crunches again.
Planks are forbidden.
Diastasis? Consider your core strength gone forever… unless you do these 3 moves I did…

I could go on forever, but that’s not the point…

🫶🏼 Postpartum recovery is not built around fear of movement.

It is built around:

what your body is doing under load
whether symptoms show up
how you are managing pressure
and whether that exercise makes sense for you in that phase

AND THEN WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT 🔥

So you can actually have a

Strong core
Body you feel confident in
Plans for exercises that feels great for you
Life you can function in
Long term health, wellbeing, strength…

👉🏼 That is how I do postpartum as a sports medicine physician.

No exercise is “good” or “bad”
No internet rules.
No blanket advice for every postpartum body.

If you’ve been cleared but still don’t feel strong, supported, or like your body is really ready… you’re in the right place.

NEWSLETTER DROPS NEXT WEEK ‼️ sign up in bio or on www.sportsdrmorgan.com

Should we do a whole newsletter with all the tips, tricks and info you need to have your strongest core postpartum?

📢 Let me know in comments and we will make it happen-

03/25/2026

Motherhood is a performance event. We just refuse to treat it like one.

Your body adapted for 9 months.
Delivered a baby.
Got cleared at 6 weeks…

And then were expected to just “be fine.”

No progression. No rebuild. No plan.

If this were my professional athlete, that would be malpractice.

But for moms? It’s standard care.

And that’s why years later you’re still dealing with leaks, hip pain, back pain, core weakness- and wondering what you did wrong.

You didn’t do anything wrong.

You were never given a return to performance plan.

Save this: 📍Postpartum recovery doesn’t end at 6 weeks.

Truthfully, it never even started.

Send this: 🎙️ to a mom who was told she’s “fine” but knows she’s not.

03/23/2026

Women don’t get hurt postpartum because they did something wrong.

They get hurt because they were never given the support they needed.

From day 1 after birth, you go back to your normal life- lifting, carrying, feeding, moving, surviving- with a new baby and all the needs associated with it.

But you get

No education.
No training.
No support.

On all that has happened and is coming next for your body.

We expect you to just… handle it. To figure it out between diaper changes and sleepless nights.

We don’t send untrained athletes back to play- but we do it to mothers every day.

If you were my professional athlete,
I would assess you.
Rebuild your strength.
Guide your return to performance.

But mothers?

Cleared once.

No plan.
No progression.
No support.

So when pain, leaking, or weakness shows up- it’s not failure. Read that again- it was never your fault.

It’s a system that was never built.

That’s the gap in postpartum care.

And that’s exactly what I am here to solve.

👉🏼 If you’re postpartum, start here:�Can your body:�• manage pressure in your core and pelvic floor (doming, leaking, or heaviness)?�• control load (lifting, carrying, daily movement- how do those alter the pressure and symptoms)?�• tolerate impact (without symptoms showing up before during or after)?

If not, you’re not “behind.”

You’re just unassessed.

🚨I see this every day in my clinical practice- women 5–10 years after birth dealing with symptoms that were never addressed early on.

From now on

This is what gets evaluated.
This is what gets rebuilt.

03/21/2026

If postpartum care followed the same standards we apply in sports medicine, maternal recovery would be proactively planned. Not left to chance.

We would expect:
• Structured healing timelines
• Graduated return to play
• Monitoring for overload and breakdown
• Early intervention not “wait and see”

Instead, women are told:
“You’re fine.”
“Give it time.”
“This is just motherhood.”

And we wonder why so many feel broken months or years later.

This isn’t a resilience problem.

It’s a systems failure.

— Dr. Morgan

03/20/2026

If you were my professional athlete, no one would clear you once and send you on your way.

We test everything.
Rebuild what’s weak.
Progress you back to performance.

Mothers?

Cleared at 6 weeks.
No assessment.
No plan.

Just “go exercise.”

And when your body doesn’t feel right years later

pain
leaking
weakness
injuries

you’re told it’s normal.

It’s not normal.

It’s unassessed.
It’s unsupported.
It’s untreated.

You can’t rebuild what was never evaluated.

If you’re done guessing and ready for real postpartum care… you’re in the right place⚡️

Who needs to hear this message?? 🎙️📢

03/19/2026

Just because your kids are older doesn’t mean your body is done recovering.

👉🏼 Did you get the care you wanted and needed postpartum??

Or are pain, weakness, leaking… these symptoms that don’t magically go away still bothering you years later???

Because moms aren’t told how to fix them. Worse yet, we normalize it as “being a mom”.

If a professional athlete went through what your body did during pregnancy, we’d track every system,
rebuild every weakness, and guide a safe return to performance.

Moms? We’re cleared at 6 weeks and left out on our own.

This is why the postpartum care gap shows up years later too- especially as perimenopause approaches and especially as moms are having kids later in life

👉🏼 The systems we never rebuilt start to falter.

I want to hear from you ⬇️ what’s one symptom or challenge you’re still dealing with years after pregnancy?

Drop it in the comments. I guarantee you that you are not alone.

03/17/2026

Pregnancy changes nearly every system in the body.

But postpartum recovery is reduced to a single moment.

In sports medicine we would never return an athlete to activity that way.

Mothers deserve the same standard of recovery 📣

🩵 I spent the day creating something really special for you… It was a day of pushing myself, learning and growing so more moms can hear this truly life changing message. If you’ve been here from the start, or are a new follower- I am so happy to have you 🫶🏼 and can’t wait to share more soon!

10/16/2025

They were right. I am stronger. 🔥

But the truth is, I was scared.

Would I be able to do it?
Be strong enough?
Carry two babies?
Feel like me again?

By 26 weeks with the twins, I could barely walk a block without pain. I modified everything… but I kept moving however I could.

Then came postpartum—

one tiny movement, building on the next.

Day after day.

That’s how I became stronger than ever.

And that’s how I can help you do it too.

Not by chasing “bounce back” goals…
but by training like an athlete in the season of motherhood.

This is what happens when moms are cared for like athletes. 🔥🧡🫶🏼

PS- whoa looking back at that belly?! I cannot believe it. This video made me really emotional. Our bodies are truly amazing.

Thanks for the inspo on this one PS I want to be on your podcast 🚨

10/09/2025

ICYMI — this conversation is one every mom and clinician should hear 🚨

As I ease back into work life, I wanted to be sure you saw this recent podcast drop.

Because when reached out, I knew I wanted to talk about our shared vision: giving moms the same multidimensional care professional athletes receive- because it’s not luxury, it’s effective care 🔥

This episode dives into what that really looks like and why it matters for long-term recovery, performance, and well-being.

Catch it on your favorite podcast platform and drop your questions below 👇🏼 more of these expert conversations coming soon 🧡

Lara Morgan Lee, MD

03/31/2026

03/30/2026

03/29/2026

03/27/2026

03/25/2026

03/23/2026

03/21/2026

03/20/2026

03/19/2026

03/17/2026

10/16/2025

10/09/2025

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