“Poorly supported breast weight increases our likelihood of ‘getting smaller’ as time goes on. During pregnancy, the bump weight and unrecognised increased breast weight, can result in women adopting a posture where they lean back into their lower back, increasing the chances of developing low back or pelvic girdle pain during or after their pregnancy.”
When an issue occurs, O’Donovan advises that attempting to fix one part of the body in isolation can be counterintuitive. “Like the song goes,” she says, “‘the knee bone connects to the thigh bone’, so what happens at your feet can ultimately affect your head position. We begin at the feet and work our way up the body. I like the concept of body parts being stacked over each other, as this will minimise the gravitational pull of body parts that lie outside the imaginary line within the stack.
“Joints respond to the position they are held in,” O’Donovan says, “so for example someone whose head has been in a position that is forward of their spine for a long time won’t necessarily be immediately able to bring their head back on the top of their spine. “Postural awareness and bra-fitting will individually improve posture, but bra-fitting will only create a temporary improvement. Postural awareness on its own changes the position of the breast relative to the floor but does not move them upwards on the chest wall itself.”O’Donovan works with women and girls of all ages and life stages to educate, empower, and enlighten them on how to be able to support their breast weight.