Bumps, Burpees and Babies! Interview with Charlie Barker

Today Zoe speaks to Charlie Barker, mother, entrepreneur and founder of bumps and burpees post-natal fitness company.   Charlie talks to Zoe about starting and running her own business, writing and getting a book published in a year (whilst pregnant and in a pandemic!) and life after having a baby. They also talk in depth about Charlie’s three tragic miscarriages before the birth of her beautiful child Archie.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Charlie met her husband George at university and they have now been together for 12 years. Charlie trained to be a personal trainer but after a postnatal PT at her gym left she took on some of her clients and got many referrals. It was this that made her decide to do more training and become more specialised to be a pre and post-natal PT. She found that a lot of the time the ‘barriers’ these women faced was very different to other clients, in the fact that getting childcare could often be a struggle. It was this that made her incorporate babies into her clients training. She would start going to their houses and help facilitate her clients training by helping look after the babies, including changing nappies! Once her diary became full she then began training and recruiting other PTs and this is how the business grew. She would almost ‘match-make’ clients to PT’s to give them the best experience. Charlie got pregnant the first month they started trying, they were over the moon. Sadly, she started having some bleeding very early on and started miscarrying. They fell pregnant again very quickly, and told their families. They went for a private scan and the sonographer wasn’t sure they could see a heartbeat. She asked them to come back two weeks later. When she went back they had the tragic news that the baby hadn’t carried on developing and it was a missed miscarriage. As a society, we need to talk more about the physical side of miscarriage. We have started to become better at talking about the emotional side but it would be so helpful for so many women if we talked about what physically happened when we go through a miscarriage. Only after Charlie felt better in herself did her Husband George feel like he could then grieve and be honest about how he was feeling about the miscarriage. Devastatingly, her third pregnancy ended in a miscarriage too, whilst she was speaking at a baby show of all places. As Charlie had now had three miscarriages she had hit the NHS threshold for investigation and tests. But, all her tests came back fine and she was told it was ‘bad luck’ and to just keep trying. Charlie didn’t accept this and arranged to see a specialist but whilst waiting to see him she got pregnant! He did some tests and found out that her immune system was almost ‘fighting’ her pregnancies. She was put on steroids and some other drugs until she was 14 weeks pregnant and incredibly Charlie gave birth to Albie at 41 weeks!   BEST MOMENTS   “The stars aligned for you”   “I was removing that baby from them, letting them train and be themselves and do what they love and doing everything I possibly could to keep that baby to keep them training”   “It taught me some good multitasking tips”   “Often the lows aren’t spoken about”   “I had a gut feeling that if I didn’t take control this would keep happening”   “It was the first time we saw a heartbeat…I was in love”   “You have to live hour by hour and the baby is boss!”    "As a new mum I only drink cold tea now!"   VALUABLE RESOURCES   Charlie's Book - Bumps & Burpees   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST Charlie Barker   IG @charlielaunder IG @bumpsandburpees IG @clarebournephysio   Charlie's Book - Bumps & Burpees     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe’s goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe’s own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell