What A Mummy MOT Actually Involves (And Why Every Postnatal Woman Deserves One)
- megan clements
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
What A Mummy MOT Actually Involves (And Why Every Postnatal Woman Deserves One)
If you've had a baby in the last six weeks or six years, or sixteen years there's a chance you've been carrying something nobody ever properly checked.
Maybe you leak when you sneeze. Maybe your stomach still feels different in a way you can't quite name. Maybe sex is uncomfortable. Maybe your lower back has never felt the same since pregnancy. Maybe nothing is "wrong" exactly but nothing is quite right either.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: the standard postnatal care most women receive in the UK is wildly inadequate. The 6 week GP check is largely a tick box. It's not an assessment of your pelvic floor function. It's not a check of your abdominal separation. It's not a look at your posture, your breathing patterns, or whether your body can actually return to the things it used to do.
In France, every postnatal woman is offered a course of pelvic-floor rehabilitation as standard. In the UK, you're often left to figure it out alone.
That's where the Mummy MOT comes in.
What is a Mummy MOT?
A Mummy MOT is an hour long, hands on assessment of how your body has recovered from pregnancy and birth. It's done by a specially trained physiotherapist at TAP, by clinicians qualified in both physiotherapy and women's health.
It looks at:
Pelvic floor function.
Not just "is it strong" but "is it coordinated, can it relax, does it respond to demand." Most women think pelvic floor = stronger. The truth is more nuanced.
Diastasis recti (abdominal separation).
A measurement of how well your abdominal wall has closed back together. We check the width, depth, and crucially — how the muscle is functioning, not just how it looks.
Posture and alignment.
Pregnancy shifts everything. Your ribs flare. Your pelvis tilts. Your shoulders round. Most of these don't resolve on their own.
Breathing patterns.
Pregnancy and birth disrupt the diaphragm-pelvic floor relationship. Re-establishing this is foundational for everything else.
Functional movement.
Can you squat, lunge, lift, and bend without pain or pressure? Where are the gaps?
Your specific concerns.
Whatever it is you've been quietly worried about this is the space to bring it up.
What it's NOT
It's not a one off massage. It's not a "your body will never be the same, accept it" conversation. It's not a cosmetic assessment about how your tummy LOOKS it is a clinical look at how your body is actually working followed by a clear plan to address whatever needs addressing.
When should you book one?
The honest answer: any time from 6 weeks postpartum onwards.
The most common time is around 8–12 weeks postpartum, before returning to higher impact exercise. But we regularly see women 1, 2, 5, even 15 years postpartum. The body's capacity to adapt and rebuild doesn't expire.
If you've been told "you've just had a baby, what do you expect" get a Mummy MOT.
If you've been told to "do your kegels" get a Mummy MOT to find out if kegels are actually what you need (often they're not).
If you've gradually accepted leaking, pain, or weakness as your new normal please, please get a Mummy MOT.
What happens after the assessment?
You leave with a clear understanding of what's going on, what needs work, and what doesn't.
From there, options usually include:
A bespoke rehab plan you can do at home
A series of follow-up physio sessions to rebuild what needs rebuilding
Onward referral to a colleague (e.g. a women's health specialist GP) if anything needs further investigation
Often: significant reassurance that the thing you've been worrying about is fixable
Why we offer this at TAP
Because for years, our team kept seeing women come in for back pain, hip pain, "core weakness," or persistent niggles that traced back eventually to unaddressed postnatal recovery. We got tired of saying "this should have been picked up sooner."
Now we do the picking up.
If you're pregnant, postnatal, or know someone who is please share this. The earlier the support starts, the easier the recovery. But there's no version of this where it's "too late."
