Hey there folks, introducing an entrepreneurial spirit, a wife, mother to three children under the age of 6, a postpartum doula, personal trainer and an advocate for pelvic floor health, Erika Matkovich. This day, I sit here writing this article, I am grateful. Full of gratitude for my family, friends, and for what I have done with my doula business, The Maternal Sidekick.
The Maternal Sidekick is a service-based business focusing on the postpartum family, offering in-home care and personal training services with a focus on pelvic floor health education and awareness. This area of postpartum wellness is a crucial aspect of recovery after childbirth, with significant impact on a birthing person’s quality of life, which is often not given adequate attention during the postpartum period. My goal with every client is that the family is provided with a more positive postpartum experience as well as realistic expectations of their evolving realities. Increasing the quality of a new family’s life in this way is an essential part of facilitating their wellbeing and will also serve to enhance the knowledge and awareness of their peers surrounding the value of postpartum support!
Back Story
When we finish high school we are funneled into some sort of post-secondary program and with a hope and a prayer from those paying for our education, that program pays off. Not me, I did the college route, and then spent years jumping job to job never feeling satisfied or fulfilled. It was starting to wear on me, a late 20-something year old with no true aspiration and about to start a family. Was a stay at home mother my true calling? Don’t get me wrong, I love my little nuggets but still had that career passion void.
2013, the birth of my first daughter, no complications, and pretty uneventful keeping this little bean alive. As the months dragged on I sunk into a funk that felt like I was losing pieces of my old self and had an identity crisis 6 months postpartum. I didn’t have a large support system and was the first of my friends to have a baby so I felt isolated. I didn’t have the information that I was experiencing postpartum depression, and I was too afraid to ask for help, because I didn’t want others to think I wasn’t a good mother for feeling this way. Google became my friend trying to find something to heal this crisis I was in.
I joined a local fitness club specializing in postnatal exercise. Over the next four years, I witnessed the real struggles, lack of postnatal knowledge, and lack of support faced by new moms outside of this group. In 2016, I pursued a fitness instructor certification and starting teaching postnatal classes and fell head over heels in love. My newfound awareness and passion for women’s postnatal health and wellness and my own struggles birthed the idea of The Maternal Sidekick.