INTEGRATED PERINATAL FITNESS SPECIALIST COURSE

This manual is designed to be worked through sequentially during the course and used as a reference afterward. It is organized into numbered sections, cross-references, recurring callout boxes, chapter summaries, key terms, review questions, and a numbered reference list.

SUGGESTED READING ORDER

Begin with the front matter, including Course Administration, Scope of Practice, Completion Requirements, How to Use This Manual, and the Introduction, before moving into Part I.

Read Chapters 1 through 13 in order throughout the course. The chapters build cumulatively, and later material regularly relies on concepts, safety architecture, terminology, and referral pathways established earlier.

The sequence is intentional:

• Chapters 1 through 4 cover pregnancy physiology, biomechanics, the core-pelvic floor canister, and the safety and referral framework.
• Chapters 5 through 7 apply those foundations throughout the first, second, and third trimesters.
• Chapters 8 and 9 continue the timeline into the fourth trimester, early postpartum recovery, progressive strength and core recovery, and the return to running, impact, and other higher-demand activities.
• Chapter 10 steps out of the chronological training sequence to address nutrition awareness, metabolic health, fueling, lactation-related considerations, and referral boundaries throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period.
• Chapter 11 addresses psychology, trauma-informed coaching, mental health recognition and referral, ethics, privacy, documentation, and professional communication.
• Chapter 12 integrates the course into the eight-stage Bump Wellness Coaching System: Screen, Check-In, Prepare, Train, Monitor, Modify, Progress, and Document & Refer.
• Chapter 13 applies the same scope-aware standards to the business and professional practice side of perinatal fitness.

Reading out of sequence can mean encountering a decision framework before its foundation. Chapter 3 establishes the core-pelvic floor canister as a coaching model and provides the foundational framework for DRA, inter-recti distance, coning or doming, pelvic-health symptoms, and related scope boundaries. Chapter 4 establishes the safety pathways used throughout the manual; Chapters 8 and 9 cover postpartum recovery and progression; and Chapter 12 integrates the major concepts into the Coaching System.

Part V, the Professional Toolkit and Applied Practice, is designed to be both studied during the course and used as a reference afterward. Return to the relevant case studies, forms, templates, programming resources, safety references, glossary material, and other applied tools as needed.

The Bump Wellness Integrated Perinatal Fitness Specialist course is a comprehensive NASM-approved 1.9 CEU continuing education program designed for certified fitness professionals who want to safely and effectively train pregnant and postpartum clients.