Why we created the Oh Baby! Fitness Prenatal/Postnatal Fitness Training

Why we created the Oh Baby! Fitness Prenatal/Postnatal Fitness Training

Several years ago, I sat with a team of newly hired Oh Baby! Fitness instructors in a live perinatal fitness training. This was the go-to pre/postnatal training at the time–basically the only one on the market. I had taken the live training a few years before with a great instructor and had spent the years since teaching 20+ Oh Baby! Fitness classes a week. I was excited for our new team, but about halfway through called Clare, the CEO and founder of OBF and said, “We’ve got to create our own training. NOW.”

NBC: Fitness Business Focuses on New and Expectant Moms

NBC: Fitness Business Focuses on New and Expectant Moms

ATLANTA — Forbes magazine ranked metro Atlanta as the fifth-best city in the U.S. for women starting businesses. A local businesswoman has found success with a fitness business that works with expectant and new mothers. Oh Baby! Fitness was born after Clare Schexnyder gave birth to her daughter Sofia 10 years ago. “I had crippling postpartum depression. I didn’t leave my house. I didn’t shower. I didn’t want to do anything, and I really didn’t want to have anything with my child,” Schexnyder said. “But I was a control freak who wouldn’t let anyone else touch her, so it was a terrible combination.” A parent support group that included exercise changed everything.

Oh Baby! Fitness CEO Talks Bold Career Moves, Birthing Fears, Postpartum Depression + Workouts

Oh Baby! Fitness CEO Talks Bold Career Moves, Birthing Fears, Postpartum Depression + Workouts

You’ve seen her before — the mom in the grocery store checkout line with a newborn swaddled to her midsection, a glazed look in her eyes, and a little spit-up on her shoulder. Staring back from the candy and gum section is the smiling face of a perky television star on the cover of a weekly magazine, wearing a bikini and holding an infant. The headline declares in a huge pink font, “BODY AFTER BABY.” It’s enough to make you scream. The priority for most moms isn’t to fit into a two-piece weeks after birth, but to be healthy and feel great (or as great as is possible) during and after pregnancy. And Mama, Atlanta’s own Oh Baby! Fitness can help with that, offering exercise programs for new and expectant moms. Oh Baby! Founding Mom/CEO/Co-owner Clare Schexnyder tells us more in this week’s Friday Five with WellATL.