Preparing women.
Not just for birth, but for everything that comes before, during, after, and beyond.
HIPPS™
What is HIPPS™?
A model for integrating occupational therapy into maternity care.
Are you a midwife interested in incorporating this model of care? Or a maternal/infant therapist interested in collaborating with midwives using this model?
Send us an email and let’s get started.
Holistic & Integrative Pregnancy and Postpartum Support (HIPPS™) brings occupational therapy into the maternity care setting, creating a collaborative model where clinical care, functional support, education, movement and preparation for motherhood exist within the same continuum. This model helps women to feel prepared, confident, and supported.
Our long-term vision for HIPPS™ is that this model of care becomes embedded into the standard of care for all women, despite birthing location. While we continue working towards our long-term goal we have made all of our signature HIPPS™ courses available for purchase to begin reaching women on a larger scale.
The Gap
Pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
Motherhood lasts a lifetime.
Yet many women receive months of prenatal care focused primarily on growing a healthy baby and only one routine postpartum visit after one of the biggest physical and emotional transitions of their lives.
Too often women leave a prenatal visit knowing how many centimeters dilated they are, but not…
how to prepare their pelvic floor
how to recover after birth
what normal postpartum healing looks like
how to move with their changing body
how to care for themselves while caring for a newborn
how hormones affect recovery
how feeding, sleep, relationships, identity, work, and mental health intersect
how to navigate the transition to motherhood, returning to work, and redefining who they are
The issue isn't that women don't care, it’s that women aren't routinely taught these things.
HIPPS was created to change that.
To expand the care team to address the functional realities of pregnancy, postpartum, recovery, and early parenthood.
Why Occupational Therapy Belongs in Maternity Care
Midwifery cares for the physiology of pregnancy and birth.
Occupational therapy addresses how pregnancy, birth, and motherhood affect everyday life.
Both professions are rooted in whole-person, individualized care. Midwifery considers pregnancy and birth within the context of the whole woman. Occupational therapy considers health within the context of what a person needs and wants to do every day. Often, these needs/wants shift dramatically during pregnancy and require altering or adjusting the ways in which you engage with the world around you.
Together, midwifery and occupational therapy create an opportunity to support not only a healthy pregnancy and birth, but a woman’s ability to function, adapt, recover, and transition into motherhood.
What does “Integrating OT” actually mean?
In the HIPPS model, occupational therapy isn't a separate service families have to discover after a problem develops.
It is built into maternity care.
The OT works alongside the maternity care team, providing education and support throughout pregnancy and postpartum while creating pathways for individualized therapy when additional needs are identified.
Universal education — OT-informed pregnancy and postpartum education is available to everyone.
Early identification — concerns involving pelvic health, pain, movement, feeding, infant development, daily function, or the transition to parenthood can be recognized sooner and the OT offers 1:1 services to address each issue.
Pregnancy
Movement + pelvic health
Daily function + pain
Birth preparation
Breastfeeding preparation
Birth Preparation
Positioning + movement
Pelvic floor preparation
Partner education
Functional preparation
Direct access to support — families already know who to turn to when individualized help is needed.
Collaborative care — the OT and maternity providers communicate daily instead of functioning in separate silos.
Continuity into postpartum — support doesn't end when the baby is born.
Early postpartum
Recovery + pelvic health
Feeding + ergonomics
Return to daily activity
Adjustment to motherhood
Motherhood
Infant development
Feeding support
Maternal function
Return to exercise, work + meaningful routines
Infant development
Achievement of developmental milestones
Resolving torticollis + head shape concerns
Infant sensory regulation
Mommy + me play groups
Pillars of HIPPS™
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Education
Knowledge changes healthcare.
We give women information they can actually understand and use—not simply medical terminology or another handout to take home.
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Collaboration
Better care happens together.
Our work was built at the intersection of multiple disciplines, and we believe women's health is strongest when professionals learn from one another.
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Whole-Person Health
You are more than a symptom.
Movement, sleep, relationships, work, motherhood, mental wellness, sexual health, pelvic health, hormones, and everyday life are interconnected.
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Prevention
You shouldn't have to wait until something is wrong.
Education and support should help women prepare for transitions—not simply respond to problems afterward.
What this looks like in practice
HIPPS™ Team:
1) Team of midwives and midwifery students
2) Maternal/Infant Occupational Therapist with a speciality in lactation and pelvic floor therapy
3) Certified Lactation Consultant
4) Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a specialty in perinatal mental health
Fee Schedule:
The cost of birth at Tree of Life Midwifery and Birth Center
Signature HIPPS™ Classes:
1) Caring for Your Pregnancy
2) Optimizing Your Pregnancy
3) Prenatal Pelvic Floor & More
4) Push Prep
5) Prenatal Breastfeeding Prep
6) Down & Dirty on the First 30 - Postpartum Prep
7) Postpartum Pelvic Floor Recovery
Class Schedule: