Diary of an academic mum

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD). I am sharing this post a few months after writing it. This was written while I was in my last trimester of pregnancy and reflecting on the advice I was offered throughout my pregnancy. I was wondering what the evidence was behind all of this advice and, therefore, if I should follow it or not.  BehaviourWorks Australia (my amazing workplace at Monash University) has caught baby fever this year and so I thought it was time that I wrote a pregnancy-inspired post. Today my 37-week bump and I decided to go for a walk to meet a friend of mine from the medicine faculty and enjoy a cheeky coffee together. Why is coffee cheeky you ask? Well, apparently, having coffee when pregnant is  bad  for you. So, suddenly my drinking of coffee is now cheeky and bad. I probably shouldn’t tell you that I accidentally had some cold chicken today too. But is there any evidence to say that pregnant women should avoid these ...

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD). Dr Breanne Kunstler, Associate Professor  Peter Bragge ​ and Ms  Alyse Lennox ​ recently published their rapid evidence and practice review called ' Changing prescribing behaviours with educational outreach: An overview of evidence and practice ' in BMC Medical Education. Please share this review using these  Twitter  or  LinkedIn  links. Picture this... Your mother slipped on some icy concrete last week and fell, fracturing her arm in two places. You hated seeing her in pain and you were very pleased when her GP promptly referred her to an orthopaedic surgeon who booked her in for surgery and gave her some pain medication. You were especially pleased to know that her GP gave her a couple of repeats for the medication the surgeon prescribed, just in case she needed them. Poor mum. Now let's talk about the  opioid epidemic . An opioid is a strong medica...

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD).  Physiotherapist, behaviour change scientist and run coach.   This is part two of my blog post on the tendency for people to set new year’s resolutions that involve weight loss, rather than focusing more broadly on achieving good health. This post was inspired by my personal reflection on my relationship with food and exercise since giving birth to my daughter four months ago. If you haven’t read that post yet, then please read it here as I will be referring to it throughout this post. Let’s pick up where we left off Let me return to the question I ended yesterday’s post on.  How do we focus on ways of eating, exercising and participating in other behaviours that can support physical, mental and social wellbeing (“ health ”) instead of just taking the mental shortcut and focusing on becoming thin? I believe it requires a shift in our thinking from eating to lose weight, which involves surren...

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD).  Physiotherapist, behaviour change scientist and run coach.   A little about me I gave birth to a healthy and lively baby girl almost four months ago on 13 September 2019. I ate foods to fuel my pregnant body and exercised to keep myself fit and strong, all with the aim of growing a healthy baby while keeping myself healthy, throughout my entire pregnancy. This approach, as well as the perceived inability to eat large quantities of food due to general discomfort and heartburn, led to a very healthy pregnancy (Image 1). I ate when I was hungry, stopped eating when I was full and exercised when and how I wanted to. This was so simple; I was just acting on intuition. Childbirth was bloody hard, the recovery painful and the sleepless nights that ensued were relentless. Pretty standard experience I’d say. Image 1: Me in my third trimester at my baby shower (credit: Facebook ) The focus on weight loss in th...