We were lucky to catch up with Breanna Naccarato recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Breanna , thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I had always thought that the defining moment in my career was when I learned that I was pregnant with our first daughter. After giving birth to her I understood vividly that I had to start my own business and that business would center around women during the seasons of pregnancy and postpartum. I attended multiple trainings and became certified with Brianna Battles as a Pregnant and Postpartum Athleticism Coach. While this shaped and drove my passion for working with women here it still was yet to be my defining moment in my business.
In April of 2021, the height of covid- I delivered our second daughter. She was beautiful and looked exactly like her older sister. Looking down at her beautiful face was like looking three years in the past at the most miraculous thing I had ever done in my life.

But sadly we never got to know if she would grow up to be the same spitfire as our oldest. We never got to know if she would lose all of her jet black hair and a beautiful shade of blonde grow back in its place just like her big sister’s. We never got to know and we never will because she died during birth. Our daughter died tragically from a true knot in her cord. Something that we have come to find out is incredibly rare because the cord naturally protects itself from tightening completely but unfortunately that was not the case for us.
I knew my business was valuable and the work that I do with women to heal their bodies after birth and prepare for delivery was important and very needed in my community. I knew that I had to continue that but I didn’t know how to do that right away. I didn’t think that I was strong enough to create content during this extremely painful time but I prayed that I would find a way. It very much felt as if my business died with my daughter too.
I slowly began by sharing my story on my social media. Then sharing the struggles of recovering physically after stillbirth because of the trauma of the loss both physical and emotional, from there I began to see that it was possible that I could create a course for mothers just like me but it had to be trigger free. This became the defining moment in my career.
Much of the postpartum recovery programs available virtually today are not trigger free and include baby talk or babies in the videos. I had documented my workouts and journaled in my personal journal each day as I began to recover which became the comprehensive trigger free, Recovery After Loss Program. This return to exercise program is a six month course that can be done at home, with three workouts a week that include modification options and videos that will progress women from one day after loss all the way to six months postpartum. The exercises are progressively overload starting with healing of the core and pelvic floor and then taking and applying all the strength and knowledge built to more advanced movements like running and jumping without pelvic floor dysfunctions.

The course also includes daily devotional, powerpoints to learn all about the pelvic floor and women’s health, trauma release work, insight and expertise from mental health professionals to pelvic floor specialists.
The goal of the course is to be a one stop shop for mothers seeking support after traumatic pregnancy loss or infant loss. I wanted to include as much as possible so they wouldn’t have to seek additional support beyond their medical team and the Recovery After Loss course in the early days after loss.

I am currently working on a second program now and I will continue creating programs and content focused on pelvic health and healing that are completely trigger free for mothers who have experienced tragic pregnancy or infant loss.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Breanna Naccarato- Bree for short. I have a BA in psychology with a minor in Substance Abuse. I thought that I was going to grow up and be a Marriage and Family Counselor, but that did not happen! In 2014, just days after graduating from UNR my then boyfriend- now husband and I boldly moved from my home state of Nevada to St Louis, Missouri. There I did not return immediately to school to begin my Masters Degree because we were only originally supposed to be in Saint Louis for one year.

I joined a crossFit gym mostly to make friends at first but six months later, I began coaching classes after becoming a certified CrossFit trainer. I quickly fell in love with connecting with people in this way. It was very much akin to what I had done previously where I worked as a Mental Health Tech at an inpatient facility but this time with no walls and movement was applied!

I utilized all the tools I has been taught and used while working with clients during my inpatient work. The brain body connection of unloading pent up emotional distress while exercising had profound effects on my clients as the became stronger emotionally and physically with me. The strength made them more capable and comfortable in their bodies. I found it to be such a privilege to be on such a personal journey with them and immensely rewarding.

When I became pregnant with our first daughter I realized that there was not much information about safe exercising during pregnancy. Most of the information from medical providers was illogical and impractical. “don’t carry anything over 15lbs” or “just do what you’ve always done” both of which were severe opposites and unsafe advice.

I figured I’d go with the “listen to my body” approach which is great when you can truly understand your body. I now know that I truly did not understand my body. I had no idea what a pelvic floor was, no one had ever said that word to me and I had no concept of how much a pregnancy changed and affected the physical body.
We unexpectedly moved back from Missouri to Nevada a few weeks after I gave birth which was a difficult transition. Even though I was technically moving home, there was less support in Nevada than there was in Missouri- I had made a lot of friends there and there was tons of support for new moms at the birthing center I delivered at.

At four months postpartum I knew that it was time to create and launch my own business to better support women through exercise during pregnancy and postpartum. To provide them with extremely important information about their body and how it will change but also to create a community of support. Loved Momma Fitness was born!

I started first with small workshops, then a few personal training clients and eventually evolved into six week workshops. I was working with women in a gym setting to help them heal diastasis recti and manage pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms while applying that to movement. With my pregnant athletes, we were focusing on functional movement that was right for their body at the time to allow them to still exercise but do it safely for their body and pelvic floor. We also worked to prepare them for birth and the most difficult phase of healing- postpartum.

My business was thriving. I was really loving working with this population of women and was ecstatic when I became pregnant with our second daughter! I felt so prepared this time. I knew how I was going to exercise, what modifications and adjustments I would make to safely continue working out through my pregnancy and prepare my pelvic floor and body for birth. I was confident in what I would eat and who my birth team was and all the things I wanted to do this time in labor and my postpartum phase when I was ready to begin exercising again. I knew what to expect postpartum- I had a plan. But even with all the planning in the world no one could prepare you for the unknown.

We were blindsided when we learned that she no longer had a heartbeat while I was in active labor. The sequence of events after that moment are ones that I will be unpacking the rest of my life.
The trauma of her death, the trauma of her birth and the trauma of living my life without her has changed me into an entirely different person. I felt that this pivotal life moment would forever change the face of my business. A business that I thought died with her.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am currently in the pivot of my business. I didn’t ever expect to be a coach that worked mostly online. I didn’t enjoy the disconnect I felt with my clients when I couldn’t see them face to face or give them a high five. But now in this time when I am healing, connecting with so many people on a daily basis is not something I am capable of doing right now. It felt really foreign to write and create content, put it all together into an ebook, then launch it out into the virtual world.

I definitely felt out of my league but I was driven by that horrible moment that all loss moms know too well- walking back into your home without your baby in your arms. It is the absolute worst feeling in the world and I want to somehow be there for these mothers in those deeply painful moments.

I have connected with many who have purchased the course and I really love hearing how much they have enjoyed it. This course was like putting my heart and soul out there. Those who have purchased the course and read my words are reading my day to day grief journal from day one of my loss to six months post loss. It was an incredibly vulnerable experience and still is.

It has been over two years since the death of our daughter and I have learned so much from her. Motherhood is never what you expect it to be. A full term pregnancy is not a guarantee that a baby will make it home. I’ve learned that there are so many mothers out there suffering this heartache with very minimal support. I have changed how I approach conversations around motherhood and how I engage with women I have just met. How devastating grief can be inside the family unit and all other relationships.

How it feels like a rock has been thrown through the window of our lives and shattered broken shards of grief onto everything. There is no time that will heal this wound and there is nothing safe in life that will not be touched by the pain. Joy does shine through more vividly than the grief after sometime but the pain of her death will never lessen.

I fully underestimated how much the sadness and trauma would affect me. You cannot see it when you’re in it, even if you know it’s happening. Having support from trusted friends and professionals has really been the only thing to help me through while I navigate this terrible adventure. I’m thankful for the platforms available to me today to speak openly about stillbirth and grief, if only to help the other mothers and families who also feel so alone in their grief.

I am proud of the strength my daughter has given me through her death to stand up and share about her. Rainey will forever be part of my story and will forever be remembered by those I have helped because of her short but perfect life. I am her legacy now.

Here for a moment but forever in our hearts- a saying that never truly made sense until it happened to me.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I would definitely go back and choose this specialty again. While my business has morphed tremendously over the last two years, I couldn’t have ever imagined that this is where I would end up. I am so proud that I could create content and programs for women like me and be one of the voices to stand up and talk about the dark and painful parts of motherhood and metaphorically walk with mothers through their grief because there are so many women just like me who have experienced this painful and life changing loss.

Being part of the loss community is one of the worst clubs to be a part of but some of the best people are here. I have met some truly amazing women in the wake of the death of their baby and I could not be more thankful for them being part of my life now.

I have hosted and taught at a few seminars since Rainey’s death and I can see myself doing those intermittently again but right now I am focusing on building more trigger free courses for loss mothers, opening a nonprofit soon- Rainey Days and writing a griefly devotional for those who are grieving.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lovedmommafitness.com
• Instagram: @loved_momma_fitness