Ms Emma Brockwell is a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist who works at elite sport level and currently consults for Chelsea Women’s Football Club (WFC), Arsenal WFC, Manchester City WFC, Aston Villa WFC, London City Lionesses and the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT). She is passionate about supporting players with Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD), as well as those who are pregnant and postpartum.
She co-authored the first Returning to Running Postpartum Guidelines and has gone on to publish further work around pregnancy and postpartum, including the FIFA Stay in Play and Step into Play frameworks and decision aids. She is part of the expert consensus group for the International Olympic Committee statement on sports participation in preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. She has spoken at many conferences, including the European Club Association (ECA), The Female Athlete Conference in Boston, Sports and Exercise Medicine, Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP), Birth Core and Pelvic Therapy (BICAP) in Belgium, and the Isokinetic Conference in London and Madrid.
She is a female health expert for the FIFA Female Health Project and part of the FIFA Perinatal Research Team, which includes Professor Margie Davenport, Dr Sinead Dufour and Ms Ivi Casagrande. She is passionate about advancing research in female perinatal athletes and pelvic floor dysfunction in elite athletes. Emma's passion for busting myths and reducing stigma around pelvic health, while encouraging women of all ages to be active, can be heard on many podcasts, including Happy Mum Happy Baby and The Food Medic.
She has written her first book, Why Did No One Tell Me? How to Protect, Heal and Nurture Your Body Through Motherhood, published by Ebury Books. She is on the Clinical Scientific Advisory Board for The Active Pregnancy Foundation. In May 2023, Ms Brockwell won the ‘Best Case Study Contest’ at the Isokinetic Conference, where she presented on the role of pelvic health physiotherapy in the return to play of an elite footballer. She is passionate about encouraging all women to enjoy exercise and founded the Oxted Ladies Run Club, a local running club with over 120 members.
Dr Davenport is an Exercise Physiologist and Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. She holds the Christenson Professorship in Active Healthy Living and is the Director of the Programme for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health (www.exerciseandpregnancy.ca; established 2013). Dr Davenport received her PhD from the University of Western Ontario in 2010 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 2012.
She was the Chair of the 2019 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy, and the 2025 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep throughout the First Year Postpartum. This work led to the development of the Get Active Questionnaire for Pregnancy, Get Active Questionnaire for Postpartum and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology/ American College of Sports Medicine Pre and Postnatal Exercise Specialisation.
Dr Davenport has published more than 200 manuscripts related to physical activity and sport during pre-conception, pregnancy and the postpartum period. Over the last decade she has worked with a number of National/ International organisations including FIFA, The Women’s Tennis Association, the World Health Organisation, International Olympic Committee, Sport Canada, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, and the American College of Sports Medicine to support physical activity during and following pregnancy.
