'I stand in my pants on the internet so other mums feel less alone'

Beth Chadwick was about to give birth to her second child when her phone "started blowing up with alerts". It emerged a fitness video she had posted for the 30 or so women she ran dance classes for had gained hundreds of subscribers within hours.

"I was literally having a C-section," she said.

"I turned to my husband and said, what's happening?"

Four months later, the mum's dance workout channel has a community of almost 300,000.

Her followers are women from all over the world who enjoy her workouts to club, pop and rock hits including the one that started it all - Nickelback's song Burn It To The Ground.

Beth, from Pocklington, near York, launched MoveFit Mama after her first baby was born and she had "gained 70 pounds and a shed load of anxiety and depression along with it".

"I was looking online as I wasn't comfortable going to a gym," the 32-year-old said.

"There was no way I was leaving my baby and going out somewhere.

"I used to teach dance fitness but none of the classes I found online were geared at mums.

"Either they were really long workouts, which didn't work because a baby will cry within five minutes, or there was loads of jumping and the boobs and the pelvic floor could not cope with that."

Beth, who works in marketing at the University of York, began by starting small in-person dance fitness classes in Pocklington, with what she calls "nightclub vibes" for women of all ages, but especially postpartum mums.

That was back in 2023, after the birth of her daughter.

When she was due to have her second child in January she decided instead of leaving her clients without a class, she would "pre-film some videos and shove them on YouTube" - not thinking they would reach a wider audience.

MoveFit Mama went from 1,000 subscribers at the end of January to 289,000 in May.

"I have a picture on my phone of my husband giving me a cupcake with a 1,000 on it literally at the end of January, and we just look at it now and we're like, what happened?"

Beth also has almost one million followers on her Facebook page, where she posts clips of workouts and interacts with her fans.

"A lot of my stuff is really showing what a real postpartum body looks like, because I feel like I get a lot of comments saying, 'you're jiggly', or 'you're big'. 'Why would I take fitness advice from someone like you?'

"And I'm like, because we're the exact people who need it. I'm going through it currently. I am on my weight loss journey, and I will stand there in my pants on the internet so that other mums can feel less alone."

Beth said women feel different in their bodies after childbirth, but no-one prepares them for it.

"I'm still learning to love my body again and I want other women to feel that way as well," she said.

"I think there needs to be more of a space where people are showing that and showing fun fitness options."

Another point she makes is that not everyone can afford to join a gym or pay for classes, and the ones she offers online are free.

"I always say it's my love letter to every mum who's postpartum or perimenopausal, menopausal. I've got women all the way up in their 60s doing them.

"So, you know, if it's helping, it's helping."

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