photo courtesy of nyboneandjoint.com
bowel problems both during pregnancy and postpartum. How do you keep a healthy pelvic floor during pregnancy, after having a baby, and beyond?
At some point, women became convinced that there were certain problems they just needed to live with. Leaking urine when you cough or sneeze? “That’s normal after having babies.” Having pain when you have sex? “All women have pain sometimes.” her “bladder dropped”), or they may experience pain in and around the pelvis and low back. Of course, the muscles are most well-known for their “sphincteric” role, meaning that they contract to hold back urine and stool, and relax to allow for bowel and bladder emptying. Problems in these muscles can lead to urine or stool leakage or difficulty emptying the bladder or bowels. Lastly, the muscles play a key “sexual” role. They stretch to allow for sexual intercourse and contract rhythmically for pleasure and orgasm. If these muscles become tender, tight or sensitive (like from a scar), women can experience sexual pain. Does it really matter that much to keep a healthy pelvic floor?
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Actually, it really does. Pelvic floor disorders are extremely common. Almost 50% of women experience urinary leakage at some point in their lifetimes and up to 30% experience pain with sexual intercourse. Pretty big numbers, right? And the crazy thing is, being pregnant itself is a risk factor for many future pelvic floor problems, so learning about these issues and striving to prevent them should be on the radar of any woman in her childbearing years (and arguably, before and after that too!) Research is pretty encouraging when it comes to retraining the pelvic floor. In fact, a recent Cochrane review recommended pelvic floor training for pregnant women to prevent urinary and
Step 1: Identify any current problems you have and seek help! At some point, women became convinced that there were certain problems they just needed to live with. Leaking urine when you cough or sneeze? “That’s normal after having babies.” Having pain when you have sex? “All women have pain sometimes.” And really, I could go on and on. The myths are pervasive, and the real truth is that there is much that can be done to help the problems women experience. So, what might lead you to think you have a pelvic floor problem? Here are some common signs and symptoms: • Urinary problems (increased frequency of urination, stronger urges to urinate, changes in urination or urinary leakage/ incontinence) • Bowel problems (difficulty emptying stool, long-term loose stool, leakage/incontinence) • Sexual problems (pain/ discomfort with sexual activity, alterations in sexual arousal and/or orgasm) • Pain (lower abdomen, hips, buttock, low back, genital area) • Pelvic Pressure (sensation of heaviness in the pelvis or the vagina) If you are having any of the problems listed above, I would strongly encourage you to talk to your medical doctor about it, and seek out an evaluation by a skilled pelvic floor physical
