Pelvic floor knackered, told not to exercise HELP!!

@WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes nearly there - I have a gynaecologist appointment in the next week or so and then need them to refer me. Im so glad for this community - I’m only 33 and prolapsed during the first trimester of my second pregnanc when everything goes weak… the pregnancy turned into a miscarriage :(. I’m now reading that it’s harder to conceive with a prolapse, I really hope this isn’t the case - I can’t deal with a miscarriage, prolapse and not being able to carry a child again, all within a few months. 😥

Mine's fine. I do now run, do squats and lift weights but all with care, nothing too heavy and I also do yoga with a women's health specialist teacher who has taught me so much. I wouldn't feel safe doing any of the other things if I hadn't done the yoga classes for a few years TBH. A women's health physio would be a good place to start for you - have you got a referral?

I know this is a SUPPPEERRRR old thread but I’m keen to know what happened to your pelvic floors?? I’ve got a mild prolapse (still waiting to hear how mild but it’s not bothering me and I only feel it once in a while, maybe twice a week) but it’s really scaring me to think I can’t squat, run or lift weights.

Great update!
It's well worth having swimming lessons. I learnt at 16 as I'd never got the hang of it at school. Once you've got the technique, it tends to stay. I rarely get chance for a proper swim, but because I'm fit, I can.randomly swim a mile when I get a chance.

My pelvic floor isn't great, but has improved over this year. It seems to have taken my body just over two years to forgive me for an SPD ridden pregnancy and rough forceps birth (which was 2 years after Ds1 wrecked his havoc on my body). I've just had leakage issues when running / skipping / trampolining, and forgetting a pant liner is less critical than it once was.

Advice post-birth is rubbish. I was given several different messages after my 3rd degree tear about when to do pelvic floors, and how much recovery I needed first. Being embarrassed about it won't help anyone though!

Greater news!
Thanks for updating

Clara My PF was pretty weak, I didn't have any actual medical issues (just having 3 babies) and kettlebells worked for me.
Not only did it sort out the occasional leaking but it tightened everything up - I mean everything :)
The kettlebell doesn't need to be heavy as it's the action that you do with your body while swinging it. You kind of thrust and squeeze to get the KB to travel. All that squeezing really works.

Delighted to hear that you are doing well with the swimming.
Interestingly, the Yoga exercises that will most help you are the antenatal ones
and pranayama - breath control - as it involves control of all of teh abdominal area
but DO DO DO attend
a class as a teacher can correct you but a video cannot

Well done Clara! Really pleased for you both on the swimming front and finding the confidence to talk about it!

Hi Clara, thats great, well done, swimming is bliss I agree.

Long may you continue swimming and progressing:)

After my prolapse surgery the sum total of physio input was a 30 second visit to my hospital bed to ask if I knew how to do pelvic floor exercises. "Yes," says I.
"It's important you do them, " says she.
End of conversation.
Years later having seen a lovely women's health physio, I realised my idea of effective PFE, and how it should be done properly , were 2 different things. She reckoned we should be educating teenagers when they hit puberty and ideally should be included in the sex education program.
I also think it that surgery success is overestimated for prolapse. Follow up in most studies is only a year or two. No-one discusses what happens 10-12 years on when you are premenopausal.

Onsera - yep, I'm apoleptic about it too. It IS improving, there was a really good collaboration between the physios and midwives last year good article with linkies - but, the sad fact is that most women don't get the information at all.

It is changing - I'm involved with a Cochrane Review project about menopause, that looks like it'll be a big media campaign. Fingers crossed.

The truth is though, that as long as these things are seen as being embarrassing, well, we are silencing ourselves.

I agree, I'd completely overhaul the way we're taught about our bodies - though health and wellbeing at school, antenatal classes, pre-school registration (would be easy to send a self-assessment for the mum along with the kid's forms) - and, then we need info about menopause and all that jazz.

I keep murmuring, wouldn't it be amazing to get a MN campaign going? I think the stats are flawed, although they say 1:3 women the figures are taken from clinic - and we know that about 70% of women never go near a clinic. I started surveying my audiences (I wrote a comedy show, Gusset Grippers, about pelvic floors) and 75% of them reported symtoms - a quarter of those didn't consider themselves to be incontinent though, which raises all sorts of questions about perceptions.

So, if we surveyed MN users we'd get a good snapshot of incidence amongst a (reasonably) broad range. More broad than clinic figures, anyway.

And, yep, pram bumping's a tough one. Empty pram bumping is usually fine, but, loaded with a toddler and shopping bags with half a dozen bottles of wine is a LOT of weight. If you lift heavy weights you increase your intra-abdominal pressure, which bulges downwards. Doing "the knack" first will help Michelle Kenway's got a good video

Curls Bloody good for you. Skipping in a puddle is no fun at all, you'll be grand in no time. Chuffed to bits that you're following it up. Good luck!

gussie I came across your blog and other posts at the beginning of January, after realising I was the only mum wetting myself when using a skipping rope in excersise class. I've read all your brilliant words, seen the gp and now have an appt lined up to see the right people at Hospital. Thanks for giving me the Understanding and the cojones to go get it sorted

I wish my midwife had not bothered wasting an hour of my life with the ante natal class 'Talk to your Bump' and instead told us all about pelvic floor damage. Out of 6 of my friends who have babies, only 1 is completely fine. 1!!!!!! For goodness sake.
So - do these things improve a bit after I finish breastfeeding? My poor pelvic floor. Two pregnancies and 12 months of chronic coughing and a lot of breastfeeding over the last 3 years.
just off for a quick google of swimming costumes!

Well done Clara! 30 lengths on day1 is very impressive. Look up YouTube & note down some new moves for the next session...will keep you going. ??????

Thanks Gussie for all the info you've shared here.

At first I was terrified and upset about my pelvic floor. But now I'm starting to get annoyed.

I self diagnosed after talking to my sister who also suffered. I didn't realise til I was 8mo post partum and had obliviously been going about breastfeeding and doing some kegels (not very well it turns out). I went to the GP and she said everything was fine. I knew it wasn't so I booked an appt with my Gynae (I have one for other issues).

I was diagnosed easily and referred to Physio. I shudder to think what damage I had been doing- lifting the pushchair up steps and doing Pilates.

Now I'm starting to feel angry. I saw your stats about how many people have continence issues. Why aren't we offered care for our pelvic floors after birth like women elsewhere in Europe?

Last time I was at the Gynae I saw a poster on research they'd done saying most women who have hypermobility go on to have terrible bladder problems.

Why they hell did nobody tell me this?

Hypermobility affects a decent percentage of women and we are so vulnerable to prolapse but nobody warns us. A midwife could easily identify hypermobility during the booking in appt using Beighton criteria. We are also prone to the dreaded pelvic girdle pain so we should see a women's health Physio.

We're encouraged to breastfeed- and we should be- but nobody warns us that we will need to be so careful with our pelvic floors while we do.

It makes me mad!

I was in a similar position . Once I relaxed I was happy with the lack of exercise. I walked a lot instead.

Had 9 months of physio and tentatively got started again. Worked a lot building up my general core. Struggled at certain times of the month and building up speed.
Within 18 months of restarting exercise I did my first half marathon in sub two hours. This year I've been doing tough mud events. I also started climbing again once physio stopped and got to a good level with that with no problems whatsoever.

Yep, a good instructor will adapt things to your ability. But, lots of people bash on regardless, or, are doing it at home and pushing themselves.

I actually hate exercises like these. There's loads of good alternatives, but, they look less impressive.

It's the combination of the curl up position, the raised legs and the hold for a count of 100. You can modify it by not curling up too tightly (just raise your head a little), or having one leg bent to the floor and one raised and switching half way through. Whenever you need to raise a leg in the air in pilates, it's not good to raise them fully extended, if you bring your bent knee up towards your chest then push the foot away more vertically, like a bicycle pedal motion, it is far safer. At the start it is best to keep one on the ground completely and then build up to raising both of them. Always tell your instructor if you have any concerns.

thanks for that gussie, our teacher is always talking about breathing, how to control it and use it, so i'm going to ask her about 100s and PFs