Amazing suggestions here and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much. Can always rely on this place 🙌 Will sit down and make a list of them all (and Google hypopressives).
I’m booked for two 10ks (at absolute snail’s pace) in autumn, and if those go ahead it’s going to crush me if I feel I can’t do them then. I’m willing to change tack completely on exercise to help get this sorted, though. It’s really not a good feeling, physically or mentally. I feel guilty for not keeping up as I should have done and worried about making it worse. But it can be helped and these pointers will really contribute!
What I’ve learned... I mean, I really didn’t pay much attention before I had kids. I knew about kegels etc and very half arsedly did them occasionally, but tbh all I ever heard about was women having ‘oops moments’ (Tena ‘cuteness’ 
) jumping around on trampolines or just laughing or sneezing too hard. And that wasn’t me, by any stretch, and I didn’t have any problems with urgency or anything else, so I just drew the conclusion that my PF was fine as-was and I didn’t need to do anything. Even when I’d had the DC and the midwives mentioned it on the postnatal ward, I did the exercises but as soon as I felt back to normal, once again I thought I was good to go. I just thought it was all about not pissing yourself and if you weren’t doing that, you were fine. After DC1 (no physio then), I ran happily and jumped around on bouncy castles when my friends couldn’t.
When I had no issues with urgency or leakage after DC2, I rocked up to that physio expecting a cursory examination, couple of questions, out the door. Nope. I mean, I’m not sure I’d even been aware women’s physios are a thing - I think if they’d been on my radar I’d just assumed they were for women who had really serious issues. Never in my life would I have predicted I’d need two years of treatment. I just didn’t have any signs I knew to recognise.
I’ve been a twat letting my PF slide (pardon the semi-pun) but I’m well-educated and not very dense overall, and whereas having had it all explained a lot does seem like common sense, it really never had been explained before beyond the Tena ad-level. I just didn’t know how wrong the mechanics could go beyond needing a panty liner. If I’d not had an injury from giving birth and therefore the physio then I think I’d still be ambling about in ignorance now. Well, maybe close to now because things definitely don’t feel right at the moment and I’d have been knocking on the GP’s door in slight panic.
But if I’d started struggling out running (I keep using that word - I do mean lolloping around like a cow stuck in treacle), I’d probably have started doing more kegels and just resigned myself to Tena liners because ‘that’s the way it goes’, and it isn’t, or shouldn’t be. And then I’d have presumably got to menopause and all my insides would try to exit via my vag and I’d have had no idea what was happening or why, and then it might have been too late. Some women will get hit with it harder than others and all the effort in the world won’t stop more serious interventions being needed, but that doesn’t have to be the case for most.
I don’t think there’s enough education early enough on.
If you’re postnatal (especially if you’re postnatal), and you a) aren’t sure you’re doing the exercises correctly and effectively or b) think things have changed down there at all about strength or letting out a bit of pee or that fart you meant to hold in, I’d implore you to ask for a physio referral or find a local one privately or I don’t know, buy one of the new Neurotrac-esque-but-more-appealing-and-less-expensive-gadgets. Something with bio feedback. And if you’re not doing exercises at all then start, just start. Get the NHS Squeezy app. Don’t be like me!