Hi everyone,
I have been reading this thread because I really think I have some kind of prolapse, not sure what kind but things are not looking right down below and if I have to cough or sneeze I have to clench otherwise it feels like my insides are going to fly out.
I was so upset, well I still am, but I am also so angry.
Never has the term 'secret women's business' been more appropriate, except women are keeping this issue secret from each other! I did all my research when I was pregnant, read all the books, did my NCT classes and I never once heard about prolapse.
I know they always say pregnant women shouldn't lift things, but no one ever said why so I thought it was one of those bullshit type things like don't eat that cheese that pregnant women across the channel in France all eat when they are pregnant (ok, I was pretty relaxed in pregnancy, and got pissed off when people told me I couldn't do things that I thought I could). You also get people telling you sternly 'do your pelvic floor exercises' I just thought so after menopause I wouldn't we myself, I didn't know my insides could start to fall outside well before menopause, why don't we get told this stuff?!
Also, constipation, I thought was just an acute annoying thing to deal with at the time you can't shit, I never knew I was stuffing up my pelvic floor at the same time, I would have raced to the store to buy All Bran and dried fruit (since I have started on the All Bran my 2 1/2 year old insists on eating it but calls it All Brown, he was doing the worst nappies we tried to get him to not eat the stuff but he was having tantrums about it so we compromised and just sprinkle a little on top of his other cereal, but it is still now known as All Brown in our house).
Another one is people have a little giggle and say you can massage your perineum so you don't tear, but then nobody tells you how to do it and people talk about it like it is some alternative thing that people who want to give birth in hemp tents might do as foreplay with their partner while they are pregnant, and as i don't
I never even knew there was such a thing as a gynae physio until I made some joke to a friend about taking shares out in Tena, and she confided she had been seeing a physio for problems.
I have only just realised this problem after my 2nd child but I think a lot of the damage was done with my first which was an induced labour, 2 weeks over due, big baby, back to back and dragged out with rotational forceps. I think as standard women with instrumental vaginal births or births with other risk factors should as a matter of course be sent to a gynae physic for at least one session so it can be ensured that women at risk of prolapse know how to do pelvic floor exercises properly, and we should especially be warned when we are high risk of prolapse.
I am so so angry that this is so common and we are told nothing about it.
Anyway, another reason I wanted to post, as I have been googling, as you do, and came across the Kegel Queen, she has some clips which are very American and rather like infomercials (very unmumsnet), and she has webinars this weekend. Does anybody know what she is about and what she is trying to flog, and whether the information she provides is worthwhile?
Something about this whole thing doesn't seem right to me, like hardly any midwives can actually help with breastfeeding problems and there is no support for that so breastfeeding rates are so low, it seems like there is no knowledge or support for women with prolapse in the medical profession. Surely women have not been having their insides fall out for centuries and been keeping quiet about it. What is going wrong?
Sorry for this long post, but I am angry, angry, angry. Did I forget to mention how bloody angry I am?! Sorry for such a long post, I had a few things to get off my chest.