Who here actually does pelvic floor exercises??

[ICanTuckMyBoobsInMyPockets]

And how do you remind yourself?
I've just started gone back to exercise in general and got a bit of a shock when a little bit of wee came out when I ran .
I was so paranoid I hardly moved the rest of the session.
I know I need to do them, surely I can't be the only one who does 2 squeezes then starts making a shopping list in my head?
Come on, spill not wee

thank you nankythat's v interesting.
Funnily enough, in my last job I was hideously bored and had to sit watching lessons all day. I used to do pelvic floor exercises all day every day, and dh said I had a fanny like a steel trap . So 'twas quite a shock to go to the other (wizard's sleeve) extreme after DS!

No more babies now - despite the cavernous postnatal fanny I managed to accidentally concieve DC3 rather shortly after the forceps delivery. Luckily she was little, and born by c-sect.

Oh I too had a pelvic floor you could bounce a coin off of but a fast delivery with ds shot it too pieces.

Thanks nanky :o. Nothing falling out quite yet, thankfully, but I'm aware it will only get worse post menopause. Will carry on with the physio route, but push for a banjo nip and tuck!

I think MN should get you to write the MN Guide to PFEs...hilarious :o

banjo? Gotta love autocorrect :o

Oooh, Daisy - that's a gurrrreat idea!

I'd bloody love that. Can I do illustrations too? If always thought an image of someone's prolapse dragging along the pavement with wee bits of chewing gum and grit stuck to it would be fairly motivating.

Get Alan Rickman to do the frontispiece thingie, and you're on!

Slightly off-topic, but how do you know if you have a cystocele or rectocele or prolapse? Would it be obvious? And if you don't know, you haven't got one?

Oh Nanky you're on the mumsnet talk round up

Women across the UK shall be working those pf muscles after a read! Actually I've done at least 5 sets since yesterday now

Oh and I need some brain bleach after envisioning that picture in my head!

I am very proud of myself. This is the longest thread I've ever started and look at all the wonderful advice were getting!
AND, mnhq are on it too! Proud and
Nanky you are wonderful. Thank you.
I'm squeezing as I type!

PMSL at the illustration :o

Holler, come and chat with the fallen fanjo brigade

Once I Googled, and then compared to my own anatomy, it was fairly obvious, but yes lots of women have this, but don't realise. And it's not as rare as websites would have you believe. Just women don't talk about it or seek help for it.

and you hit the headlines too Boobs :o

I've never done that in over 6 years

This is making me need to pee, but baby is asleep on me. I suppose that's a PFE in itself.

On talk roundup? Squee! Do we get a prize?

Here's a brass neck moment:

I've been on the entrepreneurs thread - am planning to work privately in the community, which is mostly elderly people. Whom I luuuurve.

It's just been suggested to me that a "physio party" might be a workable idea - and I've gotten all excited...

...a bunch of friends with a slightly insecure (or worse) PF get together with wine and I'd come along and teach them all about PFE's? I could supply the weights, teach the exercises, give out reminders - and the group would be a self supporting (ha ha ha, seewhaddahdidthere?) unit, so could remind each other to do the blardy exercises.

It'd be a pants on affair - no one needs to be that close socially.

See, I'd totally do that with MY friends. But, I have no shame and so am not a good judge of these things...

Dove - nope, not Uphall. Proper Edinburgh (though, not a native)

Hope the SPD's settling - had that myself, Not Nice.

In praise of pelvic floor exercises.
My tuppennyworth is that my present significant other has never had children and so everything is well toned. My last girlfriend had two children and practised her pelvic floor exercises regularly. I was very appreciative of the efforts she made having met more than a few a few Slack Alices in my time.
Throwing a pencil into the Albert Hall was an appropriate analogy.
Keep up the good work girls if you want to keep your DH or BF's with a big smile on their face.

Catinthebox some you-what balls? Can you elaborate (she asks naively)?!?

I have a little bee in my bonnet about this and women everywhere becoming disempowered and not able to go out and their activities becoming limited and back pain becoming a problem for them because someone in marketing is passing on a message that 'oops moments are able to happen' They shouldnt be happening, women should get the treatment and information they need to ensure they have the control so that companies selling this myth and the products that go with it cannot make money out of women.
OK years ago women did not discuss such things and inevitably suffered, but nowadays we discuss everything else . Can I please urge (ha ha) you to get one of the mobile app on pelvic floor exercises look at someof the videos on u tube contact your local womens health physio or look at their websites and advice .... but please ladies do do it and encourage friends to.
Imagine if a weight training person went up into the gym did 2 weight s exercises then wandered off to make coffee , not much muscle training would go on so it is important to do a session in order to improve not just one or two
Once hormones change at menopause any deficit will be magnified and then even if there wasnt a problem before you will know about weakness so it is worth putting in the foundation work.
sorry this isnt meaning to be preachy but it is as I said a little bee in my bonnet and a problem that i have personal experience of and I know that good treatment and exercise works so that I can now go onto the trampoline with my kids. So many mums have to sit whilst their kids run about and they blame it on their high healed shoes but I know!

Billysiv Your post reads like a 1950's public health announcement.

'Gels are you letting your hard working husband down. Slack vaginal muscles mean you're slacking off on your marital duties . . . . . . . . '

I pretend to do them but think it's pointless as I get no feedback sensation.

Bad tear with dc1, stitched and then tore further, subsequent pg have made it worse. I can't even hold the cones inside without the weights. Have been referred to women's health after each pg and done electrical stim with no noticeable improvement. The final two times I visited she had a general chit chat about the family and intimated 'we' just have to accept that childbirth changes you

I don't know what my next options are.

oh how to remember? well i took flippin ages to make me a priority and getting this sorted outsoo it got to the stage where i was potty training my child and going into a shop to ask if they could use the loo when i needed to!
so i for myself put in 1/4 the effort i put into getting the kids continent to reminding myself and for my second child every nappy change ever reminder to go to the loo for them was a reminder for me to do some work on the exercises.
there was a time when i did some every time i checked my phone too. - if you really are busy then everyone cleans their teeth am and pm 2 minutes do it then.

Nanky- I love your idea of a physio party. Please add me to the list, if you're starting one. Am in Proper Edinburgh- although I am not. (Proper.)

OK now ive read the whole thread not just the first page nanky u r legend! all discussion spot on I am so pleased people are chatting about this- wierd but true!
party idea I am thinking about it!

Am not actually in Uphall - was sent there because of being cared for at St John's. The SPD is mostly gone now, thanks - get the odd twinge after -sex-- things like hoovering etc, but no more than a reminder.

Are you Glaswegian? Saying 'pish' always seems to me to be a Glasgow phrase.

Olympicnmix, there is lots more that can be done. Please see your GP again, and ask for a uro-gynae referral.

Olympic - that's not a great experience you've had.

I'd agree that "we" are changed by childbirth - I myself have an interesting overhang thing going on on my belly from babyweight eldest is nearly nine

But, it's bollocks to suggest that you should accept it. Total bollocks. And It Makes Me Cross. See fizzyo's great post.

Where you go from here is - go back to your GP. Report what your treatment has been and what problems you are still experiencing. State that this is not acceptable to you and that it is interfering with your life, and whether it is bothering your mood (depression is quite high in women with continence issues. Quelle surprise)

Ask your GP to refer you to a specialist physiotherapist or a uro-gynaecologist.

Assuming your injuries to your undercarriage haven't damaged any nerves then doing your exercises - even without having any sensation you will be having an effect. It's just really disheartening.

To help that - you can buy feedback gadgets. They are expensive - from about £100. They are fitted with a scale of some sort, so you can see the dial move as you work the muscles.

And, you can buy muscle stimulating ones, which give your pelvic floor a wee electrical helping hand.

This is ordinary muscle training stuff - if you'd been in plaster for weeks and had a scraggy arm that was weak you'd do exactly the same stuff to get it working. It's just a bit embarrassing when it's your special place that's a big saggy.

PM me if you'd like to moan let off steam. Happy to give advice, and I could try to find out who your local fanny guru is.

Please don't put up with it. You don't have to.

Billysiv - thanks for the encouragement.

Interstingly, I've never yet met a woman who is motivated to strengthen her bits for her man's pleasure. Only for her own. Selfish besoms.

And, whilst I've not read any studies about pencil volume - anecdotally, there are some very small ones.

Boys can get problems with their pelvic floors too - you know all that dribbling after stopping a pee? All that farting when running? That slightly less than flagpole stiffy? All to do with the pelvic floor.

You don't have to put up with it either, love. Well done for taking the first, if slightly clumsy, step.

PM me. If you are brave enough.