Pelvic floor exercises in pregnancy

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Hello all,

I think I remember there being a lady here who worked with pelvic floor muscles not quite sure that's the right way to put it!!

I was wondering if anyone knows what sort of exercises one should do, and how offer, during pregnancy? I'm only 13 weeks at the mo, but don't want to be neglectful of said muscles if there is something I should really be doing to prevent me having to start a 'I wet myself' thread further down the road

Don't know about the lady, but I have been doing pelvic floor exercises a couple of times for 5 or 10 minutes most days. You have to pull up your muscles and hold for a few seconds, then release and repeat. It's like you're stopping yourself from weeing mid-flow.

There's also a thing you can buy or get on prescription called (I think) the pelvic toner which you use after you've had the baby to regain control of your muscles. It's for the same exercises but you're squeezing against a resistance. I'm not sure but I don't think it's recommended for use during pregnancy.

Hope that helps, will pop back to see other people's answers as I'm also pretty nervous about this issue!

If you google pelvic floor muscles exercises lots of suggestions come up, NHS has some ideas.

I bought a pelvic floor toner, (epi-no), used it loads and the ended up having a csection and pretty much shoved it in a drawer and haven't seen it since.....

Am now pregnant again and not too worried this time. No leaks from my previous one, so i do a couple when I remember, maybe every few days!

If you're worried about it try pregnancy Pilates, they teach you how to use your pelvic floor so you know you are doing it right.

You just reminded me to do mine (35 weeks and only done pf exercises about 5 times so far... Oh dear!)

Vegemite - according to my refresher antenatal class teacher, having a c section doesn't do away with the risk of pelvic floor issues later on (incl during and after second pg) because a lot of the impact is just from the extra weight being toted about during the pregnancy...

My physio does pelvic floor classes - they suggested that we do 3 sets a day, with each set being 3 x 8 slow contractions of 10 seconds at mid-strength then 1 x 10 short ones at full strength. And if you're super strong then move to doing them standing up!

This gets you to just over 100 a day, and builds endurance as well as strength. It is quite hard to remember though, some of my friends have been better at remembering to do it, with diary reminders, star charts and the like.

Like mrsmalcolmreynolds said, it's the pregnancy and not the birth that causes a lot of the issues, so this will help even with a c-section, and they also said that technique is super important as a lot of women accidentally tighten their stomach or bum instead - there are a lot of good guides online.

I started out with good intentions. Then I got hyperemesis, and all the vomiting made me wee myself now that stage is over I developed a prolapse which will most likely need surgery after birth so I have given up on the pelvic floors. I know I should continue but I wonder what's the point the damage is done.
Strangely though even though I'm pregnant with a massive bowling ball, at 39 weeks the dribbling has stopped and rarely have problems with it now.
There is an app I found helpful, tells you when to squeeze and when to relax and in increases intensity.

mrs malcom yes, I know, but I have just got a lot lazier this time! :)