Have any pelvic health issues? Whether you are a female recently post partum or many years post partum, the following information may help you overcome some ‘annoying’ and/or painful symptoms.
As child bearing females, we all know how pregnancy and labor strains our muscles and skeletal structure–our abdominal muscles lengthen and sometimes separate (called diastasis recti), our spine develops an exaggerated s-curve as baby grows, and our dear pelvic floor definitely gets stretched and is commonly torn (or cut) during labor. If we’ve had to endure a c-section (30% of American laboring women), then we also know about complications from scar tissue (or maybe we aren’t aware of the complications going on from year(s) old scar tissue). All of this can add up to pelvic and low back pain with resulting continence issues down the road.
A lot of women have heard the term ‘kegel’ and are aware of the importance of performing this exercise to help prevent these complications listed above. However, many of us are not aware of how to do this correctly. The key: the muscle needs to be contracted ‘up and in.’ If you’ve had a diastasis recti (separation of your abdominal muscles), you must avoid sit ups and learn how to log roll to help it heal post partum.
We’ve all heard that surgery should be used as a last resort. The same holds true for pelvic floor surgery. Physical therapy has made some amazing gains in pelvic floor health and pregnancy related treatment. At Great Moves Physical Therapy, we have a womens health specialist/physical therapist who specifically comes in to see patients for these reasons every other Thursday. Additionally, we have physical therapists who treat simple continence issues.
Call us for a free consultation to see if we can help you meet your pelvic health needs: 719-477-6870.
This article has been updated and was originally published Nov 25, 2013.