What is your pelvic floor?
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles, ligaments, and tissues running from your pubic bone to your tail bone that supports your pelvic organs, bladder, uterus, and bowel. If you think about your pelvis as a bowl, the pelvic floor is the bottom of the bowl.
Why is it important?
Maintaining an appropriate level of tension in the pelvic floor allows you to have the support necessary to hold up the pelvic organs while also allowing the relaxation necessary for urination, bowl movements, and painful sex.
Common pelvic floor disorder symptoms:
- Peeing when you laugh, sneeze, run, jump, or change positions (i.e. lifting your child from the floor)
- Pain with sex
- Pelvic pain with daily activities and/or at rest
- Feeling of heaviness in the vagina (many describe this feeling as “if a tampon is falling out” or “sitting on a tennis ball”)
- Constant need to pee or feel like you have a “small” bladder
- Need to get to a toilet in a hurry or not make it there in time (frequent sudden urge to pee). This is sometimes triggered by running water, cold temperatures, putting your key in the door, or getting out of your car upon arriving at home.
Pregnancy naturally places an increased demand and pressure on the pelvic floor. Tendencies such as breath holding, prolonged postures or alignment, bearing down into the pelvic floor, muscle tension, and constipation may also increase your risk for pelvic floor disorders at this time. Because of this, it is important for you to be aware of your daily tendencies as well as strategies during exercise in order to reduce your risk of pelvic floor symptoms during pregnancy and after delivery.
If you are unaware of your current tendencies, please seek out a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist or a qualified pregnancy and postpartum fitness specialist to help you understand your movement patterns more during this time.
Casey Thomas-Hardesty, MS, NTP // Two Peas Wellness
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