Changes can happen to your bladder, bowel, vagina and sexual health as your pelvic floor muscles come under more pressure.
What do we mean by pelvic health?
Your pelvis is the lower part of your tummy, between your hips. Inside your pelvis are important parts like your bladder, bowel and reproductive organs (like the womb and vagina). There are also muscles there called your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles help you to go to the toilet, support your baby during pregnancy, and help with birth. Pelvic health means keeping all these parts working well and feeling healthy.
Don’t ignore your pelvic floor
Pelvic floor exercises …
It is recommended to do daily pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy and after birth. This will help prevent symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction such as bladder and bowel leakage or prolapse.
Healthy bladder and bowel
Having a healthy bladder and bowel can help you avoid pelvic floor problems.
Self-care tips …
- Try and drink 6-8 glasses of water a day. If you don’t drink enough, your poo can become difficult to pass
- Avoid caffeine. It can increase your blood pressure and heart rate and increase the urgency and number of times that you will need to wee
- When weeing give your bladder time to empty
- Try and cut out ‘just in case wees’, aiming for going every 2-3 hours. This will help keep your bladder able to ‘hold’ for longer periods of time
- Don’t strain when you poo, this can weaken the pelvic floor muscles further. If you are finding your poo is difficult to pass, discuss treatment options with our health professional
The Squeezy App
Everyone will be provided with free access to download the Squeezy app during pregnancy and for up to 12 months following birth.
The squeezy app encourages daily self-care during pregnancy and helps to support recovery after birth and improves pelvic stability.
The app allows you to monitor your progress and provides guided workouts with clinically approved plans and recommended routines.
How to access:
Please speak to your health professional who can provide you with Squeezy app access or email: [email protected]
Privacy first: Your data is secure and only shared with your care team if you chose.
Consider what we need our pelvic floor to support us with
Think about walking around a supermarket holding a heavy shopping basket when you have a cold – you want your pelvic floor to work! Maybe we want to exercise in the gym and do some weight training.
Whilst it is important to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles it is equally important to relax them following exercise completion. We do not want to overwork these muscles – you want them to work functionally so don’t wear them out!
Maintaining an optimised pelvic floor is a lifelong approach.
Initially aim to do your pelvic floor muscle exercises between three and five times every day whilst you are strengthening them
Once you feel confident your muscles have started to strengthen reducing these exercises to twice a day consistently will help maintain this.
You can start these exercises when lying or sitting and gradually progress to standing. Sitting is a functional position but standing will be more challenging due to the effects of gravity.
Support is available via the Perinatal pelvic health team
Visit https:www.betterbirthlincolnshire.co.uk/pelvic-health for more information or to complete a self-assessment form or speak to your health professional for support with information and referrals.