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Prioritise your pelvic floor for a better pregnancy

From the moment of conception until birth your baby’s weight directly places constant stress on the ligaments and fascia that support and hold up your pelvic floor muscles. From the 2^nd trimester your baby moves up into the lower abdomen where there is more space to grow. The angle of the pelvis increasingly moves forward and the angle of the lumbar spine increases in depth. Your head and shoulder position then shift to make sure you can remain standing upright.

Pregnancy 28 weeks

All of this change in body posture and lack of space for the internal organs may place adverse stress on the pelvic floor muscles and structures and if these muscles are not considered at this exciting time two things may happen:

• They are unable to relax effectively in second stage delivery and may have to have medical intervention, which could lead to perineal damage.
• Weakened and stretched muscles, that have become too deconditioned may not be able to withstand internal pressures from the bladder (or bowel) causing involuntary leaks, or the internal organs may descend. Deconditioned muscles that have become de-sensitised make intimacy less enjoyable when there is a lack of sexual feeling.

In the second stage the whole of the pelvic floor muscles are exposed when the baby’s head appears, thus the integrity of the pelvic floor muscles along with the perineum must be considered in relation to relaxation as well as strength and the feed-forward response, in order to enable the best recovery postpartum.

I continue to help women prepare for childbirth and delivery with a renewed confidence and sense of wellbeing.  Your pelvic floor is last part of your body your baby will pass through in natural childbirth coating your child with extra immunity. Whether or not you give birth naturally, it has had the extra load of the baby so it is important to consider it to ensure health and happiness for years to come.