Regaining Confidence with Postpartum Pelvic Floor Recovery Tips

 

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Have to cross your legs when you sneeze? Can you no longer do star jumps? You’re not alone.  After childbirth, it’s common for the pelvic floor to weaken, affecting bladder control and other functions of the muscle. 

Luckily, there are ways  - including Emsella treatment - mums up and down the country can regain their strength and confidence.  Here’s what you need to know. 

The postpartum pelvic floor 

During pregnancy and childbirth, the pelvic floor muscles are strained, weakened, and stretched. During postpartum recovery, the pelvic floor needs time to regain strength and heal from the intense strain and stretching it’s just experienced. However, due to the changes in hormones and overall strength, a lot of mums can experience the following: 

A weakened bladder 

One of the most common symptoms of postpartum life is stress incontinence. This is when the bladder becomes weak, and it’s harder to stop leaking urine when sneezing, laughing, coughing, or exercising. A sign of this can also be having the sudden need to go to the toilet more often. 

Pelvic organ prolapse 

In more severe cases, the weakened muscles struggle to hold the pelvic organs in place. As a result, some feel a heaviness or bulging feeling in the vagina. This can be a sign of the organs' prolapsing. 

Reduced core and pelvic stability 

Lower back pain and reduced sensation during intercourse are also symptoms of a weakened pelvic floor. This can make daily tasks difficult and put a strain on intimate relationships. 

When to seek help

It’s hard recovering from pregnancy and childbirth - there are often lots of questions floating around with no real answers.  Are these things just normal, or are they symptoms of something more serious?

If you’re struggling with some of the symptoms mentioned above, it’s recommended to seek medical help if they persist 3-6 months postpartum or severely impact your day-to-day life. You’ll also have a chance to talk about them during your first postpartum appointments (6-8 weeks after birth). 

The first person you can speak to is your GP. They’ll then refer you to a specialist physiotherapist, who can give you a range of exercises to strengthen the muscles and organs, reducing the size and separation between your stomach muscles. 

How to strengthen the pelvic floor

There are a few ways you can strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, including: 

1. Pelvic floor exercises  - Also known as Kegals, pelvic floor exercises can help rebuild strength and improve muscle tone. 

2. Postpartum physiotherapist - If referred by your GP, a postpartum physiotherapist can provide guided therapy and exercises to aid recovery. 

3. Emsella treatment - If you’re struggling to regain your strength and confidence, Emsella treatment is a non-invasive treatment that stimulates the muscles to improve symptoms of incontinence and overall comfort levels. 

Using high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) technology, the pelvic floor muscles are stimulated to strengthen the area. The benefits include improved incontinence, stronger orgasms, and increased confidence. You can't go wrong with those!

How to Take Care of Yourself In Pregnancy

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Finding out that you're pregnant is a special time in any woman's life. Ensuring that you're taking care of yourself is the most important thing you can do to ensure that you deliver a healthy baby. 

You also want to make sure that you are in the best shape possible during your pregnancy. This will not only be beneficial to you but your child as well. However, taking care of yourself during pregnancy can be challenging as your body is changing dramatically. If it's your first pregnancy you may not be aware of some of the things that you need to do to take care of yourself. 

Even if you have been pregnant before it is still worth reminding yourself of all the things you need to do to keep you and your baby healthy. Here are some of the most important things you need to do and know about to care for yourself during pregnancy.

Your Diet

When you are pregnant, having the proper diet becomes even more important than ever. Whilst there may be several cravings that you encounter throughout your pregnancy, ensuring that you eat the right things is essential. You need to ensure that you are getting enough of all the proper nutrients, as a lack of any one can cause problems with the growth and development of your baby. 

Try to eat healthily, using the healthy plate model, with a good balance from all the food groups and particularly a lot of vegetables and fruits. Rich sources of protein are also really important as these are the building blocks of our bodies.

If your doctor has given you a specific dietary requirement for your pregnancy make sure that you are following their instructions as this will help to ensure that your pregnancy goes smoothly.

Stress Urinary Incontinence - Breaking the Taboo

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Some people will have read that blog title and clicked straight away, who wants to read about someone with a leaky bladder? Right? However, I suspect many people, especially mothers will be interested to read on, as this is an issue that is impacting so many women worldwide, even relatively young women. Patient.info states that around 3 million women in the UK are regularly incontinent. Overall it is around 4 in every 10 women, and over half of those are suffering from stress urinary incontinence.

What is Stress Urinary Incontinence?

Stress urinary incontinence is described as involuntary urine leakage on exertion such as coughing/laughing/sneezing or exercise. It is caused by damage to or weakening of the pelvic floor muscle, which leads to an incompetent urethral sphincter and it is largely caused by childbirth thus young women can develop this problem. I was really interested to learn that constipation, menopause and hormonal changes can all have an impact on the effectiveness of your pelvic floor muscles too. 

This isn't your regular topic of conversation at toddler group or in the works canteen though, no it is the kind of thing that women are brushing under the carpet and keeping quiet about. No one wants to be the woman who leaks urine when she laughs, coughs or sneezes. But let me put my hand up and say, I'm Michelle and I suffer from this, and when better to share this post than during World Continence Week. 

I absolutely adore my three children but they have a lot to answer for in terms of the havoc they reeked on my body. Being overweight already and then carrying twins my pelvic floor muscles were put to the test and failed. Ever since the birth of my twins (14 years ago) I've had some leakage and now it seems to be getting worse, but the good news is, I bit the bullet and asked for help.

Planning to get Pregnant - 7 Things to Consider

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Getting pregnant, having a baby and becoming a parent are something many of us take for granted. Growing up I had no desire to have children of my own; I didn't have any younger family members, so I never babysat and spent time around little ones and I just didn't think they'd be a part of my life. Roll forward a number of years and I found the right partner and kids very firmly become a part of my future.

I never realised what a rollercoaster it could be to conceive and then have a baby though, that knowledge only came to me through experience. In October 2002 when my husband and I were on honeymoon we decided to try for a child and I stopped taking the pill. Having been on it for around a decade I was led to believe it was going to take 6 months to a year for it to leave my system and for me to fall pregnant. Not so! It really is different for everyone. I fell pregnant on 31st December 2002 and had JJ in early October 2003. From planning to having a baby in my arms in just under a year, it was no wonder I thought the second child would come easily.

Things often don't go as expected though and when we decided to try for another baby about a year after having JJ, it just didn't happen. It took until late 2006 and having been off work for a while with neuralgia bought on by bells palsy to fall pregnant again. Then we discovered it was a twin pregnancy, probably due to my taking a super high dose of vitamin B12 (for the bells palsy) and also folic acid at that time, as well as being stress-free.

Making your Health a Priority as a Middle-aged Woman

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Lockdown has given many of us a great excuse to pause and a lot of time to look at our lives and assess whether we are satisfied with them. I'm lucky that I'm happy with so much of my life as I've spent the last six or seven years spending time in prayer and reflection to ensure I am using my time as I feel God wants me to.

What this period has done for me is to make me reflect on my overall health again and realise that change must happen. I'm not happy being so overweight and it's about more than just how I look. Being 46 and having all this excess weight is causing me to have many other issues, such as carpal tunnel in my hands, urinary incontinence, unexplained pain in the ball of my foot, asthma, menorrhagia (excessive menstrual bleeding) and serious calf pain when I exercise. As we age also, it becomes more important to know how our body works. For example, some women consider using progesterone tablets to help manage symptoms associated with hormonal changes.

So, I'm making changes and figured I'd share them as every middle-aged woman (I hate writing that, have I really reached that stage already?) should be looking after her whole health.

Eat Realistically

Your metabolism slows with age, from 30 onwards it will slow a little each year and this means you can't eat like you did in your twenties. I have to admit, that I am very late to realise this and sadly the pounds (stones!) have crept on over the years. So now it is time to go back to the 'healthy plate' way of eating and to make sure I have a good variety of foods, over three meals with a couple of small, healthy snacks in between and no evening snacking.

Move More

It really is pretty simple, the pounds tend to pile on as you get older and we generally move less, so change that. I have started to do an exercise DVD for 30 minutes as soon as I get up 5 or 6 days a week and that will help my muscles start to tone up and increase my metabolism, so exercise is a winner on two fronts. I've also started to wear a Fitbit again and join in with challenges with friends to motivate me to move more and get the steps in each day.

Talking to your Daughter Once she Starts her Periods - The Practicalities

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As parents, we're fully aware that we need to prepare our daughters for when they start menstruating. The NHS states that the average age in the UK is 12 years old, but it can be as young as 8, so it is important to have conversations early on with your child to ensure they feel ready for when the big day comes along.

Chatting to your child about puberty, menstruation, sex and other sensitive topics doesn't have to be difficult. if you can approach it in a matter-of-fact fashion and show that you won't be shocked, your child will probably be more open to talking to you. Have a look at my post from a couple of years ago with some tips for having an effective talk with your child.

What I've found is that it is all good-and-well having good, open conversations so your daughter feels prepared but actually when the time comes and they start their period, it is important to have another conversation. To actually talk them through some of the practicalities of having their periods, discussing items such as -

1.  Help her track it
We know that a young woman's period will last for between 3-7 days and will appear around every 28-30 days, but it is super easy to forget when you are due on and be caught out. So get your daughter a calendar, diary or online app like Period Tracker or Clue (here's a recent article on Good Housekeeping suggesting the best tracking apps) so she feels in control and gets to know her own menstrual cycle. 

My Experience of having a Hysteroscopy on the NHS

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I suspect if you have ended up here that you've been told you'll need a hysteroscopy, well firstly I want to reassure you that on the three occasions I've had one, I have found it a really easy procedure to undergo. Of course every person is different and we all experience things in our own way, so you'll make your own decisions when you have the procedure yourself, but for now, I'll share my perspective and experience.

What is a Hysteroscopy and why have one?

A hysteroscope is a long thing telescope with a light and camera that will be passed though your vagina and cervix to see inside the womb (uterus). The images are sent to a monitor so your nurse/ doctor can see inside your womb and record pictures of what they find.

You can have a hysteroscopy for a range of reasons, such as excessive bleeding, recurrent miscarriage, infertility, pelvic pain or unusual bleeding. Sometimes you also have one to actually treat a condition such as removing a displaced IUD (or embedded as mine was), or removal of small polyps or fibroids. On one occasion I also had one to take a small biopsy before I had an operation.

Each of my hysteroscopys have been as an out patient, so I just arrived at a set time and left after about 30/45 minutes.

How to prepare for the Hysteroscopy

• Personally I have found that all I need to do in preparation is have a shower so I feel comfortable and clean
• I make sure that I relax and don't get stressed before the procedure. I have definitely found, and my gynae nurse has told me too, that the more relaxed you are during the procedure the easier it is.
• Wear loose and comfortable clothes, as you'll need to remove everything from the waist down and you don't want fiddly clothes holding you up.
• My leaflet I was given advised that if you usually suffer with period cramping, it might be an idea to have a paracetamol or ibubrofen (whatever you normally take) to help with any cramping pains that you may experience
• You can't have a hysteroscopy if you are pregnant so you need to be aware of that and be taking adequate precautions
• Generally you do not have an anaesthetic before a hysteroscopy and thus you should eat and drink normally (some people may, everyone is different, but your healthcare professional will make sure you understand what is necessary for your circumstances)
• You may wish to take a friend or relative with you if you are nervous or just wish for some company. I have always gone alone and felt happy with this. 

My Experience of a TCRE (Trans-cervical Resection of the Endometrium)

Operating Team Image, thanks to Shutterstock

I was keen to write this post as there seems to be very little information on the web about women’s personal experience of having a TCRE. Many, many women suffer in silence with heavy periods and I want to share my positive experience of having a simple day operation that can make the world of difference to your every day life.

A Brief History

I shared in a post a few months ago about how I've suffered with terrible heavy, frequent and painful periods for around a decade now. I honestly cannot tell you why I put up with it for so long, I think it had simply become a part of my life and I'd learnt to live with it. It was only when I was on holiday in May last year and my awful bleeding stopped me enjoying the pool every day with my girls that I realised something had to be done.

I have the most wonderful GP and she sent me off to see the gynae specialist nurse at the Conquest hospital (Hastings, East Sussex) as thankfully she knew I had been suffering for quite some time, having been prescribed Tranexamic Acid and Mefenamic Acid for a few years, as well as having scans for an embedded coil, missing strings and cysts. I was given a hysteroscopy and straight away the specialist nurse could see there were problems and referred me for an ablation of the endometrium.

I was led to believe this would be done by a simple balloon being inflated in me and radio waves passing through to burn off the excess lining of my womb. This is apparently a really simple procedure that the nurse can do, however she told me as my womb was quite enlarged (she didn't think it had ever fully shrunk back after having my twins) that it would be better to be done by one of the consultants with a general anaesthetic.

Meeting my Consultant

When I met the consultant he reviewed my notes and said he didn't feel I was suitable for the ablation due to the size of my uterus, the thickness of my endometrium and also the presence of fibroids. He felt it would be better to do my surgery the old fashioned way, which would mean him using a hysteroscope to see what needed to be taken away and then burning it away accordingly.

He told me I was very overweight and this could make the surgery more complex and he went through the risk factors with the surgery and what could go wrong, telling me I had a 70-80% success rate for the surgery. With those odds, I was happy to progress as I just needed some respite from the constant heavy bleeding.

Reasons to be Cheerful - I've had my Operation!

Happy Thursday, I hope you are well.

I had to write this and get it scheduled on Tuesday as Wednesday at 7.30am I went to the hospital for my scheduled operation and who knows what time they would get around to doing it, so the last thing I needed was to be worrying about getting my R2BC post out.

Hopefully if you are reading this Thursday morning (or after) I am lying in bed recovering from the operation and the general anaesthetic that came with it. I'm secretly really looking forward to Thursday and Friday being down days where I just read, watch TV and get waited on!

On the one hand I was nervous for the operation as they always scare you when you meet the consultant in advance and they tell you what could go wrong but I have put my faith in God and know that whatever happens will come to good.

I'm so thankful that we have our NHS in the UK. Of course it isn't perfect and in some areas it is better than others but I've been lucky and had great service from the Conquest hospital and especially my GP surgery. I really can't praise my local GP's enough, they have fit me in at short notice and gone out of their way to make sure my operation can go ahead.

6 Things Every Woman in Her 40's Should Do

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We’ve all heard that 40 is the new 30 and I think it is true that as a nation we are staying younger for longer. People are working for more years, having babies later in life and today's woman is expected to have it all but truly, we can only function well if we are looking after ourselves.

As a woman who really enjoyed her twenties and thirties but didn’t make enough time to look after herself, now is the last-ditch attempt to ensure that I go into middle-aged feeling well. I want to share with you five things that every 40-year-old woman should be doing (me included!).

1.   Get enough sleep

This one seems so simple and of course, we all know that we function and look our best when we have had enough sleep but did you know that getting enough sleep will also boost your memory, reduce inflammation and avoid accidents?

Amazing isn’t it? Sleep can make such a difference, it can even increase our performance, as shown by a 2011 study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study discovered that elite athletes were able to improve their best times when they had more sleep each night over a lengthened period.

Not only is it important to get enough sleep though, more recent studies show that you should adopt a regular pattern of sleep. Your bed and wake times need to be pretty consistent to ensure that your circadian rhythm operates at its peak. The circadian clock ensures that hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released about an hour before you need to wake up and your body will have moved into the less deep REM sleep so that when you make you feel good and ready to go.

Light at the End of the Tunnel – We can Get Help! #aminumber5?

This was my view on our Spanish holiday earlier this year and whilst it was beautiful. It would have been
so much more fun to be in the water with my family.

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I remember being 12 when I headed to the toilet in the Happy Eater restaurant and saw that first flush of pink on the toilet paper. We were there as a family for Sunday lunch and the day wasn’t supposed to be any different to any other, but of course it was. In my mum’s words, ‘I had become a woman’ and on one hand I was very pleased to be growing up but on another I realized it was the start of something.

Not that my periods presented any problem for me for the first twenty years of having them. I was very regular, they were never too heavy and I just had a five day bleed. No, I certainly didn’t realize how lucky I was back then. The problems for me only started when I had my first child in 2003, after having JJ my periods returned far quicker than I thought they would considering I was breastfeeding and they didn’t just come back quicker, they came back much heavier.

Of course you can take care of the flow with the appropriate sanitary protection but what I found so hard to deal with was the pain. I can recall a day when I had to ring into work from my car as I had tried to drive there and I was doubled up in pain. I got myself to the doctors and asked to see someone and luckily they fitted me in. Mefanamic acid became my best friend and really did dampen the pain but each month there were still two or three days with very heavy bleeding (losing clots too) and almost unbearable pain.

I just learnt to live with it until I fell pregnant again about three years later. I’m really not sure why I didn’t seek more help, I just seemed to put up with the heavy bleeding and the pain, not knowing that I had menorrhagia, or heavy periods, a recognised medical condition.