Why should you see a pelvic floor PT BEFORE you have your baby?
Working on labor positions
Usually when I tell someone I am a pelvic floor therapist they say 1 of 2 things. 1) “Oh so you just tell people to do kegels all day long?” or 2) Oh I guess I will need that after I have my children.”
Did you know that we prefer seeing people BEFORE they have children or during pregnancy rather than waiting until after they deliver their baby? There are several reasons for this:
We want to know what your pelvic floor is like before you have a child. It will help us know what your baseline is. This will help us set realistic goals for you for after you have a child.
If we can help your pelvic floor relax during pregnancy and teach you how to push without putting added pressure on your pelvic floor, then everyone will be happier in the end. You will actually end up needing LESS pelvic floor therapy after you have your child.
Our patients end up with shorter labor times and less tearing from labor*
*This is our anecdotal evidence and has not been studied outside of our clinic, however all the providers we work with tell this to us over and over again.
People who have not or will not birth children still have pelvic floors and benefit from having pelvic floor physical therapy.
It is hard to find research looking at the effects of pelvic floor therapy performed by a pelvic floor therapist that consists of internal manual work on the muscles. However, we have noticed a significant improvement in labor times and pelvic floor injury for our patients who get regular therapy during their pregnancy.*
In fact, people who come in regularly during their third trimester to help get their pelvic floor ready for delivery, end up needing very few postpartum visits. Which, let me tell you, going to appointments before having a baby is much easier than trying to get to appointments with a baby or needing to coordinate feeding/nap times with an appointment.
What does this mean? When we are able to see someone, on average, more than 4 times during their pregnancy, they come in to their 6 week postpartum appointment, with their pelvic floor contracting well, reporting no leaking, no issues with bowel movements, and no pain or issues with sex. They also report having a fast delivery without any tearing.
During pregnancy, we work on several things with our patients. If they have pain, pressure, or leaking during pregnancy, we address this first. Then we assess how well the coordination of their pelvic floor muscles are to be able to relax during pushing. Did you know that the typical pushing style can actually cause your muscles to contract? This means that you could actually be working against your body rather than with it when you are trying to push your baby out.
We also give you things that you can work on at home to help prepare you body for labor. Some of these things help your body and some of them help the position of the baby.
At Insight, we have a pregnancy program to help people who are pregnant have a pain-free and leak-free pregnancy. If you want a copy of what our pregnancy program includes click the button below.
