http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/effective-kegel-exercises-to-improve-pregnancy-and-childbirth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=effective-kegel-exercises-to-improve-pregnancy-and-childbirth Want to get pregnant? Fertility tips, plus inspiration for living a childfree life. It's all here! Wed, 23 May 2012 18:46:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/effective-kegel-exercises-to-improve-pregnancy-and-childbirth/comment-page-1/#comment-1020 LeticiaWation Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:04:09 +0000 http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/?p=575#comment-1020 Thats cool. I agree, that was a good post! Thats cool. I agree, that was a good post!

]]> http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/effective-kegel-exercises-to-improve-pregnancy-and-childbirth/comment-page-1/#comment-348 Laurie PK Wed, 20 May 2009 22:42:09 +0000 http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/?p=575#comment-348 Thanks, Tasha! I appreciate your extra info :-) Thanks, Tasha! I appreciate your extra info

]]> http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/effective-kegel-exercises-to-improve-pregnancy-and-childbirth/comment-page-1/#comment-347 Tasha Wed, 20 May 2009 12:07:39 +0000 http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogbaby/?p=575#comment-347 As a physical therapist, I would like to provide some patient education as to "why" our pelvic floors seem to "give out" at various points in our lives. It has been found that symptoms can actually improve with patient education alone and we have found that women don't seem to have a good visual of their pelvic floor and its function, but once they can visualize what they are trying to strengthen and why, it gives the exercises more of a purpose. So here's a bit of patient education- Following pregnancy and childbirth - If we visualize our pelvic floor as a very thin, muscular tissue that has the responsibility of controlling the passage of solids, liquids, and air from our body, as well as holding up our bowel, bladder, and uterus, we start to understand how this muscle can have some difficulty controlling everything as the weight and size of our uterus increases throughout pregnancy. Incontinence reaches its peak in the 3rd trimester when the uterus has its most rapid growth. This should explain why we leak during pregnancy, but what about those of us who delivered months or years ago. Why are they still leaking? The answer is that our pelvic floor muscles have been stretched beyond their limit, damaging the muscle tissue. When this occurs, there is no guarantee that our muscles will just bounce back on their own and resume normal muscle firing and coordination. Just like after knee surgery, we have to do exercises to ensure that our quadricep muscle will fire again and resume normal strength, we should also exercise our pelvic floors after the trauma of pregnancy and delivery to expect our pelvic floor to keep us continent and "supported". As a physical therapist, I would like to provide some patient education as to “why” our pelvic floors seem to “give out” at various points in our lives. It has been found that symptoms can actually improve with patient education alone and we have found that women don’t seem to have a good visual of their pelvic floor and its function, but once they can visualize what they are trying to strengthen and why, it gives the exercises more of a purpose. So here’s a bit of patient education-
Following pregnancy and childbirth – If we visualize our pelvic floor as a very thin, muscular tissue that has the responsibility of controlling the passage of solids, liquids, and air from our body, as well as holding up our bowel, bladder, and uterus, we start to understand how this muscle can have some difficulty controlling everything as the weight and size of our uterus increases throughout pregnancy. Incontinence reaches its peak in the 3rd trimester when the uterus has its most rapid growth. This should explain why we leak during pregnancy, but what about those of us who delivered months or years ago. Why are they still leaking? The answer is that our pelvic floor muscles have been stretched beyond their limit, damaging the muscle tissue. When this occurs, there is no guarantee that our muscles will just bounce back on their own and resume normal muscle firing and coordination. Just like after knee surgery, we have to do exercises to ensure that our quadricep muscle will fire again and resume normal strength, we should also exercise our pelvic floors after the trauma of pregnancy and delivery to expect our pelvic floor to keep us continent and “supported”.

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