What Should I Expect From My Body PostPartum?
Learn More about what is common versus normal when it comes to your pelvic floor postpartum
‘Experiencing new motherhood’ workshop, June 1st
by carolyn latham
“Common does not mean normal.” Yes, leaking urine after having children is common. Muscles, fascia, ligaments get stretched out during pregnancy and childbirth. This can cause changes in strength and alter the ability of the muscles of the pelvic floor, core and glutes to function correctly and in unison. These changes will affect your ability to create pressure enough to close off the urethra (where our pee comes out) and even our rectum and can lead to unwanted leakage. However, just because these changes and stretching happens during pregnancy and with childbirth, this does not mean long standing effects from these are normal or should be lived with.
Along with urinary incontinence, I also hear women stating that their experience sexually is uncomfortable and marginally (sometimes extremely) painful ever since having children but they live with it because “that’s just what happens after experiencing childbirth.” Again, things do get stretched, pulled, irritated, torn, changed, during pregnancy and childbirth and some women experience these more than others. However, living with less-than-satisfactory sexual interactions that are considered to be due to the physical act of childbirth should not be considered normal. Pelvic floor physical therapy can conservatively and effectively help to decrease incontinence and dyspareunia linked to childbirth. Whether you are 6 weeks postpartum or 6+ years, pelvic floor PT can help make a difference and improve your quality of life.
Here are a few reasons why you may be having incontinence or dyspareunia:
You had tearing during childbirth that was stitched. Everything is back together and that is great. However, you may have scar tissue from the tearing. Scar tissue can grow like a spiderweb below the scar and adhese down onto other structures. This adhesion pattern will affect the muscles ability to contract and relax appropriately thus decreasing strength. Adhesions can also cause pain. Similar to when you pull a bandaid off of your skin, scar tissue that has adhesed down can pull on structures and cause pain.
You think you are performing kegels correctly but you’ve never been formally taught and checked. I have treated many women who say they are doing their kegels religiously but still leak. When I do an internal examination I find that they are squeezing their glutes and abdominal muscles but have very little muscle activation in the muscles of the pelvic floor; the ones that ultimately keep us from peeing our pants!
Tightness! Muscles cannot be strong if they are too tight. Imagine that you can only straighten your elbow 50% of the way. Your bicep muscle (the one that bends your elbow) can only be 50% strong. For it to be 100% as strong as it can, it must be able to stretch out fully. This concept is the same for the pelvic floor muscles and is actually heightened due to the size of the muscles “down there”. The pelvic floor muscles are small and do not have much excursion (amount of distance a muscle can stretch and then contract) to begin with. Therefore, if they are at all tight, the strength is going to be severely affected.
How can we help these things?
Learn how to correctly contract and relax your pelvic floor muscles (also known as doing kegels). The best way to do this? Go see a pelvic floor PT who does internal work!
Assess for tightness around the hips, groin and pelvic floor muscles. Again, a pelvic floor PT who does internal work will best be able to assess this for you.
Work to decrease scar tissue adhesions through manual internal release.
To learn more about what is common vs. normal after birth, you can register here for Experiencing New Motherhood, a workshop on June 1st, 2024 presented by Metta Mama in collaboration with Fourthouse Wellness. We will combine yoga, meditation and acupuncture, as well as an in depth panel discussion with perinatal clinicians across the fields of nutrition, acupuncture, physical therapy and maternal mental health.
Our panel consists of experts in the field of postpartum care and will be moderated by the Director of Metta Mama, Ashley Stachon, who will also lead a yoga practice:
Jackie Crown (Postpartum Doula & Coach, Licensed Acupuncturist)
Carolyn Latham (Pelvic Floor PT, return to exercise)
Ali Vogt (LMFT, preparing for maternal mental health)
You will leave feeling better prepared for the journey, and enlightened to the many sources of local support that are available to you.
Dr. Carolyn Latham, PT is the owner and head physical therapist of Verity Physical Therapy & Wellness. She is a past D-1 Cross-Country and Track athlete, a 4-time marathoner including the Boston and NYC marathons, and an Iron(wo)man. Carolyn earned her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Carolyn fully believes that every woman deserves to understand her body better as she navigates through pregnancy and postpartum; she helps educate and instruct women on how to proactively rehabilitate and recover her body postpartum so she can live the happy, healthy, and active life she thrives on.“I help the active woman navigate pregnancy and postpartum so she can safely get back to her active lifestyle and feel like herself again.”
© 2024 Metta Yoga LLC