You are not alone, and it doesn’t have to be this way. 1 in 4 women suffer from pelvic floor dysfunction. During the postpartum period incontinence is common.

There are different types of pelvic floor dysfunction; the most common ones are urinary incontinence (involuntary leakage of urine), pelvic organ prolapse (when your organs slip out of place), and fecal incontinence (involuntary leakage of feces).

Why? Because pregnancy stretches pelvic floor muscles and birth (and tears) can damage these muscles due to the impact of the hormones that make our ligaments stretchy and joints loose. 

But here’s the real downer: despite the prevalence of UI postpartum, the majority of women brush it off, hoping it’ll magically disappear with time. This does not happen. 73% of women with UI at 3 months postpartum also had UI 6 years postpartum. Read that again, real slow. Of all the women who experience urinary incontinence at 3 months postpartum, 73% will still suffer from incontinence at 6 years postpartum. 

Maybe it is the 25% of women that actually seek help for UI that do not experience lasting UI? If so, what kind of help? Is it super time consuming? Expensive? Complicated? Keep reading to find out.

And then there’s pelvic organ prolapse (POP), a name that sounds straight out of a medical textbook. It’s when our pelvic organs—uterus, bladder, or rectum—slip out of place due to weakened support. Our pelvic floor muscles are like a hammock holding up our internal organs. The symptoms of POP? Pelvic heaviness, back pain, and difficulty voiding. POP is found in about 50% of women undergoing routine gynecological examination and impacts quality of life, self-confidence, and sexual life. The peak prevalence for POP is from 60-69 years, which is another reason that it is important ot act now. 

What causes POP? Weakened pelvic floor muscles and connective tissue attachments. Parity, the number of births, and labor are the two factors which have the biggest influence on developing pelvic organ prolapse in the future. Most risk factors for POP – advancing age, obesity, race, ethnicity, collagen abnormalities, family history, hysterectomy – are unchangeable further highlighting the need for prevention. You can’t change your ethnicity or family history, but you can take steps to prevent POP.

Women who undergo PFMT are eight times more likely to experience improvement or even complete resolution of stress UI symptoms compared to those who don’t. Again, let me repeat, UI is not going to go away on its own, and there is an increase in incontinence from 3 to 12 months postpartum likely caused by a return to sports, work, and increasing physical activities without proper rehabilitation. And yes, PFMT is important for all women. It’s not about the number of babies/births/pregnancies you have had. The percentage of women who suffer from incontinence is the same for women with one child or multiple children. 

For pelvic organ prolapse the results of PFMT are promising as well. At 12 months, women who had completed PFMT had improved symptoms and objective measures of POP as compared to a control group.

In France and in Switzerland women leave the hospital with a prescription to see a physical therapist for pelvic floor rehabilitation. This is unfortunately not the case in the US. National rehabilitation programs should be established to focus on pelvic floor dysfunction prevention, especially as the prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence is expected to rise in the general female population.

We hope to fill this gap and help women regain pelvic floor strength and protect their bodies for the future. You can start right after birth if you know how and safely get back to your everyday activities. Janie, our physical therapist, will explain the ins and outs of pelvic floor anatomy and function, teach you how to self-assess and when to seek help. Pelvic floor movement therapy is not a one-time fix, exercises should be done 2x a day, but you can work them into your daily routine. Emi, our personal trainer, recommends anchoring – every time you brush your teeth you do your exercises, this is a great way to create a habit!

Learn all of the details, assessments and exercises you need with our postnatal workout plans.