Week #1: Pelvic floor? What pelvic floor?

So, having said thought I had kept myself fit during pregnancy what has happened to me??

I still have a ‘baby belly’ and if my pelvic floor was formerly weak…now I can barely feel it let alone do any ‘exercises’.

Is this normal?

Can getting ONE baby out do this?! On more than 1 occasion recently a lil’ bit of wee (and occasionally quite a lot of wee) has come out with an alarming lack of control!!

So, since whingeing isn’t going to improve my predicament…what does my ‘inner Physio’ say?

The first step is to get some ‘awareness’ around my pelvic floor, however rubbish it is. I can barely feel it but if I use a bit of everything – bum muscles and even inner thigh muscles I think there is something going on.

As soon as I’ve got it though, it’s gone again! (Without boring you with too much science, pelvic floor muscles are what we call ‘low threshold (also known as slow twitch or stabilizing) muscles’.

Essentially they are a bit like marathon muscles; a little bit of activity over a long period of time to ‘hold up’ the bladder, bowel and uterus.

Effort-wise think of ‘2/10’…they can work more strongly but they can’t maintain it hence the; “it’s on, ahh, it’s gone again”……..but it does mean you can begin to feel it more.

So, my focus is now on establishing myself into a routine…I’m trying to think about my pelvic floor each time I hold baby, I do about 10 reps (as gently as I can so I’m not just gripping my bum cheeks) and I have to say after a couple of days I’m starting to get the feel of that bit of lifting/tightening of my crap pelvic floor. I’ve been thinking about some other stuff too, but more of that to come…..

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