Should you be going to pelvic floor therapy?

Your questions, answered!

Alright friends, let’s talk about pelvic floor therapy.

“Cannot recommend pelvic floor therapy enough! I swear by it.”
“Went pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, and postpartum. It’s for everyone in every stage!”
“Not just for childbirth! I went for poop issue and they fixed me.”
“People think of it as postnatal but it was helpful prenatal for me (pain and birth prep).”

As you can tell by the quotes above (all from followers of mine!), people are talking about pelvic floor therapy more and more - but I still feel like it’s not totally mainstream yet. Every time I mention it, I always get tons of questions. And I get why! I didn’t know anything about it until a few months ago.

To be honest, because I had a C-Section, I didn’t think it would benefit me. I assumed that it was only for people who pushed and/or had issues controlling their bladder. Turns out it’s much more than that.

What is pelvic floor therapy?

Pelvic floor therapy is a type of physical therapy that focuses on the muscles, ligaments, and connective tissues of the pelvic floor. These muscles support your bladder, bowel, and uterus; and they play a key role in continence, core stability, and sexual function.

Needless to say, your pelvic floor is important - right?

But both pregnancy and birth can significantly impact your pelvic floor because of stretching, pressure, and trauma.

Even a C-section can impact it because cutting through the abdominal muscles weakens your core - and since the core and pelvic floor work together, throwing that connection off can lead to pelvic floor dysfunction.

I also didn’t realize that my scar tissue could hold so much tension, and that could affect my pelvic floor muscles and cause pain and tightness in that region.

A few other reasons to seek pelvic floor therapy are urinary or fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, chronic pelvic pain, painful sex, recovery from childbirth or surgery, endometriosis or interstitial cystitis support.

What happens at pelvic floor therapy?

At your first appointment, you’ll discuss what brought you in. They’ll ask about your pregnancy/birth/surgical history, your bladder/bowel/sexual function, and any other symptoms that you might be experiencing.

They’ll do an assessment - observing simple things like how you stand, sit, and breathe. I think she asked me to squat and do a few very basic abdominal exercises too. That will be followed by an external examination where they’ll feel your stomach, hips, lower back and your scar if you have one.

After that, I highly recommend agreeing to the internal exam because it’s the best way for them to assess your muscle strength and tension, understand where you’re feeling pain, and check out your ability to connect with (contract and relax) your pelvic floor.

Once you do those things, your therapist will give you homework! This can include breathing exercises, physical exercises, relaxation techniques and more.

My appointments after that usually included some work on my scar, followed by breath work and various core exercises to help with strength and stability. I’ll talk more about my personal experience below, but first…

Your questions:

How did you find a good place for it?
I got a referral from a friend of mine! She went back when I was still pregnant, so once I realized I wanted to go, I just asked her for the info.

Where did you go?
B.Wise in Lincoln Square!

When you did start/stop? How often do you do it?
I went about 8 weeks after Charlie was born. I did one session a week for 6 weeks (each session was around 45 minutes), and I have plans on going back in about a month after I attempt to work out more regularly again.

Was it covered by insurance?
Yes, my sessions were partially covered by my insurance! I’d look into your plan to see what is covered vs. what isn’t.

Do they address diastasis recti issues as well?
Yes!

Is it something to do before and after baby is born? Would you recommend doing it during pregnancy as well?
I can’t speak to the benefits of going during pregnancy, but based on how much it helped me postpartum, I’m willing to bet it would be beneficial during pregnancy too. Especially if your insurance covers it!

Why did you start going? What are the biggest benefits/changes you’ve personally noticed from doing it?