How To Fix Your Pelvic Floor
In This Article
Pre-pregnancy, you probably never thought much about your pelvic floor. (You know, the network of muscles that keeps your uterus, bladder and bowels in place.) Although now you may be noticing that things down under haven’t been the same since you had kids. The biggest sign things have gone south? Leakage – when you laugh, when you sneeze or, heaven forbid, when you jump.
“One in three women experience stress urinary incontinence and three quarters of the time it’s giving birth that’s to blame,” says Scott Farrell, chief of gynaecology at IWK Health Centre in Halifax. But before you resign yourself to a lifetime of stifling your sneezes, here’s what you should know.
What happens to your pelvic floor during pregnancy
During pregnancy, the weight of your uterus balloons from a couple of ounces to about two pounds and, along with your baby, puts extra pressure on your pelvic floor. (This is one reason women who have C-sections aren’t 100 percent protected from pelvic floor problems.) Then there’s the fact that pregnancy hormones, not to mention the birth process itself, stretch out your pelvic floor muscles and increase your risk of urinary incontinence.
“After delivery, about 30 to 40 percent of women experience some degree of leaking,” says Dr. Farrell. “And while it usually improves within a year, each subsequent pregnancy makes a permanent problem more likely.”
