Babies, childbrith , pelvic floor exercises????

[draffin]

Just wondering about anyone elses experiences re the above, friends were discussing these things recently , all got a bit gross and graphic descriptions !!!!

2 of my friends have had children , bad pregancies, bad labour , pelvic floor problems etc .
they were telling myself , and my friend , neither of us has kids ,and bothe have what we think to be healthy enough bits and pieces , but neither of us knew anything about pelvic floor muscles or do these exercises ???
Who does them and when and how ?? just after childbirth or all the time ??
that they had to work hard to regain pelvic floor muscles , had incontinence problems and sex life was affected ????

1st friend , non horse rider , says she didnt have a huge deal of sensation during intimacy with her husband , even before pregnancy , she doesnt ride , other friend does ride and did thru pregancy , however abdominal muscle split near end of pregnancy and doctors said horse riders often have this happen as they have such strong ab muscles ??!!! lol , and also pelvic floor ???Thought this was interesting and worth thinking about maybe , while im pondering these things , esp re starting a family , bit vague and rambling on , just wanted to know what everyones thoughts / experiences were ??

I know these things can be affected but how much ??? My bf has been talking about moving in , maybe having kids in the future ???!!!!

have a slight phobia of babies sometimes! and the thought of childbirth fills me with dread and terror !!!


apologies for long post ! lol xx

 

[Chico Mio]

Being fit always help when having babies, whatever your chosen sport. One of the best pelvic floor exercises is to stop the flow when you are having a wee.

If you can do this OK then the muscles that do it are getting a good work out! Check out a website that explains things in more detail. And remember, next time you are standing next to a woman in the supermarket queue with a far away look on her face she may not be wondering whether she left the iron on, she could be doing her pelvic floor exercises!

 

[emma69]

Pelvic floor exercises are beneficial to most women pergnant or otherwise. If you google, you will find descriptions on how to do them, but the most basic is as if you were stopping yourself weeing 9while not actually weeing if that makes sense) Improves sex life, continence etc.

As for riders and child birth, I think it depends on the individual - and this has been a topic of many a ride out with various members of medical professions and mothers! One rider I know had a super easy labour and delivery, which docs attributed to strong muscles from riding, one had a horrid time of it, needed episiotomy etc, docs said her muscles were too strong from riding and holding everything together, and a third needed a c-section because her muscles were refusing to relax to let baby out, again, docs said riding. So it is either good, bad or irrelevant depending on the person! All three of these folk were serious rider, multiple hours per day of proper horsey work - the obgyn who I used to ride with said pleasure riders, happy hackers (like herself) etc didn't use the muscles enough for it to make the slightest difference!

I had a lovely phone call with a new mum at the weekend who insisted 'Emma, you need to know these things' and described for over an hour the ins and out (and everything in between) or her complex irregular birth! Never mind mandatory contraceptive injections for teens, just have my friend go into schools! There won't be another teen pregnancy ever!

 

[frazzled]

Wonder how many of us reading this post started doing some pelvic floor exercises

On a serious note though it is essential to do them. Wish I had been better especially between 3rd and 4th baby. I do them every day now and it really does help.

 

[china]

i stop weeing whilst im weeing for a few seconds if that makes sense!!

thats meant to be good,
the thought of child birth fills me with terror aswell!!

 

[glamourpuss]

To those of you that do pelvic floor exercises by stopping their wee mid flow, this is now considered to be bad as it can cause urine retention and give you problems emptying your bladder properly making you prone to urinary tract infections.

To work your pelvic floor you do make the action as if you were stopping the flow of wee just not while weeing

Oh and for what its worth, I had a 9lb baby by vaginal delivery and there is nothing wrong whatsoever with my pelvic floor

 

[Janette]

I had 2 X 10lb babies (normal births) 21 and 18 years ago. I did my exercises and there was nothing wrong with my pelvic floor either - However 'Tena Lady' moments became very frequent in the last 2 years..... Apparently, the ligament which anchors the bladder to the pubic bone weakened because of the size of the babies- nothing to do with the pelvic floor.
However - there is a very simple, quick operation which can fix the problem and gives you your life back. It takes 20 minutes, is done under local anaesthetic and is relatively pain free.
I can now cough with confidence and there is still nothing wrong with my pelvic floor

 

[Magicmillbrook]

I am now 12 weeks post labour (2nd child) and did pelvic floor excercises during preganacy and after, I had no 'ahem' leaks during pregnany and last week I went on a trampoline with no problems. So I guess it works. I stayed very fit and active all through my pregnancy and i think it helped with labour, if fo no other reason than to improve your stamina, labour is, as the name suggests very hard work. Both my babies were very late, possibly because my muscles were tight and not allowing the head to press down (despite walking miles with wheelbarrows trying to bring on labour)

My first labour was just about bearable, I was a scared 18 year old without a clue. My second labour was positive (I am now 37), I got almost to the end on just gas and air, I think 2nd time round was better because I had a positive mental attitude. Pleae dont let people scare you with birth horror stories, if its so bad why are we still having babies!

 

[LickettySplit]

Your pelvic floor muscles stretch all the way back to your coccyx so stopping your wee mid-flow will only exercise one part of it....try clenching your vagina and also clench as if your were stopping a poo (sorry if tmi).

To be honest I never felt any need to do these exercises until I had my baby - after giving birth they were shot to pieces (it's quite alarming how little wee control you have without them) so there was no choice but to do them. Riding really helped to bring them back though

.

In case you're interested, I had an 8lb 1oz baby - my pelvic floor slowed things down but an epidural sorted that by relaxing everything down there. Unfortunately my baby had turned back-to-back so they had to do an epesiotomy and manually turn her - once in the right position she shot out in just one push....quite common in riders!

 

[WishfulThinker]

I had before pregnancy Very strong PF and Ab muscles. Throughout pregnancy I could still use my ab muscles strongly, and ever once has any 'accidents' associated with PF muscles - they were as strong as ever.

However I had in the end a c-section, after a 13 hour atempt at labour as I was not dilating - not sure if that has anything to do with PF muscles and fitness etc.

I was assessed by the hospital physio on day 3, and found to have stronger than normal stomach muscles and a small gap in my abs - the norm is 3 fingers width, mine was just under 2.

She did comment that in her opinion the horse riding and use of my core muscles is what contributed to my current muscle tone.

I currently feel almost as good as I did pre labour - I still have some twinges from the wound, but my stomach muscles are functioning very very well. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact I am a fearty that my guts might fall out my wound ( I know they wont, its just a fear I have) I would be on a horse tomorrow!!

 

[flowerlady]

Don't mean to be awkward but shouldn't this be in Soapbox???

 

[draffin]

hey thanks for all the info guys !!!

xxxx

 

[H's mum]

[ QUOTE ]

Oh and for what its worth, I had a 9lb baby by vaginal delivery and there is nothing wrong whatsoever with my pelvic floor

[/ QUOTE ]

On the other side of the coin - I had a 7lb 10oz baby - horrific labour and my pelvic floor fell through!!!!

Kate x

 

[H's mum]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't mean to be awkward but shouldn't this be in Soapbox???

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think so - it's rider related advice/experience she's looking for after all

Kate x

 

[draffin]

good grief Kate ,that doesnt sound good at all ??? what happened , it fell through ??? sounds painful , thats really put me right off the thought of kids !!!!

xxxx

 

[H's mum]

LOL! Def not for the faint hearted! ;o)
Kate x