Pelvic Floor Therapy Can Help with Postpartum Recovery

After nine months of pregnancy, countless doctor visits and delivering a child, everything has changed. As you navigate this new adventure, it’s important to take time to make sure your body properly heals and adjusts. Attending to the pelvic floor is a great place to start.

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor is the lower pelvis’ muscles, ligaments, connective tissues and nerves. Its primary function is to support your bladder, bowel, uterus, vagina and rectum by aiding in bladder and bowel control and by helping to maintain sexual health.

Pregnancy, birth and the associated changes can cause the pelvic floor to become weakened or damaged, leaving you with lasting undesirable symptoms. Pelvic floor physical therapy can help address many of these symptoms and get you on track to feeling your best. 

Symptoms Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help Address

Pelvic floor physical therapy can help by addressing lingering incontinence, pelvic discomfort or pain, muscle tightness or weakness, and slow-healing perineal or cesarean incisions or tears.

“We use the pelvic floor muscles literally every minute of every day,” Bridget Gustwiller, PT, pelvic floor physical therapist with ProMedica Total Rehab Defiance explains. It’s important to take the time to encourage and aid in the recovery of these muscles postpartum.

A pelvic floor physical therapist can aid in this process by:

• Providing exercises and stretches to strengthen, stretch and balance out muscle function.
• Performing manual therapy to mobilize scars and prevent discomfort from a cesarean section or perineal tear/episiotomy. This can help prevent problems with mobility, breathing and flexibility.
• Queuing abdominal muscles back to desired position and function to reduce lower back pain and resolve diastasis recti (separation of the muscles along the midline of the abdomen).
• Addressing improper posture or body mechanics that result from weight fluctuations or new responsibilities, such as nursing/feeding, or carrying the baby, bags or car seat.
• Educating on how to establish healthier toileting habits to improve constipation, urinary frequency or urgency, and both bowel and bladder incontinence. 
• Advising on when it is safe to return to activities, such as exercise and sex, or when getting pregnant again might be recommended.

When To See a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist

Taking time for yourself and getting any help you may need early in the postpartum period is critical. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends pelvic floor physical therapy as early as two weeks postpartum.

“Although it can be done, it’s much more difficult to treat a problem that has been present for three to four years, versus if you can address an issue early on and possibly prevent an additional injury or problem,” Gustwiller shares.

What To Expect at a Visit

“If a patient comes to see me after delivering a child, I want to hear their birth story. I want to know what their pregnancy was like, what their delivery was like, and how they have been healing postpartum,” Gustwiller explains. “Then we can develop a plan based on their primary concerns, and what I see as concerns, so we can get them on a track to optimal healing as quickly and safely as possible.”

Making time to see a pelvic floor physical therapist may seem tough as you are entering a new normal with a newborn. Before ruling out the visit, consider that your physical therapist can often consider your goals and time constraints in developing a treatment plan and schedule. Just a couple of visits can make a huge difference in your postpartum recovery.

“You don’t have to settle for your current issues as your new normal just because your mom, sister, aunt or grandmother told you that they had the same issues. It’s common, but it’s not normal, and with pelvic floor physical therapy, it can be improved,” Gustwiller shares.

Learn more about postpartum recovery, pelvic floor therapy and other women’s health topics by watching @ProMedicaTV’s Women’s Health Talk Webinars on YouTube: youtube.com/@ProMedicaTV.