Regaining pelvic floor tone

[MomToN]

Hi All,

Warning... This may be a bit descriptive/gross.

Just a couple of days before I had experienced incomplete bowel
emptying. It was like, I would feel like going for #2 and when I
actually end up in toilet, I will pass very little. cosistency was
almost normal. I would feel like I wanted to go more. But nothing
would come.

Later when I visited my OB, she checked me and pressed on my vagina
and I felt like emptying my bowels. She said that I have a pelvic
floor prolapse from previous pregnancy or delivery (11 months back I
had my DD#1).

I had a c-section 11 months back after a failed induction and during
final stages, pushing (without me feeling like to push), counter
pressure, and doctor putting her hand/instruments inside etc... Would
this have caused pelvic floor prolapse or this pregnancy or previous
pregnancy? FWIW, my baby was very tiny - 2.4kg.

The current OB has adviced me to do pelvic floor exercises and gave me
a brief intro on how to do them and told that only with this I can
strengthen my muscles. Meanwhile I need to take a fiber drink etc for
softening stools.

Will pelvic floor weakening affect prospects of a normal delivery this
time? If I do Kegel exercises, will it really help me in regaining the
muscle tone and in how long a time? Last time around I did not do much
of kegels before or after delivery. And is it common for this problem
to surface after 11 months rather than soon? FWIW, my DH has said that
he has not experience any slackening of my vagina while intercourse.

Thanks a lot for any pointers...

Mom to N-baby born on July 7th, 2003
Baby #2 due on Jan 30th, 2005

[Dagny]

"MomToN" > wrote in message
om...

>
> I had a c-section 11 months back after a failed induction and during
> final stages, pushing (without me feeling like to push), counter
> pressure, and doctor putting her hand/instruments inside etc... Would
> this have caused pelvic floor prolapse or this pregnancy or previous
> pregnancy? FWIW, my baby was very tiny - 2.4kg.

Yes. Pushing before urge is an obvious cause of prolapse, because you are
not working as your body is designed and what you end up pushing on are your
bladder, top of your uterus and bowel (since your body isn't telling you
what muscles to use and the baby has perhaps not dropped low enough for you
to push on her, and because when you are not following an urge you don't
wait until the contraction has pulled your other organs out of the way, your
pushing efforts are not applied when they would be efficient leading to
longer pushing stage, etc). Practitioners rarely admit this because they
*love* to tell women to push without urge, and they don't want to face the
consequences. The consequence is a lifetime of deformity and disfunction
from these organs becoming detached as the woman is coerced into pushing
them towards her pelvic openings, breaking their support structures.

It is a horrible, horrible experience that I share with you. I got the book
_Saving the Whole Woman_ but I have little hope of ever having normal
function.

Full squatting on the toilet (feet flat on the seat) should help you
eliminate.

Advice for prolapsed women in subsequent pregnancies is "push only as your
body tells you to." Of course this was in my birth plan for my first birth
to head off these kind of things, but my mw ignored my birth plan for no
reason other than she thought I was "tired" (no discussion of this though)
and mutilated me. I urge all women to wait until your body tells you how to
push, and push exactly as your body tells you, and in the positions your
body tells you to push in, ONLY. Until then labor down unless you believe
your practitioner and your practitioner tells you there is a problem. Your
uterus is the safest muscle to push out a baby, for both you and the baby,
not your abdominals. Your body will tell you if you need to involve other
muscles.

-- Dagny
Mom to Meg, 10/03
EDD 1/19/05

[Jenrose]

"MomToN" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi All,
>
> Warning... This may be a bit descriptive/gross.
>
> Just a couple of days before I had experienced incomplete bowel
> emptying. It was like, I would feel like going for #2 and when I
> actually end up in toilet, I will pass very little. cosistency was
> almost normal. I would feel like I wanted to go more. But nothing
> would come.
>

I have a rectocele..that is, muscles between the vagina and rectum are
separated, so there's a bulge between. Sometimes I have to apply a little
counterpressure to poop around that "corner", and yes, staying regular helps
a lot.

BUt the best single thing you can do for your pelvic floor is to walk daily.
Nothing, not kegels, not funny little "exercisers", nothing is as good for
your pelvic floor as simple walks. Even 10 minutes per day will help, around
the block, whatever. Climbing stairs is good, too. My symptoms almost
disappear when I walk daily. Not a cure--the separation is still there, but
the tone is so much improved that I barely notice it. If I stop walking
daily, it comes back.

Jenrose

[MomToN]

Thank you for the detailed explaination, Dagny. I will make it a point
to push only while feeling the urge this time around even if I am
asked to do otherwise.

Also as Jenrose said, the daily walks might be helping. Since, up
until a week or two I used to walk in treadmill for 15 minutes daily.
Due to busy schedules I was not doing it recently. I will have to
catch up with that too and also the kegels. Whatever works/helps... I
am more worried about 2nd delivery being normal that pooping normally,
daily. I cannot imagine caring for a toddler + baby after having a
c-section. Pooping will happen somehow, now that I know what the cause
for not pooping is.

Thanks again!

Mom to N-baby - July 7th 2003 &
Baby #2 - EDD Jan 30th, 2005.