Why pelvic floor physio?
As a passionate musculoskeletal physio, I came to women’s health a decade ago as a result of my own issues and concerns both pre and post-natal, my passion for bio-mechanical analysis and the pelvic girdle has driven me to further investigate the pelvic floor.
As a qualified Mummy Mot Practitioner I use my skills to identify and treat the underlying causes of pelvic floor dysfunction in both sporting activities and pre and post-natal.
My journey
Like many women I’ve had my own pelvic floor issues. My husband and I have our own secret coding system for my urge incontinence and pelvic floor weakness, 3 was I need to go soonish, 10 was you need to pull over RIGHT NOW!
I’ve also had a couple of embarrassing episodes of leaking with a full bladder and incontinence in Tesco prenatally when I leaked all over the floor whilst carrying shopping. The second time was just after I had my daughter, I was wearing my favourite peach jumpsuit. I remember both times vividly and it made me determined to fix myself and work on my pelvic floor.
I have always worked hard on my Kegels and pelvic floor strengthening exercises as well as functional fitness, however now there’s lots of new products coming onto the market. I’ve been using a few including Pelviva and Pelvipower which are both effective muscle stimulation tools that I use in combination with core stability and pelvic girdle strengthening regimes.
A strong pelvic floor is a functional pelvic floor able to adapt to movement, dynamic load and functional activies.
The care I’m taking is definitely paying dividends to strengthen my pelvic floor. A 6km run is now completed leak-free and didn’t even need to rush to the toilet at the end. I no longer use pantyliners which is pretty liberating and I’ve ditched carrying around a spare pair of knickers in my handbag. It’s never too late to sort things out if you have an issue. Its never about how far you run its about how dry you run.
My aim is to normalise the issue and to see women being fitter, more active and having happier
sex lives longer into their lives. There should be no more ‘oops’ moments. Women should be able to jump onto that trampoline, run around with their children and belly laugh without fear of wetting themselves. Ideally menopause will no longer be feared and make women miserable – it just doesn’t have to be the case.
I’m also passionate about pelvic health. I’d like to see women not afraid to have conversations and just talk about any problems they have – with their vaginas, with bladder leaks, with pelvic pain- and I’d like to coincide this with an increasing availability of pelvic services and women feeling empowered to seek advice if they have an issue. In parallel, I’d like to ensure that all women are having their cervical smear. It’s so important. I know that lots of teenagers aren’t having them so we will get another peak in cervical cancer in a few years’ time and this can absolutely be prevented.
By Emma James
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