The importance of the pelvic floor

Posted by Linda on March 2, 2023

Do you ever pee when you cough, or jump, or even when you’re making your way to the bathroom? Do you have to get up during the night to pee? Frustrating, isn’t it, and not good for the quality of your sleep. Do you ever experience pain during intercourse? Do you feel ‘pelvic heaviness’? Or maybe you feel pain in your pelvis with daily movements like getting out of bed, or walking? Perhaps you have a prolapse of the rectum, uterus or bladder?

You may have pelvic floor dysfunction. The good news is that there are pelvic physiotherapists on hand to help prevent and manage this – let me introduce women’s pelvic health physiotherapist, Lizzie Smith.
Lizzie isn’t just an ordinary pelvic health physiotherapist – she’s a Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecology physiotherapist, specialising in these areas:

Obstetric – Pregnancy issues, including (pre- and post-natal) pelvic girdle pain, other post-natal issues, such as traumatic birth, diastasis recti (separation of the muscles along the midline of the abdomen after giving birth)
Gynaecology – Pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and faecal Incontinence, gynae surgery prehab and post-operative rehab
Pelvic health – Pelvic pain: endometriosis, transgender surgery; urology – overactive bladder, pelvic floor relaxation, bowel emptying

Pelvic floor physiotherapy may be a relatively new concept for many people. You may be wondering what it’s all about. Women who have had children are probably familiar with the concept; but they are not the only ones who may benefit from it.

Pelvic floor physiotherapy is a specialised field of physiotherapy that assesses the pelvic floor muscles for function and the internal organs to see if they are where they should be. A pelvic floor physiotherapist can develop a programme to treat or prevent many of the conditions caused by weak or tight muscles, such as prolapses and urinary incontinence.

Watch my video with Lizzie where we talk about some of these conditions, as well as the overall importance of the pelvic floor in managing female bladder and bowel health.