Why Pelvic Floor Health Is Important to Your Pregnancy

Pelvic floor muscles are one of the must-do items after childbirth. How can we minimize damage to the pelvic floor muscles after childbirth?

The pelvic floor muscles have three major functions, support, sphincter, and sex. Support means that the pelvic floor muscles have a supporting effect on the organs. The sphincter means that the pelvic floor muscles have the function of controlling urine and stool, and sex is the function of the pelvic floor muscles to maintain sexual pleasure.

When a woman is not pregnant, the uterus is only 50g. After pregnancy, as the fetus grows, the uterus will gradually grow larger, and the pelvic floor muscles will be damaged in the process. If you don’t control your weight or exercise during pregnancy, your pelvic floor muscles will be damaged. Postpartum, you will leak urine due to laughter, cough, exercise and other behaviors. It may also cause sexual discomfort and organ prolapse.

• What can be done during pregnancy to avoid or reduce pelvic floor muscle damage?

1. Control weight during pregnancy and eat a reasonable diet, which will help reduce the degree of pelvic floor muscle damage.

2. Exercise pelvic floor muscles during pregnancy: such as yoga during pregnancy, maternity exercises, and brisk walking. Use exercise to control blood sugar, control weight, exercise pelvic floor muscles, and minimize pelvic floor muscle damage.

3. Do Kegel exercises according to your own conditions in the late pregnancy. Doing Kegel exercises can increase the tension and elasticity of the pelvic floor muscles, which can make vaginal delivery more smoothly, reduce neonatal asphyxia, reduce postpartum hemorrhage and reduce the rate of cesarean section , To promote postpartum recovery.

4. Kegel exercises must not be done during the puerperium, because the confinement period is the self-repair stage of the body. If you intervene, it will aggravate the pelvic floor muscle damage.

• How to find the pelvic floor muscles

1. Balloon blowing method

Keep sitting and blow the balloon hard. You feel that there is an area in the lower part of the pelvis, which is the pelvic floor muscle area.

2. Mid-end method of urine flow

When urinating, stop urinating suddenly and feel what muscles are exerting force during the process, and the part that exerts force is the pelvic floor muscle you are looking for.

3. Fingering

After cleaning your hands, place your fingers in the vagina and press the surrounding muscles. You can feel the tightening of the muscles and the upward movement of the pelvic floor. After you relax, you will feel the pelvic floor move back again. The power of tightening is the power of the pelvic floor muscles.