Why Are Pelvic Floor Exercises Important?

When people tell you about the joys of being pregnant I’m sure they are being sarcastic. It’s supposed to be a happy, smiley time but ends up with sickness, heartburn and the worst of them all, incontinence. 

Incontinence is such a huge problem in pregnancy and can get even worse after the labour too if you don’t do  pelvic floor exercises properly. 

Pregnancy incontinence is caused by your babies growing weight pushing down onto your bladder making you need to use the toilet more often and giving you less control. Thus meaning if you cough, sneeze or even the heave as you go to vomit, you can find yourself trickling a little bit of wee and not being able to control it, sometimes not even being able to stop and ending up with a puddle on the floor. Not a good look but hey you’re pregnant, there are worse things to come than a weak bladder.

We do pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles. These muscles are between your legs, they go from your pubic bone at the front of you right round to the base of your spine and they hold your bladder and urethra. These are the muscles we use when controlling our bladders. The pelvic floor can stretch so far in response to weight, however, if it bears weight for a long time, like in pregnancy, the muscles can become overstretched and weak. 

We do pelvic floor exercises to strengthen these muscles back to how they were before and they are super easy to do. You can even get a pelvic floor toner which will help you hold the correct position whilst doing the exercises. Incontinence products are good too, and the ones from Neen Pelvic Health will help in giving you back your confidence. 

But all in all remember, it’s a natural thing to go through in pregnancy. Don’t be embarrassed, every other mum has wet themselves at one point during pregnancy and as long as you do your pelvic floor exercises, your bladder will strengthen and you’ll be your fine, dry self again.