Women’s Health and Pregnancy

There is so much a women’s health physiotherapist can do. Helping girls and women at all different stages of their lives. It can start with bed wetting as a young child, giggle incontinence as a child/teenager, pain and fatigue with endometriosus, pregnancy pain and incontinence, post-natal abdominal separation, healing with caesarean scars or perineal tears, stress incontinence, urgency, frequency, prolapse symptoms, pessary fitting, pain with sexual intercourse or tampon insertion. Over the next three week’s we will educate about how women’s health physio can assist in different stages of life. This week…

 
Pregnancy
Once again, there are so many body changes that can take place during pregnancy. Pain is one of the major complaints about pregnancy. Women’s Healthy physio can help by providing an assessment to look at posture, alignment of the pelvis, muscle activation and strength. Using belts and tape can also assist in supporting the optimal posture and use of the muscles to hold your body with less strain. Abdominal separation happens in almost all pregnant women. However, there are things that can be done to minimise this from happening which then assists in the recovery process once you have had the baby.

Once you have had the baby, whether it is by caesarean or vaginal delivery, wound care is important to ensure that optimal healing takes place and excessive scar tissue is not created. Some women may also have persistent abdominal separation which requires rehabilitation in teaching the core how to work again. This involves looking at abdominal function, pelvic floor function and the diaphragm. If you are reluctant to have your pelvic floor looked at, a real time ultrasound can be a screening tool to see externally (avoiding an internal vaginal assessment), if there may be some underlying weakness or even overactivity in the muscles.

Pregnancy doesn’t have to be a painful experience during or post. A simple 45-60min assessment during pregnancy could help you avoid a lot of issues during and after bub and enjoy the pleasures of being pregnant.