How to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor for Pregnancy

Deciding that you are ready to have a baby is a big step for you both mentally and physically, and getting your body ready for the event should be your top priority. The muscles of the pelvic floor work tirelessly during pregnancy; supporting the weight of your growing uterus, maintaining your posture, and gently rotating your baby into the correct birth position.

How Will Pregnancy Affect Your Pelvic Floor?

Your pelvic floor is pushed to its limits during pregnancy and becomes weakened as a result. It's not uncommon to feel discomfort as the muscles are extremely vulnerable due to the extra pressure placed on your abdomen. If you are not prepared and your pelvic floor muscles are weak, you are likely to become one of the many women that suffer from pelvic floor disorders during and after pregnancy. Conditions include:

• Urinary incontinence
• Bowel incontinence
• Pelvic organ prolapse

A pelvic organ prolapse is a condition that occurs when your organs lose support from the pelvic floor and are therefore able to' sag' against your vagina. A prolapse can seriously affect the rest of your life, and around 50% of mothers suffer from some degree of prolapse following a vaginal delivery. To prevent this, it's vital that you start to work on maintaining and improving the strength of your pelvic floor whilst you are expecting.

What Can You Do to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor During Pregnancy?

Pelvic floor (Kegel) exercises are a great way to help your body during pregnancy. The increase of blood flow and muscle flexibility results in healthy, oxygen-rich tissue being produced. This is a huge benefit within pregnancy as it means that labour can be much shorter, and the recovery period much faster. Toning the pelvic floor also lowers the risk of tearing, as well as the need for an episiotomy or C-section.

Mum-to-be's will undoubtedly be familiar with bladder weaknesses throughout the pregnancy process. However, you don't have to tolerate this. Kegel exercises will also help to keep stress incontinence at bay.

Start the healing process & regain strength in the pelvic floor post-partum in as little as 12 weeks, with the help of the Kegel8 Ultra 20 & Amanda Savage!

Amanda Savage is one of the UK’s leading specialist pelvic floor and women’s health physiotherapists, who has worked in the field for over 20 years offering supervised pelvic floor muscle training and support for the recovery of pelvic organ prolapses, incontinence and pelvic surgeries. With post-graduate qualifications, including a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, she has also gained full membership of the Professional Network of Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP). As a Kegel8 ambassador, Amanda Savage has worked alongside us for many years in the development of our best-selling device, the Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner, to ensure its efficacy. In addition, she has been integral to ensuring all supporting information and instructions are medically accurate so that the device is used correctly/effectively, and treatment is tailored to the specific condition of the user.

Find out more about Amanda Savage, her qualifications, experience, knowledge, and affiliations here. 

Comes complete with an easy exercise plan, created by Amanda Savage, to get results in 12 weeks!

Welcoming your little bundle of joy into the world is likely to be the happiest moment of your life. But it can also be the most challenging, in many ways! Indeed, you are now responsible for a little life. But, as daunting as that sounds, it’s important to remember that to take care of them, you need to take care of yourself!

Since giving birth, you have probably noticed many differences in your body! That’s because the pelvic floor muscles must stretch to accommodate your baby during delivery, which can result in weakness and damage. However, this damage/weakness is certainly not irreversible and is, by no means, an inevitability of childbirth. By simply performing regular pelvic floor exercise, it is possible to re-build the strength and endurance of the muscles to ensure optimum bladder and bowel control. That means no more annoying ‘leaks’ when you sneeze or laugh! In addition, by building strength and tone in the pelvic floor, your organs will be better supported, which will prevent prolapse and stop your symptoms from worsening over time.

In the first 12 weeks after your baby is born, you’re encouraged to do pelvic floor exercises but, as the body is still very fragile, it’s not advised to use a muscle stimulation machine until after 12 weeks have passed. Until then, use traditional Kegel exercises without the assistance of a device. After 12 weeks, you can use a muscle stimulation machine to help improve circulation to the pelvic floor and perineum and to help exercise the muscles. We recommend using the Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner once the initial 12 weeks have passed. Removing the guesswork and essentially acting as a Sat-Nav for your pelvic floor muscles, it correctly targets and stimulates a contraction within them using a small electric current. These contractions build strength and tone in a matter of weeks! With 20 clinically proven pelvic floor exercise programmes which vary in frequency, intensity and duration, the Ultra 20 is proven to treat a variety of different conditions, including bladder and bowel weakness post-partum and pelvic organ prolapse. And, in addition to tailored programmes, the specific 12-week exercise plans created by Amanda Savage advise exactly how the device should be used, depending upon the condition, to ensure the very best treatment.

The included 12-week treatment plan for postpartum recovery has been specifically created to re-build the strength and endurance of the muscles to ensure optimum bladder and bowel control following pregnancy and labour. It also calms the nerves responsible that can cause sensitivity in the bladder and builds strength and tone in the pelvic floor, so the organs are better supported to prevent prolapse and stop symptoms from worsening over time. The plan encourages new mothers to take things slowly and has been expertly tailored to utilise the right programmes at the right time to ensure optimum results.

Sources

DeLancey, J.O., Morgan, D.M., Fenner, D.E., et al. (2007). Comparison of levator ani muscle defects and function in women with and without pelvic organ prolapse. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 109, pp. 295-302.

Hoyte, L., Schierlitz, L., Zou, K., Flesh, G., Fielding, J.R. (2001). Two- and three-dimensional MRI comparison of levator ani structure, volume, and integrity in women with stress incontinence and prolapse. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 185(1), pp. 11-19.

Kashyap, R. et al. (2013). Comparative effect of 2 packages of pelvic floor muscles training on the clinical course of stage I-III pelvic organ prolapse. International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 121(1), pp. 69-73.

Morkved, S., Bo, K. (2014). Effect of pelvic floor muscle training during pregnancy and after childbirth on the prevention and treatment of urinary incontinence: a systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 48(4), pp. 299-310.

Pelaez, M. et al. (2013). Pelvic Floor Muscle Training included in a pregnancy exercise programme is effective in the primary prevention of urinary incontinence: A randomized controlled trial. Neurology and Urodynamics. 33(1), pp. 67-71.

Staer-Jensen, J. et al. (2013). Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Pelvic Organ Support During Pregnancy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 122(2), pp. 329-336.