Help & Advice
Tackling your post-pregnancy body is often at the top of most women's postnatal to-do lists. However, your body may not agree with the type of exercise that you choose to perform. Your muscles, ligaments, and bone structure are all massively altered by pregnancy, making you increasingly more vulnerable to injury. Your body is affected by post-pregnancy hormones, which increase the laxity of your pelvic floor muscles, making it easier for them to overstretch and strain, possibly leading to the development of a pelvic floor disorder. These hormones also make your joints become hypermobile, increasing your risk of sprains and breaks.
To learn more about how pregnancy affects your pelvic floor, visit Pregnancy and the Pelvic Floor.
What Exercise Can You Do After Childbirth?
Generally, you should wait until your 6 week postnatal check up with your midwife before you embark on any exercise activities...
So you're beginning to think about starting a family or even already patiently awaiting Mr. Stork's life-changing delivery? Well, if only it were that simple! There's no denying that parenthood is a magnificent journey, right from the onset. However, even with rose-tinted glasses on, it could never be described as 'easy'!
So, how can we help? Well, here at Kegel8 we want to make sure that your body is fully prepped and up to the challenge. So we've developed a new unit to help you through every stage of this incredible adventure.
Kegel8 Has The Solution:
- Programmes devised by physiotherapists
- Locate and exercise pelvic floor muscles
- Electronically strengthen your pelvic floor in preparation for pregnancy
- Reduce the risk of pelvic floor dysfunction
- Provide pain relief during labour
- Aid effective pelvic floor recovery after...
So, congratulations are in order! Well that’s the hard part out of the way, right? Physically maybe, but you have an exciting, yet extremely challenging journey ahead of you. You’re unlikely to have more than a moment to yourself for around the next twenty years, so when it comes to your pelvic floor, it’s doubtful that you will have given it a second thought. However, exercising the pelvic floor takes a matter of minutes a day, and when we consider how debilitating pelvic floor dysfunction after childbirth can be; it is certainly worth dedicating a tiny portion of your day to it.
The pelvic floor is made up of muscles, ligaments and fibres, which stretch like a tight sling from the pubic bone to the coccyx (tailbone). These muscles naturally expand during pregnancy to accommodate your growing baby. Similarly, they are stretched during labour itself as your baby makes its way through the birthing canal. The pelvic floor can be overstretched...
We know that child birth is a miraculous affair, but there’s no denying it, it’s not all smiles! You may be ‘glowing’, but sometimes that will just be because you’re hot, sweaty, and generally irritable. It should therefore come as no surprise that during pregnancy, and indeed childbirth, the body will be put under immense strain in order to accommodate that beautiful little life growing inside you. So how do you prepare your body for what it is about to endure?
If you’ve decided that you’re ready to try for a baby, it’s never too soon to start preparing. You will find a myriad of information all over the web, offering pregnancy advice and tips for preconception. The majority of which follows the same principle; eat healthily, exercise, take vitamins, and stop drinking/smoking. This is excellent counsel which will undoubtedly make conception easier and provide a healthier environment for your baby over the next nine months. But, what about...
Well, there’s no sugar-coating it, labour hurts! This you have no control over. However, how you choose to minimise and cope with this pain is something that remains firmly within your grasp. As a mother, you will always want what’s best for your child, to protect them in any way you can. This begins before you even set eyes on your newborn baby. There is now a tiny little life that depends upon you for everything, even the oxygen and food essential for their survival. So it is understandable why many mums-to-be opt for a natural/drug-free form of pain relief during labour.
You will have almost certainly heard the term ‘epidural’ before. The idea of having an epidural has most soon-to-be mums running for the hills. Similarly the idea of being...
Pelvic pain is a common problem that affects a high percentage of women at some point in their lives. Whether caused by tight pelvic muscles, vulvodynia, vaginismus, endometriosis or something else, if you are suffering from pelvic pain you shouldn't suffer in silence.
Kegel8 Has The Solution
- Medically approved electronic pelvic toners
- Feature clinically-approved pain relief programmes
- Can help to relax tight pelvic muscles
- Ideal if you have to undergo pelvic surgery
- Treat pelvic pain, incontinence, prolapse & more
Why Do I Suffer Pelvic Pain?
Pelvic pain is something that can affect women of all ages, and can be caused by a whole range of different things, including infection, tight muscles and medical conditions such as endometriosis and vulvodynia.
Pelvic pain often has a simple cause that can be easily treated, so if you're suffering pain in the pelvic area, you...
There are a great number of conditions that can lead to pelvic pain, whether acute or chronic. If you are suffering from pelvic pain, it's important to see a doctor so that you can discover the underlying cause.
Adenomyosis
Adenomyosis is a condition where endometrial tissue (the tissue that normally lines the uterus) grows into the wall of the uterus. This is different from endometrosis, because the tissue does not grow outside the uterus, rather inside.
Read More
Adenomyosis normally affects women after childbearing...
Endometriosis is a common condition that affects as many as 2 million women in the UK, and it can causes pelvic pain, irregular bleeding, heavy periods, depression, fertility problems and more.
What is Endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a condition where the cells that normally line the womb grow outside of the womb, on other pelvic organs such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Because they are the same types of cells as those inside your womb, they grow every month and bleed during your period.
Because these cells are on the ovaries, fallopian tubes...
Painful Intercourse (Dyspareunia)
Dyspareunia is the medical name given to painful intercourse or pain during sex. This is a really common problem, affecting nearly 10% of females at some point in their life. There is usually a simple solution.
Causes of Painful Intercourse
There’s quite a few different things that can cause painful intercourse, and these include:
- Lack of lubrication
- Positioning
- Dyspareunia (pain in the vagina, clitoris or labia during or after sex)
- Vaginismus (where your vaginal muscles clench involuntarily)
- Infection such as thrush
- Vulvodynia (where your whole intimate area is painful)
- Endometriosis (where the womb lining cells grow outside the womb)
- Fibroids (benign tumours that grow...
Pelvic tightness, or pelvic tension, is something that affects a lot of women at some point in their lives and it can be really painful and even affect your quality of life. As well as causing pelvic pain, if your pelvic floor is tight, it can lead to incontinence and intimacy problems.
Symptoms of Tight Pelvic Muscles
The main symptom of tight pelvic muscles is pelvic pain – unlike other causes of pelvic pain like infection, pelvic inflammatory disease or endometriosis, you will just feel painful, tight muscles and muscle spasm, just like if you had muscular pain in your arm or leg.
- Weak Pelvic Floor – if your muscles are tight & painful all the time, this can lead to muscles weakening, causing incontinence and even prolapse
- Intimate Problems – tight...
Vulvodynia is a common condition that affects as many as 1 in 10 women, and it can affect women of all ages, from around 20 onwards. Vulvodynia can be really distressing, and can cause daily pain and prevent women from going about their daily activities – this is known as chronic pain. Find out more in our Kegel8 Guide to Vulvodynia.
What is Vulvodynia?
Vulvodynia is the name given to persistent or chronic pain in the vulva. This might either be a pain all the time – this is called unprovoked vulvodinia, or the pain may only be triggered when the area is touched, for example with a tampon or during sex.
Vulvodynia...
If you have been told you need pelvic floor surgery, you no doubt have many questions. Whether it be hysterectomy, prolapse surgery or fibroid surgery, with any pelvic surgery it is vitally important to strengthen the pelvic floor before and after surgery to get the best surgical outcome, because no surgery can strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.
Kegel8 Has The Solution
- Medically approved and certified
- The UK's best-selling pelvic toners
- Pelvic floor exercise will strengthen the pelvic floor for the best surgical outcome
- Kegel8 Electronic Pelvic Toners target 90% of your pelvic floor muscles compared with 40% when you do normal Kegels
- Kegel exercise before and after hysterectomy can help prevent prolapse and can prevent prolapse from getting worse
- Kegel8 Electronic Pelvic Toners work in just minutes a day to give...