Do I need to do pelvic floor muscle exercises after giving birth?

Some postpartum women may experience urinary incontinence and difficulty defecating, as well as a feeling of heaviness and pain in the perineum. This is caused by damage to the pelvic floor muscles. During the childbirth process, the pelvic floor muscles will be more or less damaged, but some women have smaller pelvises, so the damage during childbirth may be greater, so most women need pelvic floor muscle repair after childbirth.

Do I need to do pelvic floor muscle exercises after giving birth?

The female body has a group of muscles that, together with the fascia, act like a hammock, supporting the uterus, rectum, and bladder. During pregnancy, the uterus weighing dozens of kilograms also has to be supported by it. After a normal birth, the elasticity of the pelvic floor muscles decreases, the organs cannot recover well, and their position cannot be fixed, resulting in functional disorders. For example, mild urinary incontinence, when you sneeze or cough, urine may leak out or you may feel your vagina falling.

Let’s talk about the pelvic floor muscles first. The pelvic floor muscles are like a spring, connecting the pubic bone, coccyx, etc. If the mother has taken pregnancy courses during pregnancy, she will know that pelvic floor muscle exercises are not to be recovered after delivery, but should be practiced during pregnancy. It surrounds the urethra, vagina, and rectal openings, supports the pelvic and abdominal organs, and works with bladder, bowel, and sexual function. Therefore, the pelvic floor muscles are closely related to sexual function, urination function, etc. Some mothers experience urinary incontinence because their pelvic floor muscles have not recovered well.

During the process of pregnancy and childbirth, women's pelvic floor muscles, fascia and other supporting structures will inevitably suffer a certain degree of damage, leading to pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence, etc. This is the most important reason why pelvic floor muscle exercises are necessary after childbirth. Pregnancy and childbirth are independent influencing factors of pelvic floor dysfunction, so postpartum pelvic floor repair occupies a unique position.

During pregnancy, as the baby grows gradually, the pressure in the pelvis and abdomen increases, further compressing the pelvic floor muscles, fascia and other supporting structures, causing them to be overstretched and weakening the supporting ability of the pelvic floor. During childbirth, especially for pregnant women who use forceps or vacuum extractors to assist delivery because vaginal delivery is difficult, supporting structures such as the pelvic floor muscle fascia will be damaged to a greater or lesser extent in the process, thus weakening their supporting capacity. During the postpartum recovery period, if the pregnant mother is not careful and performs heavy physical labor too early, it will hinder the restoration of the tension of the pelvic floor muscle fascia tissue and easily lead to pelvic floor dysfunction.

You can imagine the pelvic floor as an "elastic net" that tightly wraps around organs such as the urethra, bladder, vagina, uterus and rectum, keeping them in their normal positions and performing their corresponding functions. When this elastic net relaxes due to continuous pressure during pregnancy, it cannot cover these organs, resulting in corresponding functional disorders. Common and painful diseases such as urinary incontinence, constipation, big belly, sexual disharmony, pelvic organ prolapse, etc. all come from this.