Strengthening pelvic floor muscles has become a growing industry for women. Photo / 123RF
Strengthening pelvic floor muscles has become a growing industry for women. Photo / 123RF
It’s a subject many women would prefer not to think about, but there’s no avoiding the fact many struggle with issues with their pelvic floor as they get older.
Studies show one in three women who give birth face some sort of ongoing issue as they get older, from prolapse to stress incontinence, but the ageing process can impact those who never go through pregnancy as well.
Yet this isn’t something that simply needs to be suffered through.
Caitlin Day is a pelvic floor physiotherapist and the found of Unity Studios, specialising in classes that helps women recover after injury or improve the strength of their pelvic floor as they get older.
Speaking to Francesca Rudkin and Louise Ayrey on their NZ Herald podcast, The Little Things, Day said that time can take its toll on everybody.
“Time and gravity has an effect on all of our tissues throughout our lives, but particularly our pelvic floor, because of the way that it’s placed in our body, it’s kind of goes from front to back so it’s horizontal in our body and so it’s constantly having gravity in our pelvic organs and, um, all of our weight pushing down onto that area.
“What happens during menopause is that estrogen levels decrease over time and estrogen is a really lovely hormone for our muscles and our connective tissue, particularly in our ureto-genital tract, which is our urethra and bladder and pelvic floor and vagina, so we have lots of estrogen receptors in those areas and, when we don’t have much estrogen circulating in our body and binding to those receptors, all of those tissues get a little bit frail and a little bit weak over time.”
Physiotherapist Caitlin Day. Photo / Supplied
And for those planning to have kids, Day said that prospective mothers need to be prepared for the likelihood of injury.
“85 per cent of all vaginal births will result in a tear, so whether that be a very mild tear, moving to a really severe tear - into the anal sphincter would be what would classify as severe - but the vast majority of those will heal up quite nicely and not need any treatment.
“It would be almost miraculous to come out of a vagina with no injury.”
In the years since launching Unity Studios, Day said that she has often come across women who did not expect an injury to be part of the birthing process, and it can leave them feeling blindsided and with distrust of the medical system.
It is a large reason why she wants to encourage everyone to discuss the issue more, as more understanding and education helps women be better prepared.
“What we are finding is we might see someone and then they might have a pretty significant birth injury, but they’re much more sort of at peace with it. They know what they’ve heard before. They know that there are people like us out there that can help them. They get onto things a bit quicker rather than just waiting around and waiting for things to heal.”
She said growing coverage around these issues, and new changes from ACC to cover birth injuries, has helped with awareness, but the ACC changes are “the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” helping afterwards, when there should be more of a focus on prevention and preparation ahead of time.
Listen to the full podcast for more information on pelvic floor injuries and tips for prevention and recovery.
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Saturdays.
