Pregnancy and Postpartum

A pelvic floor physiotherapist helps you through your pregnancy and postpartum journey with pelvic floor muscle training, managing changes to the bladder and bowel, and birth preparation. Recovery post-partum involves normalising function of the bladder, bowel and normliasing sensation of the bladder bowel and vagina/vulva.

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Common Pregnancy and Postpartum Symptoms

Pain/Vagina Heaviness

Pubic pain with walking, standing
Pelvic Girdle Pain (pain anywhere in the pelvis) at rest or exacerbated with activity
Heaviness in the vagina when standing, walking or lifting, sometimes eases with lying down

Bladder Frequency, Difficulty Emptying and Leakage

Increased bladder frequency that is impairing function (more than every hour)
Increased nighttime frequency due to bladder feeling full
Reduce sensation of the bladder postpartum, no urge pee.

Constipation

Straining to do a poo
Slower stool transit, either due to pregnancy or iron supplements
Moving positions on the toilet do a poo
Unable to relax your pelvic floor muscle when doing a poo
The use of laxatives, stool softeners and fibre supplements that has not helped

Musculoskeletal Pain

Upper back pain postpartum, possibly during feeding.
Wrist pain radiating up your thumb (Quervain's).
Hand numbness, tingling overnight (carpal tunnel).

Pelvic Floor Muscle Dysfunction

Involuntary contraction of the pelvic floor muscle with deep pain
Intermittent spasm of pelvic floor muscle when inserting a tampon
Hard to relax pelvic floor muscle
Unable to maintain a pelvic floor muscle contraction

Reduce occurrence of stress urinary incontinence

Research published in 2024 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine demonstrated that pelvic floor muscle training reduced the occurrence of urinary incontinence by 37% and pelvic organ prolapse by 56% compared to control groups. This systematic review analysed 65 studies, highlighting the significant effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle training in the postpartum period.

(Beamish et al., 2025)