A newbie with a question on the Posture, and on barefoot walking

hi Dragonness,
so glad you found your way here!
i have to be super fast (babe about to wake!) but i will start and many others continue i am sure!!!
having found this site, and info on the posture, your body should be able to find a place where is stabilizes and even possibly get somewhat better. the idea with the posture is that your organs fall into their natural place, rather than straight down. what i find a useful image is that my organs are in a bowl and tilting forward, and everything stacks up on top of them. it does feel odd at first, but after a while it's second nature. i remember a post about a year ago where someone described it like having a peacock's tail...imagine your proud feathers coming up behind you and your proud peacock body in front. don't know if that helps, but helped me...

re your stomach. christine's exercises are about toning the whole body, from the bottom up so should help. i have to admit that with my life madness i haven't gotten to start them yet, but i look forward to how in shape i will get when i do!

beyond that it's about finding your limits. some women on here find POP interferes very little with their day to day things. i find that other than lifting the babe, i can't lift anything, and even with baby lifting i have to be careful after a while. if i do too much everything feels worse, but quickly recovers which is the imp't thing!
but others on here just get on as normal and are fine--i think it's about finding your limits.

re kegels...too many definately can make things worse as it tires teh muscles. i aim for about 3 sets of 10 a day--others here do less. put kegel in the search box on the left and you'll find loads.

sorry i have to run...but hope that helps to start!
and know there is so much wisdom here...ask what you need and someone is bound to have the answer!!!

kiki

Hi Dragonness, to add just a bit to kiki's wonderful post, I would say that concrete floors are hard on everyone, not just those with pop. I worked on concrete floors for years and my legs are definitely the worse for it. It has no give at all. Others, hopefully, will address the specifics of why they are especially troublesome for those with pop.

While we're talking about walking, I read in past posts that walking on treadmills is harmful, as well. Maybe someone can explain why?

I don't know that I've been here long enough to be a part of the welcoming committee but I will say 'welcome' anyway. This is a very good place to be. Lots of good and thoughtful and caring women here. Kit

I'm glad you've come to this forum too - it is a very healing place. I am 53 and two years ago I was told I should have surgery. I assumed at first that this was so and I began to accept the idea. However, it is two years later and my prolapse has improved to the point that at my last smear the doctor confirmed that I didn't need to have surgery. I don't have symptoms most of the time, but on and off I do feel a slight bulginess in my vagina. I have learned to live with this and as I said, it has gotten better rather than worse. The measures I took which I think improved the situation for me was: losing weight (I was overweight), walking at least 20-30 mins a day, not straining on the loo (and taking a fibre drink once a day), 4 sets of kegels a day (10 contractions etc), keeping up with the posts on this forum, and giving myself TIME. Although I don't consciously do the posture, I believe it has helped many women here immensely. However, I think I have a good natural curve in my lumbar so I think, from what I can gather, that I may have a natural tendency to be in posture (I do know I've never "tucked my butt under"). Anyway, best wishes from Wendy.

I'm another mama on the run...baby's been sleeping a long time and is bound to wake any moment, but I wanted to take a moment to say hi and welcome

concrete floors make my back ache. even before I had a prolapse

walking barefoot allows my feet to spread as they need to, without the confines of shoes. also, the shape (height) of the heels and soles don't get in the way.

the book goes into greater detail explaining the posture, but quickly, its not just the protruding belly. its elongating the entire spine, from the head. lenthen the neck, hold shoulders broadly but down (not elevated, not back), chest forward and uplifted so that your breasts and belly button separate as much as possible. this will gently arch your low back, tip your pelvis forward. keep knees straight but not locked.
clear as mud, I know.
takes a while to get it

gotta go check on the babe

Welcome to a brilliant, compassionate think tank ! granolamoms' description
of the posture is so good! This place has given me so much perspective
and support. I was lucky to find it within a month or so of my injury. I know
I have moved through much of my pain around this in maybe a fraction of the time...
Imagine the women in history who just silently dealt with this ?

I feel like an alien in my body these days with this new posture
and the many new stiffnesses and sorenesses as my body adjusts.
I really feel that it's helping, as I'm working and busy and just finished
a practically pain free period ! ALL while Still maintaining minimal bulging!!!

I'll settle for functioning, yes indeedy. But I have a few more ambitions
that are surfacing now that I've been given this inch of progress. And Now
I have to watch out for "denial" telling me that I can go back to being ol'ME !
- I remember the last time I was feeling good, what I went and did to myself...
Oh ! I do so dearly hate feeling fragile and not being able to help my husband move the
furniture we build. it SUCKS. I still have a few temper-tantrums left in me yet.
Zelda

It sounds like you are taking HUGE steps forward Zelda. Well done! You sound so much more upbeat and it gives me hope.

My period last month brought with it great relief but month has been a totally different story and for the first time ever I could not wear a tampon without great discomfort. Hopefully it was just a bad month and things will improve next time round.

I am soo glad to hear you sounding happier.

Take care,

A

Yup ! The lows aren't quite as low now that "acceptance" intervenes.
But I'm so busy with Christmas etc. that I'm not pining for my hiking
and skiing as much. That is at the heart of my grief, my lost activity level outdoors.
You'll hear more sniveling shortly after X-mas no doubt. I suppose I can only stay
in that grief space so long before I need a break. But it doesn't really seem to be
getting better when the grief revisits. I'm getting soft-just hate it- I was in such
nice shape.
Isn't the whole menstrual thing strange ? I get several days when I'm bleeding where
everything feels so loose , kegels become almost impossible because there is a heavy
sensation and lack of response or strength. Odd. I had to be pretty active this month
and am paying for it presently but less than before and with a whole lot more faith that
it will get better in a day or two if I take it easy. I had a dinner party Sunday and the
work this house needed was nothing short of total overhaul. I was weary by the time they got
here but it all came together and my family was unusually helpful. I'm proud of their
participation and team work, seems to be forced on them by my inadequate new limits,
but I guess I am the instrument for their learning ?
Zelda

hi-just read about your kegel experience and after I discovered my cystocele I began doing kegels religiously and it has only become worse(though I suppose the jumping wasn't helping either)
I would love to hear any thoughts on this, in the meantime I am stopping the kegeling!

woman if you do the work out in the back of THE BOOK and still have a soft body you are not doing it right!!!

Glad you are feeling so good.

and you trampoline people are NUTS. but I guess if you do it in the posture it can't be awful. I don't know.

which book??
trampoline is just my winter exercise-otherwise it is hiking, running and biking for me. The older I get(now at the ripe old age of 36-ha)the wimpier I get from the cold...

and I am sure missing my outdoors too...
Zelda you remind me very much of my dear friend from Maine...I can almost hear her talking through your writing...

Hello ! I am glad you found us too. This is one of those issues
that takes one to know one. I haven't kept as secret about this as some of us ,
but even though I have amazing GF's it still is hard for them to grasp,
and conversations often end up with me telling them why -AGAIN- I will
never consider surgery. I am certain they just chalk it up to my willfulness
and my extreme distrust of western medicine. I don't like their designer drugs
and they can keep the barbaric surgery that's supposed to "fix" this.
I am also trying to get to a point where my vagina and the awareness of the
bulge does not eclipse everything in my life. It often has me reaching around for
something else to talk about though.
I am going to have to confess that I do not own the book. The book is written
by the lovely awesome Woman who put this site together and has given us hope
and solace. I'm tearing up just thinking about how grateful I am to Christine.

Things have been tight around here and I've come across enough description to
get the posture. I know it would be lovely to have but I keep telling myself "soon,
when our cash flow is a bit better..." This injury is unfortunately just a fraction of
the Hell that will be known as 2007 ! The year of my identity crisis.

So Stella I'm curious about how you came to have a prolapse ? Your 36 ? Kids ? how old ?
etc. It seems so many of us are young Mothers or Mothers with young haha.
It probably isn't so important to know exactly how we got in this place but I have
been pre-occupied with the WHYWHYWHY 's of this unhappy change in my life.
And wish a doctor , mother or anyone would have let me know that we risk prolapse
silly I guess. But I still wish. I would NOT have pushed myself so hard. But I've
come to understand these are the many faces of the grief cycle that we go round and round
until maybe acceptance fully takes over.
Zelda
P.s. -If your a little computer retarded like me - The "Search" button in the upper
right corner was pointed out to me and I was thrilled with it's usefulness.. If you want to
see some of the heart here, Search Poems.

Thank you for the welcome Zelda!
It never would have occurred to me to find a support group like this...I stumbled upon you all while(frantically) searching for an alternative to surgery...thank goodness...
I am 36 years old. I have 2 children(ages 6 and 12). My first birth was difficult(not more so than a typical first birth)but I had a gentle midwife who never pushed me...my second was a very gentle(and fairly easy) homebirth...
I have a strong and healthy body(other than a slow thyroid which I have been treating for the last year or so) and systemic Lupus which has been in total remission for a couple of years(from ONLY natural treatments). Like you Zelda, I have a passion for the outdoors and spend most of my free time outside in nature. It saddened me to hear that you can no longer enjoy the activities that you once did. I didn't yet find where you might have written why that is. Is it because of your symptoms? Anyway, I have also felt very strong and independent and have always easily done physical work like stacking wood, moving furniture,etc! Will I not be able to do these things anymore? I am feeling pretty scared about that possibility right now.
My grandma and aunt have also had prolapses but much later in life...
My little one is about to get off the bus but I will be back later!

We will never know "what if I did" but I suspect your gentle home births did less dammage than a C section could only dream of. Please don't regret your decision to birth as intended. There is a Blog about it-