New and soooo confused...

I have to be quick, as I am juggling baby and a mountain of homework, housework, etc. Know that this will get better. I was at the worst at around 13 weeks pp, and now at almost 10 months, I am miles away. I am active, lift within reason, normal. Still have a tiny bulge, but think that will get better as time goes by. Sorry to be so short here, but here are some tips:

-- look at the self exam article to compare with your photo (on homepage)
-- know that it takes at least a year for full postpartum recovery, some cultures say two years
-- most postpartum ladies heal by two or more grades
-- learn the posture!!! it's free, there's nothing to lose, it feels beautiful, and will protect your future
-- get the DVD if you can.
-- read tons of old posts here. read them all. you will learn alot.

best wishes. you will feel better with time and a bit of postural work!

Dear Young Confused,
I have been through the same and I can promise you it will get better, 3 months pp is the worse period, you will read it all over this website and it was also true for me. Prolapse is very difficult to accept especially when you have always taken good care of yourself. Try to adopt the posture as much as you can, it will become natural after a while, especially when you are carrying your baby. Like Bad Mirror wrote, buy the book and DVD if you can. I tried several alternative therapies but the foundation is WW posture, you can't do without. I also tried Schuessler salts lately with very good results (no 1 and 12 at 12x: calcium fluorica and silicea), two years pp...
{{hugs}}

First of all (((hugs))), second of all you should read Louise's post on postpartum prolapse. For what it's worth, my doctor told me that any bulges inside your vagina are fine; it's when things are coming out that she worries. I take that to mean that postpartum prolapse is normal. Now, I don't mean to say that you shouldn't change your lifestyle a little. Do the posture, do the workouts, they help so much. What you shouldn't do is worry about something that happens to everyone after they give birth! Your vagina stretched so much, now your organs are sort of filling the space. It doesn't mean that things wont get better. Of course, it will never be the same down there. You had a baby!
Also, keep in mind that before you give birth your hymen may still partially cover your introitus. After birth, forget it! It's destroyed, so your vagina looks more open(this by the way has improved the way sex feels for me). So hang in there! I promise that what you are going through happens to almost every woman after birth. Now go cuddle that cute baby while she still lets you(mine is so over mommy now, crawling is much more fun!)

I just wanted to add a few things to my response now that dd is sleeping.
Try using a little lube everyday. If you're breastfeeding, you may be very dry and that can cause feelings of discomfort. Also, you don't need to become less active. You just need to be active in the right posture. I was so worried about my tiny prolapse that I actually thought I would have to quit singing(I'm an opera singer). I went to the opera a few weeks after my baby was born and thought "I'll never be able to do that again" LOL. I'm singing all the time now and everything is fine. I went really crazy thinking that I would have to change my whole life around my vagina! I mean, I lost all sense of reason. I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to embrace your new mommy body and be patient with it. You will be amazed by how much you heal. I'm 8 months postpartum and I think I'm pretty much back to normal. I promise it'll get better! Take it easy for the next few months and practice your posture.

When you check your prolapse are you squatting on the toilet? In my experience that sort of forces everything down.
The feeling will get a lot better. Keep in mind, however, that even if you didn't have a prolapse, you would still probably feel weird down there after giving birth. I don't know if you've ever had surgery, but incision sites feel really weird for a long time (like years).
I also truly believe that when I think about my prolapse it feels a lot worse. If I post on this website, for instance, I feel very prolapsy. Try distracting yourself in some way. For instance, everytime you think about your prolapse in a negative way, snap a rubberband on your wrist( I know, it sounds barbaric, it's just an example). Try to think about your prolapse in a positive way, by concentrating on your posture.
Everything wont come flying out! I suppose if you pick up something really heavy, you might tear your fascia more, but I kinda doubt it. It would need to be a very extreme situation.
If I were you, I would wait on the kick boxing and other strenuous exercise until at least 6 mos pp. Mostly because your ligaments are still stretchy in your legs and hips. You're a lot more vulnerable to injury right now. You don't want a knee injury and a new baby!
Hang in there mama. I know how you feel. I used to feel awful, but now I feel like my old self again. It is possible!

Your diagnosis was a "mild cystocele".I would like to meet someone who doesn't have a mild prolapse after giving birth. I am really starting to believe that the only women who don't have postpartum prolapses are the smart ladies who don't take a peek(LOL)!
I promise that it will get so much better you wont think about it. I only think about mine if I'm ging to lift something heavy, and even that is more of a "check your posture" not a "you're going to blow your insides out!". I only come here to try and reassure new moms like you! Remember that your body will always be different, but you can use it for the same things you always have. Speaking of which....the turning point for my own sanity after pop was when I had sex with DH(6 mos pp). It felt exactly the same as it did before I had my baby girl. That's when I realized that I could live my life! If sex feels the same then what's the big deal? Yes there may be an annoying feeling down there occasionaly but, for me at least, it isn't painful. I just don't want you to think that your life is in any way going to have to change. The biggest life change you face is learning to use the posture. Rest assured, all will be well!

I just want to add that I am in no way trying to minimize the symptoms of POP. I know that many people suffer a lot from their prolapses. I just think that for newly postpartum moms the situation can be more mentally devastating than physically, especially when our prolapses are mild. We new moms are dealing with so much as far as our bodies and our new lives with baby!

Hey Youngconfused

Now you have been to the physio it sounds like you are in not to bad a state. Mums who have diagnosed POP then a pregnancy and birth often say that 3 months is the worst, and for a while longer, then it starts to get better. You just have to have faith in their honesty. My second and third were born after I had postpartum POP symptoms with my first. They didn't even bother telling me what it was, so I was blissfully ignorant. I figured out myself that the only way I could deal with the pain was to drape myself upside down on the back of the sofa. I now know why!

The body reverts for maybe two years. I personally think it went on in a subtle way for several years after that, after my last baby. Maybe I just got used to my new body!

Stash that photo on your computer somewhere you can find it in 12 months. Take photos every 3 months if you like, for comparison, but then forget about what it looks like and get on with becoming aware of what it feels like. Learn the posture, and learn how your female body works. I have never done boxing but I'll bet you it doesn't pay much heed to the unique features of the female body and how it maintains the position of the pelvic organs.

You will get back to exercise, but the person who told you that you won't be able to skip and run from now on needs their head read, to put such unnecessarily negative thoughts in your head. I suggest that you stick that advice in an even more inaccessible part of your computer and forget about it altogether. Start off with the ballet workout in the book and the workout on the DVD, and give yourself a bit more time. Be gentle on your body and just take baby steps.

When you are tuned in to your body and your POPs and what the sensations feel like you will know in an instant whether or not you can do a particular activity. It is often just a matter of adjusting your posture and how you use your body to enable you to do almost anything.

Christine tells me that bellydancing is not good for my POPs, but I have a teacher who knows about Wholewoman, and is a qualified personal trainer, very injury aware, and so far there are only a couple of moves I cannot get to work OK with WW posture and principles, just by making minor adjustments in angle or which muscles I am using.

Hey, there are so many bellydancers with bad technique out there, I figure that I will be just fine! I get so much enjoyment out of it. That's just how a woman with POP dances, and they can get used to it!! I don't look that obviously different, and I certainly don't feel ashamed of it. It is my way of 'outing' myself.

I guess boxing for you is like bellydance for me. I wouldn't tell you not to do it, but to let your body tell you if it can't. I am sure that there will be other forms of exercise that will give you the same thrill if your body says no to boxing in two years' time.

Take care. Baby steps (and no looking!).

Cheers

Louise

I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. Of course you'll be able to run again! MY husband had open heart surgery few years ago. They cut open his chest wall! He still lifts weights and exercises. I repeat, THEY CUT OPEN HIS CHEST WALL. His doctors said he would heal. Why is it that the medical community has no faith in the healing capabilities of the female body. No one can tell me that a healthy 30 year old woman is doomed to a sedentary life because she has a saggy vagina 3 mos after giving birth. This really makes me very angry. It takes a good year for your vagina to get to a normal place after having a baby. Yes it will always be different, but you aren't disabled.
The reason I am so upset is because I can hear your anxiety about this. Anxiety and new motherhood are not good combinations. I can't tell you how much time I spent freaking out about my vagina when my baby was little. I kept thinking that I was permanently deformed. Thankfully my doctor told me that she doesn't consider bulging a true prolapse unless it pushes past the introitus. Now I understand why she said that. She didn't want me to worry about something that will probably heal itself in a year or so.
OK, now that I've cooled off. I would wait at least a few more months before you engage in rigorous physical exercise. Not because I really think that you'll damage your prolapse, but because your ligaments are still very squishy. You don't want a knee injury, a prolapse and a new baby!
If I were there right now I would give you a huge hug. I would also tell your physio that she needs to pull her head out of her a**