Must be doing something wrong?

Do not try to curve your lower back. Pull up your chest while keeping your shoulders pulled down, your upper back flat and broad, and your head pulled up at the crown. The greatest postural problem in women is a weak shoulder girdle. The lumbar spine will expand on its own when you strengthen your upper body. When you pull up your chest, the transverse abdominal muscles engage enough to stabilize your pelvis, while your pelvic organs are moved into the hollow of your rounded lower belly.

Some discomfort is common for the few weeks it takes to build the musculature to hold yourself in this way. Severe lower back pain is an indication that you are not lifting enough in the chest.

I find the posture hard and have to make a supreme effort to remember , but it is helping. Any advice though for working with children? I am a primary school supply teacher and am on my feet all day or bending over work and at the end of the day am experiencinf a lot of pain. Any suggestions to help with the maintenance of good posture good be really apreciated.
I love my job but the way my prolapses are reacting at present don't know if I can keep it up for much longer. Sorry I'm feeling a bit down at the moment, it makes me feel so old and crappy!
Thanks everyone for your great site it really inspires me when I read of sucesses and I don't feel so alone.

I am a secondary school part time teacher. i don't have so much bending to do as 'worriedandupset' and my hours are probably less than yours. On a full teaching day, I really notice the prolapse, more as an achey pull with discomfort. I have a feeling that our bodies are saying 'take it easy, don't overdo the work, however much we enjoy it'.

With adequate rest - as Christine has often mentioned - we can firstly make less demands on our pelvic organs, and secondly i think make it easier for our whole lifestyle to fall into place better.

That is how I see it after 2 months of gradually putting Whole Woman posture and associated daily activities (diet,clothing etc) into practice. (Although I often forget about posture but then try to refocus and hope eventually to make it a comfortable habit). Certainly the rectocele is no worse, and I am aware of it less. Slow steps in the right direction,

And for any of you out there who find that bulges in (and partially out of) the vagina are repugnant: hey it's part and parcel of your wonderful body. It's not a disease (in the sense of infection). Her is my analogy; A hamster can stuff loads of food in its cheek pouch; we can cram food into our mouth, the tissues are all mouldable and flexible. So it just happens that perhaps unfortunately the bladder or rectum bulge in to the vagina, causing some discomfort, sometimes.

With Whole Woman techniques, we can accommodate and work with the changes, to make the best of the situation.

thank you all

Hi Worriedandupset

I can see lots of reasons why you find it difficult to maintain upright, proud posture when you are having to break it repeatedly by bending over to students. Teaching is a very 'bending-overy' occupation.

I wonder sometimes whether bending over the top of the student at their desk is taught during teacher training as a 'superior (teacher) higher than inferior (learner)' body language thing that is necessary to maintain who is boss in a classroom; or whether it is just easier than squatting beside the student.

I have learned over the years that having eyes at the same level is a positive factor in good communication between two people, ie not one talking down (literally) to the other but this might not work in your classroom.

I really don't know how your classroom works, but in some situations it might be possible to squat or have your own compact, low level chair to sit on beside the students. It may also be possible for the students to come to you at your desk, where your eyes would be on a similar level.

Squatting on one heel might or might not be possible for you, but the repeated rising and squatting would certainly build up your thigh muscles, and done with the correct technique, rising need not be too strenuous on your knees as long as you don't wear mini-skirts to work (TMI!).

If your local education system is anything like ours most teachers are female and over the age of 50, so I don't think you are alone, even if you do feel alone. How about chatting with other famale teachers in the staff room about different ways that they use their bodies while communicating with their students sitting at desks? I am sure you would find kindred spirits!!!

However, I don't think this is the lonelines you are referring to. I think it is probably part of the grief process we all go through when the reality of POP sinks in. It can affect our lives in so many ways and we feel very alone in finding solutions.

Hopefully your loneliness will ease now you have found us.

Louise