Prolapsed bladder at 5 months pp

Hi wildstrawberry and welcome,
Yes, there is a great opportunity for improvement of your symptoms. Just being postpartum is a big plus on your side, because it takes up to two years for your body to heal naturally. Add gentle whole woman posture work, walking, and exercise to that only makes this all the more beneficial to you.
Take some time to read around on this site while you are waiting for your materials to get an idea of what whole woman is all about.
Also to help relieve some of your symptoms, get down on knees and forearms with butt in the air. Breath deeply into your belly in this position. This really helps to gently move those organs into your lower belly.
You may find a lot of contradiction between the physical therapy and whole woman though. They base their exercises on a kegel base theory. Whole woman is postural in nature. So don't be surprised by that.
I don't want to load you down with too much information to start with, but please do read around this site and watch some videos. This has been a eyeopening and wonderful journey for many of us.

I had those feelings of urgency early on, and then there was so much pressure down there, I couldn't get a full stream going half the time. For me that urgency went away with this work. I also did and still do a lot of jiggling(bending over with hinged hip touching the floor or a chair and jiggling or jumping) followed by firebreathing. This is good to do before and after going to the bathroom. I can really feel my bladder and uterus suck back in there with these techniques.
Don't do this on your period though, and be careful with all these techniques and exercises being post partum.
I am not post partum. Actually far from it, but I think we all share some of these things in common early on with prolapse.
Give these things time and be diligent with this work, and you will start to notice very positive changes as you go along.
It sound like you are off to a great start!

Hi Wildstrawberry
I am 2 yrs PP. This is the right pIace to be. Aging Gracefully has lots of great info and you will find lots of PP Mums on here with similar stories and concerns to yours. It seems many people want to at least try PT first and yes the advice does conflict. I tried PT before I found this site.

Sounds like you are off to a great start if you have already noticed a difference walking in WW posture, keep it up. Keep looking and asking questions on here and check out the resources if you can.

Hi wildstrawberry,
We are all different in how we improve those initial symptoms. I came here with a profound uterine prolapse, so in all likelihood, my improvement happened more slowly than others.
First, the initial burning and rubbing feeling went away within a month, I think. And, then I had hurdles along the way that I overcame. I can't remember exactly anymore, but it had to be within the first six months that I overcame that urgency feeling and started to get a nice full stream of urine going.
Your journey will undoubtedly be different because your prolapse is different than mine, you did just have a baby and are still healing, and how much time you dedicate yourself to this work.
Don't be in a hurry, if you do the work, the results will reveal themselves in these wonderful moments of clarity.

pun intended;) Welcome!
A couple of things to keep in mind: For starters, you have another 1 1/2yrs of post partum healing which is an optimal time to rearrange your pelvic organs back into their original location. The second thing is that, unfortunately, prolapse is a progressive condition *unless* it can be stabilized (and in some cases potentially reversed to a certain degree- again, most commonly seen in the younger post partum woman). It is important to keep in mind that traditional medicine sees these organs as being supported by fascia/soft tissue. Over time due to inevitable gravity and intraabdominal forces (ie breathing!) this fascia/soft tissue must and will give/stretch- thus the progressive component. So any traditional method to treat prolapse will only focus on masking symptoms, ie strengthening muscles (kegels). They will not, and can not, based on their understanding of the female body, offer anything that stabilizes the organs, potentially preventing the progression of the condition. ONLY WWW does that because Christine's correct understanding of the true nature of the female body has these organs placed in the roundness of the lower belly, protected (ideally) for a lifetime against gravity and intraabdominal pressures -supported by bone (pubic bones) which will not give way under those pressures unlike soft tissue/fascia.
I first prolapsed about 6 weeks post partum (rectocele). I did not find WW at that time, and instead went the PT/pessary route. (By the way, my pt herself had a cystocele- and used a pessary). Again, there was never any discussion about how to prevent further prolapse. Never, not once. Sure enough, 8 years later, I prolapsed again, with a urethrocystocele. This time, I found WW. I wasted so much time, effort, anguish and financial resources by going the PT route when instead, I could have been at home, enjoying my newborn and working during that physically optimal time to reshape my pelvic organs. I will never know if I could have fully prevented another prolapse for a lifetime, but if I was able to go another 8 years of doing all the wrong things, I greatly suspect that I could have held off another prolapse either indefinitely or for many many more years. As it is, I'll now be managing both a urethrocystocele and rectocele for the remainder of my life. Into my third year of this work, I am very hopeful that I'll continue to get these organs where they belong and keep them there most of the time- and hopefully prevent the descent of my uterus. This posture is the best thing I've ever done for my overall health, my only regret is that I didn't find it when I first prolapsed. Many women are unable to tear themselves away from the traditional medical route. Your initial experience with tradition Western medicine and prolapse is very telling and quite common- I hope you listen. Your body was telling you something and after repeated error, you ended up having to point out to your providers exactly what was going on. They simply don't get it. You are wise in being worried that PT techniques will fly in the face of WWW. They most likely will. It is the rare and unique healthcare practitioner that knows about and understands WW. I personally have never received a formal diagnosis for my second prolapse. I will never seek one out. I know exactly what they'll say and exactly what they'll offer. I'm far too young to be interested in being told there is nothing to be done to stop my prolapse progression. WW offers a way to stabilize my organs, but I'm the only one who can do the work.
Wildstrawberry, I wish you the very best. This can be such a stressful 'finding' for a woman- it certainly was for me- but you have truly found the best place to be- and I hope you trust yourself and the incredible guidance Christine and this forum have to offer. -gr8fl

Wildstrawberry,
I second what gr8fl says.

In brief, I got rectocele very mild at 3 mths PP and I went to PT. She was nice but ultimately totally useless. Same old same old. I got worse after one year, I basically had no symptoms that year except constipation and so I was lulled into not doing anything (not my personality normally). Now I have all three prolapses and symptoms all day all the time (but not as bad as some and only the feeling I need to pee when I lie down on my side). I did not search the web after my PT visits (did 3) as was busy and my PT was nice. I knew surgery was a last resort so didn't want to go to the web as I figured it was all surgery and horror stories. I never imagined there was something like WW. I wish, wish, wish I had found this site in the beginning as I think I would have managed my prolapse beautifully and benefited from this wonderful work and this new/womenly way to live in my body. I know I will live with this regret for the rest of my life but I have forgiven myself and life goes on. It's nice I can write this story so that your story may be different and less prolapsed than mine.

You can go the PT route and it may help calm your mind to check it out once or twice but DO read the stuff on here and that's great you are getting the materials. The book is an awesome start and intro to the conventional PT/gyno world.

We will no doubt hear from you soon and how you are going with WW work. PT will say kegal, no straining, no gym, no running, ab work (but never mention relaxing the abs in your posture), maybe sponges for pessary if they are really 'natural' like mine was. I wish she was horrible as I would have searched else where. Anyway that's my rant. It's your journey and you will make your choices but if you are going to spend money on PT then read and try this WW first. Don't use sea sponges as pessary either as I did for 5 weeks and got my cyctocele then, I could literally feel them dragging it down.

Re the time frame of improvements, everything will take time and I am still only really getting the posture right after 10 months of WW work (granted I didn't have a consultation and that would have speed it up). I find this WW work gives wonderful peace of mind knowing I can do things that help or at least stablise my prolapses. It's nice having that form of control over something that can seem so out of control. When I have my WW exercises right or the posture right I notice an improvement immediately (I don't mean it's gone but a bit better). The moment I am out of posture it's all back again - total proof this works. I never got this with any of the PT stuff and I never did the kegals really as they made me feel sick and I never pushed when she tried to examine me or have me clench her finger which was inside my vagina as I was not pushing when I knew that I didn't want stuff falling out.

Do what feels good for you in your PT session it's your body. Also ask them if they have prolapse - I didn't ask :o) Wish I had :o)