New member

Hi ladies. I'm sorry for the long post but probably some background information will be helpful as I seek advice.

I am the mother (38 years old) to 8 beautiful children 1 to 14 years of age and just discovered that I have prolapse after the birth of the last.

Looking back, there have been some symptoms and signs that I am just now recognizing. My tailbone was dislocated at age 25 with my 2nd baby (a hospital vbac with coached pushing, baby 1 was a c-section for a breech presentation). I then went to homebirth to make sure that I could continue to birth naturally. With the pregnancy of Baby 5 the midwife noticed a rectal bulging during an interior exam...that baby was engaged and plus station for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy (maybe because of the extra room from the dislocated tailbone and my untoned muscles). This was the first time I had heard of prolapse, but my midwife was unconcerned.

All of my labors have been very fast with typically less than 45 minutes of active labor. I did push harder on this last one, baby 8. The midwife hasn't been able to make it to two of the births, including this last one, because of the quickness and it always makes me more nervous.

Late in baby 6's pregnancy I had both whooping cough (luckily a mild case) and then later kidney stones (with a 4 day hospital stay). After baby 6 we moved out to the country to try homesteading. We have added conveniences slowly, so I was washing laundry by hand and carrying water, etc. within the first two weeks after baby 7. I did have some heaviness but it was so early postpartum that I didn't attribute it to prolapse and it healed quickly. And in hindsight I can remember that feeling at other times in third trimesters or early postpartums while lifting kids, etc. This time, at two weeks after the birth of baby 8, I noticed the heaviness and bulge and it didn't go away. I had urinary incontinence immediately postpartum but now just have urinary urgency.

I went to see an ob at 6 weeks who thought nothing after all of my births of what she considered a mild prolapse. My midwife mentioned to rest and see if it got better in the first 3 months as she has experienced herself. At 6 months postpartum there was improvement but I still felt uncomfortable and could not stand for any length of time..that seemed even worse than carrying things or walking (I now understand that was because I probably kept some curvature in those other situations, but not the standing).

Wanting to regain more fitness, I started birthfit exercises (to see an explanation and the exercises: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/birthfit/158b78b0bfc5b5d8?proje... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhi_X0KFcwU) I was told that doing the exercises for 6 weeks and then continuing for maintenance should also alleviate my prolapse. There are some similarities to what Whole Woman is doing in the philosophy and the progression exercises really encouraged me. I could breathe deeply into my lower abdomen and eventually even into my back for the first time. The movements are supposed to imitate the movements a baby makes as they also have to close their diastasis after birth. They also do not advocate kegels. The exercises closed my diastasis to less than one finger from one hand where it had been frequently through my pregnancies. I also felt that my prolapse was slowly improving. I still would like to know which, if any, of these are safe to do...did I make things worse with them?

At 10 months postpartum, when doing birthfit exercises with some resistance to help my scoliosis and also tailbone manipulation for that dislocation, I suffered rectal prolapse (not rectocele which I already knew I had looking in hindsight back to baby 5 and the bulging feeling this postpartum). I was having constipation issues at the time and it was thought that this alignment would help my bowels function. After experiencing the prolapse I realized that I had already been having an interior (and maybe a mucosa prolapse) prolapse but it now extends exteriorly with any bearing down for bowel movements. My anal sphincter muscle is still tight at this point and the rectal tissue goes back in on its own after bearing down. I have had to manually help in defecation off and on through different years and pregnancies (I can no longer recall when it might have started). It was always infrequent and near the end of a pregnancy, and as a busy mom I just did what worked. I was embarrassed about it, but could never communicate well enough to my midwife (since I didn't really know what was going on either) so I just dropped getting help about it. I'm wondering if the tailbone dislocation or the recent manipulation played any part in this. After reading up on this more, I have tried to splint to keep things more sanitary and safer for the prolapse, but it seems ineffective.

Now at 12 months postpartum, everything has come to a head. I had a week of increased physical activity making me sore and tender in my abdomen, back, and pelvic floor which I had never experienced before. Bowel movements are almost impossible. On closer observation, it seems that now my uterus is tipped back and lower and is pressing on my colon (I feel it through the wall of my rectum) blocking the passage of stool. If a bowel movement does come, I have to help it out manually as it gets stuck in the rectal tissue. These are always small amounts like pebbles. These small bowel movements happen 4-6 times a day. Sensations are very confusing. There is always a full feeling, oftentimes from the pressure of the falling rectum, although I doubt I'm completely evacuating either. I never push...it's too scary with the prolapse anyway (that's something I never did, although the helping manually probably was just as bad). Every once in a while I have a complete normal bowel movement on its own which has been an encouragement that there is still some hope that things may still be able to work normal again someday.

I mainly eat very healthy with the homesteading so don't think that diet is a contribution. We even ate gluten, sugar, and dairy free for a month during lent while a couple of the kids were on an elimination diet for lyme disease, and I didn't notice any difference. I have started magnesium citrate today. I have also watched/read the starter bundle and whole woman solution to pelvic organ prolapse and have tried to adopt the WW posture and toileting (not very successfully). Because of the abdominal, back, and pelvic tenderness I'm afraid to try the exercises. I've been in bed since Thursday hoping things would get settled down if I just overdid it. The first few days it hurt even laying down. I'm not sure if I'm back to my new steady state, but every time I get up (even to go to the bathroom or help a little around the house or help milk the goats) the painful, tender pressure comes back. It felt so good to be exercising and gardening again and I'm scared and dismayed that I have wound up in such bad shape.

I feel limited mobility in parts of my back because of my scoliosis. I also don't think my tailbone has any movement because of that injury, I've heard differing opinions on if it should be able to move. Incidentally, my girls always carry the wet laundry out to the clothesline on their heads. I used to worry that it might injure their spine (since I have the scoliosis). One of the girls has beginning signs of scoliosis. Do you think my own scoliosis and tailbone injury will affect my ability to attain WW posture? Is there anything else I should do, such as chiropractic help? I know that my hips are different heights and one side subsequently more tight than the other (in my lower back and lower).

I haven't seen as much on your forums about rectal prolapse and I don't know if there is any chance for improvement or stabilization in that condition. Right now it protrudes substantially during bowel movements. I'm told it could get worse. If anything happens to pinch this tissue or the anal sphincter loosens than it could be a more serious situation. Also, bowel movements have to keep happening everyday. I have felt pressured by both a chiropractor and physical therapist to be assessed. A urologist was contacted who referred me to a general surgeon who is only one of two in the area that handles rectal prolapse. I have an appointment in a few weeks to be assessed by him, but since he is a surgeon and I do not want to have surgery (I was upset enough about my c-section), I'm not sure if there is any reason to see him. Is a physical assessment helpful in this case? If so, what kind of doctor would you recommend? I do feel unsure if I am able to fully self-diagnose myself? Do the exercises and posture promoted here help overt rectal prolapse? What if my scoliosis and tailbone injury affect me being able to attain WW posture or it takes so long that I cause worse damage to my pelvis in the meantime?

Thank you for any help you may have! I'm sorry for the graphic post. This is so humbling and outside of my normal keeping with modesty, but if I don't get help I'm afraid I could end up in the emergency room. I have thought about trying to see one of your consultants to get one-on-one help with the posture, etc. The closest is 5.5 hours away. My husband is very supportive about trying to keep away from surgery but is concerned for me and wants to make sure that I am actively seeking support and help of some kind to improve (obviously I can't stay in bed forever).