What Are Your Results From The Bodywork?

Hi 4kidmom,

I’m jumping in here because I think our regular members get tired of saying over and over how much the postural work has helped them. I scrolled down just this page and saw positive posts about the bodywork from Alemama, granolamom, and Louise. There are many more too numerous to count: Marie, Zelda, Susan (howdidthishappen), Jane (fullofgrace), Sybille, and Jean to name a few. Yes, improvement is possible and stabilization is the norm.

The truth of the matter is that holding and moving our body in this way is (1) hard to understand for people who aren’t conceptual learners and (2) hard to do. The entire musculoskeleton has to be remodeled and frankly, that’s just too much work for most women. However, this is the ONLY thing that is going to have the remotest possibility of pulling your organs forward. Kegels as they are usually taught are utterly meaningless from an anatomical point of view. Natural breathing and relaxing the lower belly are further concepts that seem counterintuitive. But it is an anatomical truth that every time you pull your belly in and take a deep breath (which you can only do by lifting your chest and neck) you are further destabilizing the positions of your pelvic organs.

I wish I could bring every woman into my studio and am in fact working toward a virtual reality of that dream.

Christine

welcome to the forum. If I were you I'd forget the pessary. Right now you only have a cystocele- and I believe that 8 weeks pp is amazingly early and your cystocele may just go right away with the healing of the first year-
Start the body work. Change your diet, change your style (think skirts...), rest. Relax and enjoy that family.
I bet the abdominal vaccuum would work for you.
bring any questions you have here- the women of this forum know so much. Glad you found us.

oh and I used to have a cystocele and now I don't. And my cervix was low and now it is high. So there is some hope for you.

hi there
I don't have enough time right now to give you my full story, but here's the synopsis...

I started out with a cystocele. don't know the grade and anyway mine changes from day to day and even within a day sometimes. starting this work, went on to develop a rectocele.
fast forward a year and I began to see some reversal of the cystocele (the rectocele, btw, was never symptomatic). then I got pg with baby number four, and now, 11 mo pp I am back to where I was before I got pg.

so.
initially, when I first got here, all I wanted was to make it go away and look like it did before. now I am over the moon happy with the results I've had. I was able to have another baby. I have no incontinence. no pain. and sex is good. the fear of it all falling out is gone. I feel strong and healthy and whole, even though I've got some bulges that act up around ovulation and menstruation. I can live with that.
so I have had positive results. I think that I will continue to see positive change once I am no longer wearing my baby all the time and can devote more time to focusing on the ballet workout in the book.
but I did not, and nor do I hope to, see things go back to the way they were before. for me, I dont' think that will ever happen. but now that I have accepted this prolapse thing (and it took me about a year to do that) that's ok.

and I must tell you that I was at my absolute worst at around 12 weeks pp. 8 weeks is so early, you really do need to give your body some more time to heal before you can begin to predict what will be.

for me, getting the book, starting the posture and exercises made me feel proactive and that was enough to enable me to face the horrors of prolapse. because it is horrible in the beginning.

Just wanted to offer you some support. My son, my fourth child will be 3 months next week. I found my cystocele 3 weeks after delivery and was devasted. I love running and thought I would never be able to do it again. I saw my regular obgyn who told me that I shouldn't even worry about it and that everything would go back to normal oh and to do kegals. Then I went to see a urogynocologist at 2 months postpartum because I read that they are "specialists" in pelvic floor dysfunction. He took a look told me that it would never get any better and that I'd be incontinent at 50 and need surgery, oh and to do kegals. I was devastated again and just didn't know what to think. Well, now it's a few weeks later and I feel soooooo much better. Most of the time I feel normal now and when I feel draggy, I use a tampon for support.

I think that you're so early in your postpartum recovery right now that it'll get better from where it is right now. I think it's important to rest and listen to your body. I've had 3 different doctors tell me that I can run at this point, that it won't make it worse but I just don't think that's the case. I feel that it's best for me to rest and do low-to-no impact exercises right now to give my body the best chance to heal itself. I know it's so hard to be dealing with this. I was so depressed thinking that I was a total freak for having this happen to me. Now I'm positive and optomistic that even if it doesn't completely go away, that I'll be able to live with my body as it is without it negatively affecting my life.

Good luck and congrats on your baby!

I'm stretched to my breaking point right now with all that's going on in this awful endurance trial
that my life is these days. weary me.

9 months ago overwork ( cleaning 2 miles of irrigation ditch in 4 days) sheer stubborness with a lawnmower
and hello prolapse... peeking Bad scary terrifying blah blah
I have done little else but the posture, it is mostly second nature now. I'm doing better and better every month.
I feel my body is healing and may never be what it was but I now treat it with more respect. My period is just ending
which has always coincided with my worst POP days. Yet I haven't been "low" in weeks. Better and better all the time.
Feels like a miracle, accepting my bulge was the hardest thing I've ever done, EVER. I am frankly surprised at the steady
improvement in spite of lack of much real exercise since the injury. i do feel that the few acupuncture (3) appointments have helped
Tremendously ! damn , really gotta go.

POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE girls. Stand Tall. You're even more beautiful when you do.
Zelda

Hi 4kidmom

I'm the Louise Christine is referring to.

I am a bit of a lazy lady. Exercise routines bore me witless when I am doing them by myself, which is mostly. I prefer to do my bodywork as part of everyday movement. I try to do something physically demanding every day, and while I am doing it, I stay in posture and make a conscious effort to use my whole body, move slowly, and do big movements, using as much of my body as possible.

I will do plies while lifting and putting down loads, releves and arm raises when I am hanging out and bringing in washing. Slow leg raises whenever I get the opportunity, back front and sides. Stretches, particularly hammies, whenever and wherever I can, and my shoulder girdle by putting my hands on both sides of a door frame and leaning through the door to stretch my shoulders open. I have a hanging bar in my hallway, that I hang from by the arms whenever I am going past. When I get up in the mornings, or when I have been having a slouchy flop in a chair, I stand up and unfurl slowly like a fern frond into posture, before moving off. This whole WW posture thing has made me slow my movements down, and enjoy the sensations of movement, being more aware of what my body is doing. I have found WW posture impossible to do when hurrying or stressed, and I need Wholewoman posture, so I just have do slow down and reduce the stress.

Yes, my prolapse symptom are certainly better than they were when I was diagnosed. If I was confident about WW techniques at the time I probably wouldn't have even bothered with the gyno visit. (I only found out about Wholewoman about 2 weeks before the appointment.) After all, all the gyno did was make my lie in the worst position possible for prolapses and push them down to the entrance to my vagina. Then he told me I had prolapses that I had already figured out I had anyway! He then proceeded to tell me that the solution was to remove my uterus and tack my bladder up to the stumps of the uterine ligaments, and pop in a tape to lift my urethra.

Three and a half years later I am still a Whole Woman, working my body the best way I can and undoing about 45 years of inappropriate ways of moving, just by practising the correct, primitive ways of moving in everyday life, and following the other guidelines for clothing, diet and lifestyle. Mind you I have also done a lot of reading of Christine's work and others, so I can understand the principles behind it, and have taken up Feldenkrais to help me to re-learn ways of moving efficiently.

I am also doing bellydancing again at the moment, modifying the teacher's instructions on pelvic tilt, to accommodate my prolapses. I can do almost anything these days.

Cheers

Louise

I'm another one who will shout loudly from the top of the mountain that yes this can work!!! and things improve so much!
3 week PP i had a grade 3 cystocele. a few weeks later i discovered this site, started the posture and wow, things shifting. in the process my rectocele (which was always there) made itself known to a grade 3, and my uterus rested happily on top. i could barely lift the water filter without bulging, walking was so uncomfortable--i didn't know how i'd go on, but i didn't want surgery.

luckily i had great doctors, midwives, and saw a great specialist who referred me to a great physio all of whom said "it will get better!!!".
i did the posture, and some complimentary therapies which i really think helped (homeopathy and accupuncture + reiki for my anxiety).

well, i have a gorgeous 25?lb 14 month old i carry around no problem, i walk everywhere, life lightish things, and do most things. The only thing that is really affected is my eating, as I have to eat so carefully or the constipation hits (good old rectocele...). but otherwise i'd never notice this--even before my period i don't notice changes unless i go looking!

i probably hit my worst at about 3 months, and then it was slow going until about 6 months when things got hugely better. i kept having leaps until about a year, but now it's plateaued (in a place i'm fine with--apparently around a grade 1.5, as you were asking where things could get to...which based on where i started feels amazing!).
however i don't do the exercises, so i figure that when my life gives me time for that i'll have a whole new leap forward as i strengthen my body even more...in the mean time, i'm thrilled with where i've gotten too now! i was also told when i stop breastfeeding it may (note may!) get a bit better, or at the very least just be less vulnerable--though i know others on here found no difference. we'll just see whenever i get there...

kegels--i do think they helped me, but not too many. i worked up to about 15 - 30 a day, for 10s each. first physio i saw had me doing hundreds and i went numb and weak. the next physio was much more informed and went for quality not quantity--and offered loads of reassurance, which was the most imp't thing for me!!!

so hang in there, be gentle on yourself, and things will get better!!! it's horrible to go through, especially as you have your beautiful baby you just want to indulge in--now this! but know things do improve.

kiki

What a lovely, lively household you must have! Congratulations on your new baby, and your other 'older' babies.

Much to short on time today to say all I could say here. But I would not be as able to be so wonderfully busy had I not found this ‘bodywork’ to help get me back on my feet. So good to have real answers, real direction, a method for the everyday and all the mini-methods when the madness creeps back in for a few days. I ‘prancing pony’ walked my way out of a tight spot just recently. Far too many lessons and tricks and methods I have learned here to mention this morning. My body loves it when I care enough to exercise and eat right and give it what it has to have through the severe times, and what it requires for the everyday. I slip and slide some with that, and my body tells me loudly now when I do. When it does, I know what to do because of the book and all the help I received here. The book is beautifully written and worth more than the price even if we did not need what it offers. All women should know these facts. Too few of us do till the troubles present. And what troubles they can be. But I am so grateful to have found this path to lots less troubles, to manageable troubles, to sometimes blissfully quiet troubles! There is great hope. (smile) Kit

Hi 4kidmom

I'm also 32 and almost 6 weeks pp with a grade 3 (the grade is my diagnosis based on what I have learnt here and in the book - my OB/Gyn doesn't put number to things very often!) rectocele and I suspect a very mild cystocele as well as I have trouble fully empyting my bladder sometimes.

Anyway, in the first few weeks I was in agony with a worse looking/feeling bulge by the end of the day. I found this site and started doing the posture, then ordered the book which I have now received. I must say I can do more each day than I could before, without getting sore . I went for my first walk yesterday with my older two kids and was a little sore when I returned but I stayed in WW posture as much as possible. I carried my baby in a pouch for a half hour this morning but was unable to stay in posture much due to my second child being a mischief and now I am paying for it....so, I must say that I am also finding results from the bodywork. I am yet to try the firebreathing or the workout, due to time constraints, but promise myself I will get to it very soon!

It was interesting that the exercises the physio gave me to do go against everything Christine says to do (actually one of them she says in the book NOT to do!). So I haven't been doing those exercises since I received the book.

The major thing for me is diet (I wish I had ordered the WW food book as well). If I eat well and stay 'regular' then the rectocele is not very noticeable. If I have trouble passing a BM then the rectocele gets bigger and more uncomfortable and I get really bad pain in my tailbone and across my bottom. I seem to need 35g of fibre a day to manage well and have had to change my diet quite a bit. I always thought I ate healthily but am discovering a very new kind of healthy, which makes me sad to give up some of my favourite foods, but also excited to discover new ways of eating. My husband is also feeling the need to eat better, so it is having benefits for more than just me.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough but it is definitely worth giving the bodywork a go, you have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Best wishes

I bought both the book and the DVD, I have found both be helpful. I do the exercise on the DVD every morning. I think the combo of the exercises and always staying in the correct posture is the key.Before ordering the book and DVD, I was kegeling all day long and not getting results. Even though I have not been kegeling since I started this program, I am doing better.

Hi 4kidmom

Just to add one more point to what the other women have said. Arunnergirl alluded to this in her post. Eight weeks post partum is way to early to judge whether or not you are going to have prolapse as an ongoing problem, especially if you have not experienced it with the other three babies.

A woman's body doesn't stabilise after pregnancy and childbirth for at least a whole year after delivery. It has spent 9 months growing so it is natural to expect a similar time until it has fully reverted.

Bodywork of different types will help things along, eg Kegels to improve urinary continence and whole body exercise to regain muscle tone all over the body. You can also exercise specific muscles to get them operating stronger, but they are all interconnected via the skeletal system so I cannot see any point in exercising one to the exclusion of another. They all need to be strong, as they all operate in groups, and have their antagonist groups as well (I think that is the right word).

What is happening inside the pelvic cavity though, is a different matter. It all needs to revert in its own time, so it is natural to feel a bit floppy inside the pelvic area for a year or so, maybe longer. I think it took my body several years to not feel really floppy after my final baby. I still feel a little floppy now, 21 years later, and I think that's just what happens after all my body has been through. I also have a feeling that the tautness of the female body before any pregnancy is the abnormal state, made good by the first pregnancy. The looser belly of a woman who has given birth is a true sign of maturity, and indeed visual proof of fertility.

The hot chicks my son talks about (these young men are 25 and 21) have flat bellies, pert breasts and long legs. Not a butt or belly in site. I think they would all look like grasshoppers if they tried belly dancing. There is just nothing to wobble! ;-) Of course, my boys are not really looking for proven fertility. Perhaps they are not real men yet!

Anyway, I digress. Don't panic about your body. Be patient. And get on with WW posture, diet, clothing that doesn't compress your belly and working out ways you can do things with your butt out, rather than tucked in. This is good longterm training for your body.

Cheers

Louise