Scared I have a prolapse

Hi Pip

It must be panicsville in your head right now. Well you can stop panicking, because many new Mums find at one week postpartum that they are saggy in the vulval area and there seem to be lumps and bumps that shouldn't be there. You may have prolapsed pelvic organs. It is not the end of the world. Remember that the birth only happened a week ago, and it is a big ask to get all those stretched bits (from the pregnancy) back to their normal shape. Give your body at least a year before you decide that it is going to be an ongoing permanent prolapse. Mostly Mums find that it is at least that long until they decide that the body is not going to have further recovery. You will probably find that the first couple of months are pretty saggy, but by three months you should be seeing some improvement. It may even get worse before it gets better, but ultimately getting better than now is almost guaranteed. Lots of Mums will post and tell you this. I will eat my cyberhat if they don't!

You can do lots of things in the meantime to help your body along.

1 Don't continually check your vulva. It won't change much from day to day, and may be quite variable both during the day and between days. It is just upsetting to see it all the time.

2 Go to the homepage, www.wholewoman.com, and check out the FAQ's, which will tell you the basics of what you will be learning about Wholewoman posture that will be the most important part of living with pelvic organs that have moved.

3 Check out the other FAQ's re diet, not straining, lifestyle, clothing etc

4 Be prepared to make some adjustments in your head about how you think your body 'should' look. Make friends with your lower belly. It is now the safest little spot to keep your organs, *not* over your pelvic floor. You need this little pozzy for them, so don't hold your lower tummy in or they will get pushed back over a big hole (your vagina) that has only sinewy muscles to stop their descent. This may not make much sense at the moment, but it will as you learn to carry your body differently, and keep your organs well inside your vagina.

5 I hope you have finished with that ring cushion. I have a sneaky suspicion that the hole in the middle just makes a deep ditch for your organs to sit in when you sit down, lower than your vulva. My prolapsed organs stay inside me until I sit on one of those darned things. Then I feel like the organs are being sucked down and out of me. It gives me the creeps. I don't think they are good for newly delivered mothers at all. Don't sit if it is not comfortable. Lie down and let the weight off your pelvic floor. Learn to feed lying down, so you can do it a lot during each day. You have just given birth, and your body needs to recover. When you sit, try and sit forward on your thighs, so your sit bones are not carrying much weight, and keep your shoulders relaxed and your lovely boobs carried high. If you want to feed sitting, put a pillow behind your lower back to keep your lumbar curve in place and baby on pillows on your knees to get him/her in a good position for attachment. This will keep your organs forward. Forget about leaning back on the back of chairs. It is too easy to lean back, then your pelvis will tilt back, your tummy will go in, and your organs will slide down and back towards the abyss.

That's probably enough from me.

Come back when you have had a look at the homepage FAQ's, with more questions, and just keep loving that little babe, and get horizontal as much as you can for a while.

Cheers

Louise

Hi there!

I am only just over 4 weeks pp, so I can totally appreciate where you are coming from!! I was so very upset I was almost paralyzed from doing anything the first few days. After spending a good deal of time reading different posts here and really working to wrap my head around the idea of patience and time, I am a whole lot calmer and more rational (at least as rational and calm as I can be with pp hormones!!!).

I just read Louise's post and the biggest one I would agree with is don't look all the time! (and truthfully I am still working on that!), but I have cut down from *every* time I go pee to mostly morning and night now and hopefully much much less in the very near future!

Things are totally stretched out...you don't even regain normal vaginal muscle tone until about 6 weeks pp let alone the 6 months to a year that most women on this site have found it takes for their bodies to heal!

I have also been working to wrap my head around the fact that my body is made to have babies and to recover from it. And how much better I am able to help it recover by incorporating WW ideas!

I don't remember if Louise mentioned don't lift heavy things!! I think that is what got me into trouble in the first place at 1 week pp.

Taking care of yourself and rejoicing in your new baby is most important right now. I have been so encouraged by the stories of new moms and their recoveries here. I really wish that it was an instantaneous "back together" after labour but I also appreciate the slowing down time that we need to take means we can sit and put that time into our little ones. (even with two other toddlers!)

~take care,
Kristy

only have a few min here but
you are so not alone!

and forget about that magical '6 week' thing. it takes longer than that to get back to 'normal' after pg. took me close to a year. good news is that, as louise said, lots of times pp prolapse heals so much during the first year. keep that in mind.
and I'll sit with you on the irrational bench, I felt like quite the freak when I first found my prolapse too. much less freakish now that I realize how common it is.

and one more thing....DO NOT EVER STRAIN ON THE TOILET

and congrats on the new baby, try not to let this overshadow what should be time spent enjoying you little ones.

Please do not assume you have a prolapsed cervix! I made the same assumption, and it turned out to be a cystocele (fallen bladder). I felt like I was laying an egg all the time. Ugh...

I am now almost 5 months pp. Things have improved GREATLY (I can rarely see or feel that bulge, even when standing). However, I am still breastfeeding my baby, and the extreme depletion of estrogen contributes to that saggy feeling I still have. I have been assured that I have a lot of time to improve after I wean.

DO NOT ruin these precious days with these thoughts. Lay down as much as you can. Do not obsess. Chances are that 6 months from now, you'll feel much much better.

Congrats on your new baby!

Hey Pip

I hope I didn't think I was dumping on you re using the cushion. It *really was* only a personal opinion that they could further aggravate your postpartum pelvic organs. I didn't find it comfortable at all. I guess you only used it for a few days anyway, and what you do for the next few months is going to be way more significant than what you did in the first few days.

I think you understand the principles better now, and you will be able to look after your body much better.

Cheers

Louise

try the downward dog yoga position or hands and knees- this will help greatly. Hey see if you can find the ab isolation exercises- or ab vacuum I think it works best for low cervix-
Also I know is sounds funny but really if you do the walking with arm circles and flapping you will feel pretty good. It does get so much better!

hi Pip

I suggest that you buy the 2nd edition of Christine Kent's book, Saving the Wholewoman. You can buy it from the online shop at www.wholewoman.com.

The book has lots of really clear illustrations which will help you to understand your body better. With clearer understanding you will be able to forget all the rules about doing this, and not doing that, and begin to intuitively modify all your activites slightly to accommodate your POP. You will find that there is little you cannot do with POP, as long as you know the principles of pelvic organ positioning and work with what you have.

eg, I have been told by Christine that bellydancing is not good for POP. I have taken my WW posture into the class, explained to the teacher why my posture is different, and am working with that. The teacher is helping me to modify my positioning to allow me to do what I need to do. I may never be an elite performance level dancer, but that is not the aim for me. It is whole body exercise and awareness, physical movement, maintaining strength and flexibility in my pelvis and lower spine, and upper body. It is also about that wonderful rhythmic music! I am now doing my third series of classes. So far, so good.

Cheers

Louise

Sounds good to me, Pip. In my experience it doesn't take that long for parcels from Wholewoman. It all seems to be pretty well organised at their end. I'm in rural WA, so things would probably get to the eastern states sooner than here.

Cheers

Louise