Stretched vagina and POP

Hi Karolka

Good to hear from you again. Glad your body is reverting after pregnancy. It is hard to believe until it actually happens. I think your 'stretched vagina' will probably improve further still over the next year or so. However, there can be several factors at work.

Firstly, postpartum it takes a while for the tissues to shrink back after a baby' head has stretched it so big.

Secondly, if the pelvic floor muscles and perineum are saggy it will seem to be bigger than if the pelvic floor muscles are stretched by the nutation of the pelvis, which separates the ischial spines and moves the coccyx away from the pubic bones. This makes the hole in the pelvis that the baby came through bigger, but the muscles are stretched tighter instead of being floppy. Pelvic nutation happens when you are in WW posture. You can use WW posture during sex too, for better contact for your partner's penis inside your vagina. (This works. DH told me so!) Some positions are better than others.

Kegel exercises will also help to build up the tone of these muscles and get them moving again after birth, but Kegels are unlikely to make your vaginal opening any smaller.

Thirdly there may be an unhealed tear or failed suturing of an episiotomy. This will literally make the opening of the vagina wider and it may not heal.

Yes, many women have 'celes and do not realise it, or they do not manifest for some time after the birth, maybe in response to a trauma, or a particular movement. Many women do not even know what POP is, and may be too scared to ask the doctor. Many women would only have a six week postpartum checkup after pregnancy and birth and may never have a vaginal exam again if they have no more babies and if they do not have regular PAP smears. Even 6 weeks postpartum some degree of looseness of the vaginal tissues is quite normal, so many doctors would not even comment on it if the woman does not ask. Much vaginal looseness and some prolapse will get better by itself with time. If you don't have anything to compare it to, many women would not even know if their organs were moving down.

The end of the story is that a loose vagina does leave more space, a bigger plughole if you like, for organs to descend into. But you don't have to have a large vulval opening or cavernous vagina to experience prolapsed organs.

The POPs are caused by weaknesses and holes in the fascia that enclose all the organs of the body. The surgical or birth tear damage is largely muscle damage, which may involve the fascia too.

I hope this answers your query. I seem to remember that you did buy Saving the Whole Woman. Did you find any answers in the book?

Cheers

Louise

that is what happens to me during pregnancy and labor- my skin, my ligaments, my tendons- my bones. and it takes eons for it all to return to what I now consider most stable (which does not even remotely resemble the shape of the structure of my body before my first pregnancy). Here is an example- before I had a baby I had clothing that fit when I weighed about 145lbs- to get back into those same pants I had to drop all the baby weight plus 10lbs. My hips are just wider- there is no way around it and they are not going to go back-
So it stands to reason that the processes that relax all the organs of the body (even your heart gets bigger) to allow them to accommodate the human being growing inside - will have a serious impact on the shape and tautness of the vagina. Your vagina is supported structurally by tendons, ligaments, fat, muscle and bone. All these connections get looser during pregnancy and often become damaged. Healing from this damage takes a very long time- long after the baby is a year old you will still notice everything getting structurally better supported.
What has helped me so much is the image of the facia all being connected and all having the ability to physically pull up through the crown of my head. I am able to feel the increase in vaginal support as soon as I pull up into the posture and lift my tale bone. Everything seems to just pull tight.
I also recommend Nauli for increasing strength and support through your obliques and rectus abs and lower back. When I use Nauli I can feel the strengthening of my perineum- I felt a marked difference in muscle size and tone after a few months of combining this exercise with kegals-
It is interesting though this idea of a loose vagina- no one ever talks about the dang penis just being too small.....most often with a combo cystocele and rectocele the vagina actually seems tighter since the organs are pushing into the vagina. But anyway if it is tone you are concerned about you can increase tone no prob.
and one more thing I have seemed to read online is about women having more sensation- better orgasms-etc after their first child- it seems like the loosening is a good thing.
oh and ya- most people don't know they have POP.

If you google the above term you will get an enormous number and variety of hits. Some are gynaecology clinics touting for business. Some are agony aunts answering women's concerns about their own vagina. Some are about episiotomies and tears that do not heal. Many of them mention that some loosening of the vagina is normal after you have had a baby. I did not find any written from the point of view of a man complaining about his partner's loose vagina.

Says it all, doesn't it (with the rider that I mentioned before about a surgically damaged or unhealed perineum from childbirth making the plughole bigger re POP)?

L :-)