Hi new and trying out posture

Dear Staying poistive,

Ok, going all the time or feeling you want to go all the time?

Going all the time is diarrhoea and is caused by something that irritates your intestines and chases through them. You need to keep hydrated by drinking water and if it keeps up, you should see a doctor. It could be a number of things.

Feeling you want to go all the time means there is some pressure on your sphincter muscle. This can be wind or incomplete elimination or it can be another organ pressing on your rectum or it can be the nerves around there have become upset and are working hard when there is nothing to come.

Either way I imagine that it would not be too good on your prolapse. You haven’t said which prolapse it is but they are all affected by each other.

Do you have any thoughts yourself why you have this feeling? Has it just come on recently? Have you been doing anything different?

best wishes, Fab

Well if your diet is ok, just check you are including foods that contain potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, calcium, protein and a little bit of saturated fat, because these are the things that will make for an easy to pass stool. You need these foods every day if you are having difficulty in the actually elimination.

Now, if your stool is already of an easily passable consistency and you are still having difficulty, it may be because it is too soft. This can also make stool difficult to pass. Or it can be the prolapse itself.

Really, when it’s about the stool itself, it mostly can only be about what you eat.

If you think it is because of the prolapse itself you can try the different elimination methods that are in Christine Kent’s book ‘Saving the Wholewoman’. Otherwise, you can work through the search box at the top of this page where women have talked about these things on other threads. (type in pooing, or straining etc.) Mostly the advice is to lean forward on the toilet seat so that some of your weight is on your feet. Some people assist the passage by pressing on their buttocks with their hands. Lubricating the anus area can also help to relax the muscles down there. Sometimes, getting up and moving around and then returning to the seat can help.

With uterine prolapse, the uterus can push on the rectum, but mostly it will be the other way around, the rectum will push against the uterus. With too soft stool you may need to sit on the toilet in posture to be able to pass it.

I guess its a matter of individual experimentation.

Hope some of this is relevant, best wishes, Fab

Hi positive ;-) I am really working on the stressing part. After this many years of having a certain way ground into your way of thinking, it is very difficult to make the shift to a new way. BUT it can be done, gently and with time. We just need to stay concious, stay in the now and really start to listen to our bodies.
We need to stop stressing, relax and let things progress (defecation) on their own.
It can be done.

Good Luck

Get your iron tested as I have found I have to have this extra to keep me regular!

Pro12

hello again, Sorry if I am on the wrong thread, but can someone tell me what does "jiggling" mean. I typed it in the search box, but did not get any results. Charlene.

WW posture is all about getting the organs to move forward in the belly. With that goal in mind, you can do it any number of ways, either bending forward in firebreathing position, or down on all fours. I mainly jiggle my legs, and massage with my hands a bit. Others may do it differently. Whatever feels good and feels like it is accomplishing the goal - Surviving

Thanks surviving 60 for explaining. The dictionary definition of jiggling says it means "shaking" so do you mean you shake your legs, or is it ok to even shake your belly about!! I suppose it's worth a try if it gives ease. Thanks again, still trying hard with the standing posture to get it perfect before going on to something else. Charlene.

Dear Charlene,

Bend forward at the hips, place the flat of your hands (or the tips of your fingers, whichever reaches most comfortably) on the floor. Your elbows are straight. So this means you are a kind of three sides to a square, the floor is the fourth side. Your back is slanting because your head is hanging down. It is essential that your knees are straight. Now your hands/fingers support your balance. Then jiggle, as you say shake, your legs up and down, standing on the balls of your feet. Once you have your balance ok, you can also jump up and down on the balls of your feet. Your weight is much more on your hands when you jump. You should feel your labia flapping!

It definitely helps return the uterus up the vaginal canal.

If you have back problems which prevent you from stretching so far, you can rest your hands on a bed or lounge or chair. Just make sure that you are a square, your arms are straight and apart so that they make two corners of the square and your knees are straight and forming the other two corners of the square.

best wishes, Fab

Very scientific, Fab, I think I'm trying it this way next time! - Surviving

Thanks for your replies but I doubt if I could do that. How on earth do you balance on your fingertips without breaking them? I wish I could turn upside down as I feel it would help at times, but not able. Thanks. Charlene.

Charlene, come on girl! You've had enough suggestions here to give you the general idea of what you're trying to accomplish. Do it any way that works for you. - Surviving

PS: I'd say there are 2 reasons why we don't suggest "upside-down" as a tool for prolapse. One, that just isn't a practical body position to be able to work into your day! Two, the problem is not that the organs have fallen down, it's that the organs have fallen BACK. So the solution is not to get them to move up, but to get them to move FORWARD.

Hello again, I have not had any success so far with using the posture and have come to the conclusion that it is not going to work for rectocele. I have such discomfort every day (I have hem eroids) and feel like there is something like stool sitting in my pelvis that will not come out and have that symptom for seven or so years. It gives a sensation like if I pushed it down and out that it would go away, but that does not happen, so I don't know if this is caused by the prolapse or the hemerhoid, and would be glad if anyon else who has a rectocele has this sort of symptom what do you do that helps with this? It drives me crazy everyday and also the left side of my vagina on the outside feels weak or floppy like it is not holding up what is inside my pelvis, as I have felt on the inside and there is a wide space on the inside on the left side. I got told a few years ago by a physiotherapist that my pelvic floor was weak on the left. I am sorry if this sounds a bit graphic, just desperate to know though if these symptoms are really rectocele. Thanks for any thoughts on this. Charlene.

Hi Charlene. I've been going back over your posts, looking for an answer for you. Several things stand out:

1) You have very little confidence in your ability to figure all this out without personal help. So, get it! Consider a telephone consultation with Christine or one of the other teachers. Lindy in the UK is probably closest to your time zone.

2) You think that rectocele is different from what all the rest of us are dealing with, and that WW work may not apply. Completely wrong. My rectocele is my worst prolapse and there are huge numbers of us with rectocele. Management of all forms of prolapse is the same because everything is all connected. The round ligaments of the uterus pull everything forward when you are in posture.

3) I'm still thinking that you have unrealistic expectations. Your symptoms do not magically disappear the minute you find correct posture. It is a process, and it only works if you live it every day. Because you still feel your bulge (me too) and because you have ongoing bowel issues (me too) you think this must not be working.

If you need more help than what you can find here, you can get it. Please avoid the surgery, which will only set you up for further problems and more surgeries to come. That's what this is all about. It doesn't erase your prolapse but it allows you to live with it. We want to see that happening!! - Surviving

There are lots of ways of jiggling. I like it in half squat firebreathing position. Fab, I wouldn't insist on hands being flat on the floor and knees straight. More bent joints give more potential for jiggling. I like to bend and straighten both knees at the same time, quickly. I visualise it as having a pancake sitting on my butt, and flipping it forward with each jiggle, or sauteing a stir fry by flipping the pan repeatedly. I can visualise my uterus and bladder moving forward and my rectum being stretched out. It is all moving into my lower belly.

Specifically for uterine prolapse Loiused, particularly for those who have a very pronounced one; stage 3 or 4 depending on which doctor you frequent. In other words those woman who have a prolapse protruding beyond their labia and therefore find it very difficult to practice exercises even simple plies.

It is not meant to be firebreathing.

best wishes, Fab

I didn't say it was firebreathing. I said I did jiggling *in firebreathing position*, ie legs bent, torso horizontal, belly relaxed, hands on knees and elbows bent. If you try to keep your hands flat on the ground with straight knees it is likely that you will have to strain to get down that far, and lose the lumbar curve, and push the organs into a prolapsed position. That is, unless you have exceptional hip flexibility. I can see no point in straightening the knees.

By all means put your hands on the ground/floor, but ensure that your knees are bent enough that you are still able to hip hinge, and keep pelvic organs on the lower abdominal wall.

Does that make some sense?

As I described it, it works for me beautifully. That is all I claim. It does not work with bent knees. The uterus will not recede back and over the pelvic bone if I bend my knees. So no, cannot give the ok to bent knees. I asked a friend to check my lumbar and it was there, not as pronounced as in upright WWposture, but yes it was there.

I have a bad right hip actually, so no it is is not flexible. I am talking about me, an older woman, bad balance, bad hip and in need of good support. As I describe it, it is the type of exercise a very young child can do safely (I got a couple to try it) therefore anyone can do safely.

Standing as you describe requires good balance. Something I guess a lot of people have. I don't.

We are all so different. I was really just clarifying what I meant for Charlene. If it works better another way for you, that's fine by me.

L

Hello and thanks surviving 60 for your support. I did not know that I could get personal help from the UK teacher, (I thought I could only get help with posture from her, but unfortunately she can only help me by skpe(which I dont have) and she lives so far away from me. I thought when I was reading over some threads that everyone who said things were so much better for them were not experiencing any problems (bowel difficulty) etc, as that is what I hoped to get rid of. I was just so depressed yesterday and have not slept until 4.30 a.m. from worrying how to get rid of this feeling of needing to empty my bowel, but nothing happens. Its like my bowel has become accustomed to a "weird feeling or sensation of needing to go" and I think its some kind of sensitivy rather than prolapse (but I didnt know that yesterday as its not as bad today). Is there a Wholewoman website for the UK does anyone know or who is Wholewoman UK that writes on the boards sometimes? I wish to thank everyone anyway for taking the time to answer my posts and support and help me. Charlene.

Charlene, I would venture to guess that bowel issues might be THE number one topic of discussion on this forum. So you are certainly not alone. There are many many discussions on this site, but keep in mind that we are all just ladies with prolapse, not (in most cases) medical professionals. Lots of opinions, lots of things that might work for some but not for others.

To reach Lindy in the UK, click on the Practitioners tab up above, and look for the link for information and e-mail address. - Surviving

Hi Charlene and others who worry about pooing easily and completely

Re "have not slept until 4.30 a.m. from worrying how to get rid of the feeling ..."

I can see that you are literally bound up over this. Our self is partly our body, partly our mind, partly our spirit, and partly other stuff. We are not a collection of independent systems working together. The systems of the body are simply divided by dotted lines drawn on anatomical diagrams by medical specialists, to ensure that they don't 'encroach on each other's territory', and that there is one specialty to do the deep research and practice on each body part.

Cause and effect can be very similar to each other. There are not only chains of cause and effect but webs as well. How we respond to our own distress is, I believe, a big part of the solution.

Gyn sees prolapse as their department. We see it as postural, which in medical terms is probably Orthopedic, but the Orthopedics doesn't want to know anything about it. With the rectum involved it becomes a Gastroenterology problem. With the involvement of hormones it is also an Endocrinology problem. With breathing involved it probably calls for a Respiratory Specialist who understands how air is used by the body, but they only want to deal with lower respiratory tract, not even upper respiratory tract.

All the systems have to interact for the body to work at all. It is a body. It works as a whole. And our worries about our body can cause bits of it to work badly. Stress and worry will affect all body systems in different ways, but it is the worry, not the body parts or the systems themselves that are the problem.

I think you would be wise to look not so much in your intestinal tract for the answer, but in how you respond to stress, and how you process problems into solutions in your wider life.

I am not saying that your gut is not involved, simply that the most effective way of 'getting rid of crocodiles' is to 'drain the swamp', not shoot the crocodiles.

BTW, Skype is just a free program you can download from www.skype.com , which will enable either free voice calls or free video calls between your computer and someone else's computer. If you have a friend or family member who has it you can practise with them until you feel proficient with it. Don't let not having the program stop you from talking to Lindy professionally. It is just a program.

Louise :-)

Hello Louise, thanks for that info and also about stress, yes I do tend to be such a worrier about things, and will try processing it differently, but it's easier said than done when so uncomfortable in the abdomen trying to "figure out" how to make it go away. Anyway thanks again. Charlene.