Moms that had POP while pregnant

Hello and Welcome! It sounds like you are off to a good start with posture and WW studies, reading lots and trying posture. You might find that proper breathing will get more clarified for you by actually trying it in bed, while lying down and relaxing. You will notice that when you are ready for sleep and on your side or back, your breathing might be coming from your tummy. Just pay attention to your natural in and out of breath and take note that the belly fills gently with air when you inhale and the belly moves back in when you exhale. If you can get comfortable there, you will be able to take that to the upright (little by little). Over time when it seems more natural, you can add the video exercises for breathing. It sounds to me like you have been through a lot and I am thinking that your finding WW is actually a blessing. With your back issues from such a young age, and your resulting slant forward, you may find this posture dramatically different, but I do think over time you will receive huge benefits for all of your body. Yes, the back will tire when you start this posture. When it does, try to take the time you need to rest....sit in posture, rest in bed on your side (pillow between knees is very good for you and very comfy too), resting on knees and elbows is awesome. For me, I was very sore in back and hips for a couple of weeks. Then it lessened and in about six weeks, like magic, I felt strong and symptoms started to lessen. Great that you ordered the whole bundle...I did too and I so love it all. When you get them, start slowly and carefully....you are not in a rush here, just on a new path to own this beautiful posture and to give natural strength to your beautiful body. Best wishes to you !

Agnusdei, you are probably using muscles you have never used before. That is OK. Take it slowly. There is no point in making yourself sorer than necessary. Many women experience tenderness at different parts of the spine and hips at first. This work literally re-moulds the shape of your spine.

I wouldn't worry too much about the effect of being in a full length cast as a baby. The human body is capable of an enormous amount of change and normalisation during growth and development. Do you have some lumbar curve in your spine?

Louise

The uterus begins to return to its pre-pregnancy size right after delivery. It shrinks from about the size of a basketball during pregnancy, to the size of a grapefruit right after delivery and, finally, to the size of a small pear by six weeks after delivery. SInce your uterus is as high as your belly button, and all is connected in your pelvis, things will be pulled up more at that time then in the following weeks.
At full term you will notice a fullness in your vulva and vagina. This fullness will go away in time as you recover postpartum. You may find that in the first few weeks postpartum you sweat a great deal to lose some of that extra fluid you were holding on to.

So, what you can expect (and is this your first baby?) is that it will take about six weeks for everything to settle back into place. Then you will feel the full force of your prolapse. However, as early as two weeks out you will notice a bulge if you go looking. You will probably feel different prolapse sensations. Things will feel saggy instead of full. Your pelvic organs will feel more mobile than they have for the last few months and your perineum may ache. Your bones might feel loose and it may be hard to balance or kick something (like a laundry basket down the hall). Everything has been stretched and will take time to build back stability.
That's why this time is critical to pulling into wholewoman posture. Retraining your body is key.
At the end of pregnancy you are almost forced into an exaggerated wholewoman posture- after the birth, your body does the opposite. Your instinct will be to curl in around your baby. Your shoulders will roll forward and your hips will tuck under. Be sure to stretch up and out a few times each day. Reach up to the sky and tip your head back. And then rest! Having a new baby is intense. Try not to do *everything* and instead just remind yourself how temporary this time is.

The best exercise you can do right now is walk in wholewoman posture. Get your heart rate up and don't forget to work on flexibility. Pelvic rocks are great too. If you plan to birth standing or half squat or on hands and knees, work on those positions too or you will be sore after the birth :)

by about 18 months postpartum I feel great!
and yes I carry my babies in an ergo baby carrier- no car seat carrying for me (I'm a snob and I call it baby in a bucket).
You will probably be more aware this time of the sensations of your perineum and vulva.

I know this question was not addressed to me, but...my babe is 7.5 months old now, I discovered my POP 2 weeks PP and I found carrying the baby in the car seat and getting the car seat in and out of the car with the baby in it really aggravated the POP. If you have a tall car or SUV or van it might be easier on you. We have a station wagon and I found if I put one foot in the footwell and kept my head up out of the car, looking over the roof of the car, I could lunge, bending mostly at the hips to get the car seat on and off its base without straining too much. If you carry the baby in the car seat, try to hold the car seat up close to your body rather than in one hand down by the side of your leg.

I only recently started using a front pack (we have a Manducca and find it really comfy), I was put off because I tried a wrap a few times but the little one hated going into it and would cry and thrash! My partner used the front pack all the time but I was so worried about making the POP worse I didn't want to. I ended up with him in my arms all the time anyway, this baby won't sleep anywhere else during the day!

So if the baby is in your arms, I think holding him or her so their head is on your shoulder or as high as possible on your chest is the least straining. It seems to be the picking up and putting down that is hardest on my POP, now I have gotten into using the front pack it's much easier. I arrange it so the hip belt fastens just below my belly, so my hips are bearing his weight and my waist is not being constricted. I like to keep the shoulder straps quite tight so his body is kept close to mine and the weight my shoulders are bearing is not dragging my upper body forward and down.

Good luck, it takes quite a bit of experimenting to find what works best for you. And your baby won't be in a car seat you have to carry forever :)

You are pregnant now right? and no one can give you false hope, so all I can tell you is that for me, with whole woman posture, things are much much better. But no, for you it won't happen today. Think of this as a long term project- this will take about a year or two. But then yes, I do believe that we can predict your prolapse will be much improved. Will it go away? Well, mine goes away. But it comes back too. Every time I've gotten pregnant it has returned- but then again, at about a year or so postpartum it is gone totally for all intents and purposes. I don't think a gyn doc would even notice it right now- though I know it's there :)
So what you can expect is that with dedication to whole woman techniques, your symptoms will disappear and you will feel very well! But give it time. It really takes a long time to see the full benefit of your work.

HI Agnus

Yeah, Alemama is right. You can't put a time on it, but with dedication and some adjustments it really doesn't bother either of us. I spent 15 minutes scrubbing my shower recess early this morning and my bladder said hello halfway through. It is now 10.30am. I have spent some time sitting cross legged on the floor making phone calls and spent some time sitting on my stool at my computer. Bladder is back inside again out of reach.

I spent five hours on Saturday, shifting a small university library collection with a group of others. It turned out OK, in spite of some people's expectation that I could shelve a bundle of books 300mm high in one lift. My POPs were OK at the end of the day, even though the rest of my body felt like a truck had run over it. Tuesday today. Still a bit sore.

It is really about getting gradual configuration changes to your pelvic organs, so they rest on each other and on the pubic bones, rather than sitting beside each other and trying to get out through your vagina. The improvements and refinements go on for years. You just have to be patient. It is a lifetime lifestyle change.

If you are not prepared to make some serious commitments to avoiding continually lifting bags of feed, big buckets of water, hay bales and squealing weaners, and get your posture cleaned up, you will be pushing uphill with getting rid of your symptoms. If you have repair surgery you won't be able to exert yourself much anyway.

I guess prolapse is your body saying, "Enough is enough. You are a woman. Use your brains instead of your back. Then at least one of you will be able to lift your grandchildren in your old age." It is the canary in your mine, reminding you of the limits of your body's physical capabilities.

Say hello to the piggies for me.

Louise

:-)

I suggest that you keep an old soft drink bottle or juice bottle or five in the bag with a funnel, and just fill these to take to the birds, in a wheelbarrow, then put them back in the bag for next time. If you have a big aviary, how about putting the bag in a vermin proof bin inside the aviary and scoop it out from there?

Finding workarounds for the heavy work you choose to not do any more is a creative exercise that will pay dividends with better pelvic health. life is too short for giving your body a hard time.

Louise

Yes, things have to change, but actually we are changeable. Before you know it, you will start to make changes in those little things and realize this is not the end of life as we knew it....but the beginning of life with our health in mind. We can do almost everything, and, we learn to be mindful as we do it. At some point, I am imagining that mindfulness starts to come without our prompting (I sometimes have those moments now)....just knowing how to renegotiate....not a loss of life before but a positive understanding of how to go forward. Hang in there. Yes, you will feed those chickens (how wonderful!). Best wishes.

Agnus, after doing this for going on 3 years now, I've long since realized that there will still be times I have to do something that isn't great for my prolapse. If it's unavoidable, I do it in the best posture I can. The organs are in constant motion and it is a lifetime job to keep them happy. The important thing is that you can recover from a bad day or a bad move, and don't have to live in fear of these things when they happen. I'm not comparing my situation to yours (I don't have the kind of on-going heavy tasks that your life involves). Just something to keep in mind.....everything can still be done, just find the best way. - Surviving

will not loosen your innards! Search the forum, lots of info about this. It can actually help to reposition those organs :)

He heard the OB tell me that sex was good for prolapse.

Now if I can feel attractive again it just might happen! I am working hard to keep sex a weekly occurrence, but I wish I enjoyed it. Right now all I can think about is the prolapse and my changing body.

Blech. I'll get there. Hopefully I'll get there with my marriage intact!

I know that feeling! Since I found this out, I was too sore and achey, now I am just chicken; although I am pretty sure I was having sex before this without even realizing I was probably stage 2 all ready! And, I asked him if anything felt weird, and he said it didn't. Just getting the girl up there from stage 3 really frightens me. She is all nestled into my pubic side, nice and compfy. What if he dislodges her? Not yet, just not yet for me.
I wish you the best on trying to regain that old feeling again. Do you think the perimenopause complicates your feelings on the issue also??

Yes, sex during the menopause continuum can be complex emotionally. All the books told me that women going through menopause experience a decline in libido, ie interest in sex. I took that literally, that when my periods stopped I would become less interested. I could probably deal with that confidently and competently.

Weeeellll, it didn't quite work like that. I actually became very sexual (but not over the top) about six years before my periods stopped. Had my first real orgasm at age 48. That was interesting! That lasted until a couple of years after my periods stopped at almost 56. "Cool", I thought, "Trust me to be different ... again". A couple of years later again I have gone right off it. Bugger!

Let's see what the future brings. I have found my libido to be very variable all my life. It is a lot more about what is going on in my heart and my head than between my legs. I think it is hormonal as well, but libido level is a result of a complex combination of factors at any one time.

I wouldn't lose heart over it, Aging gracefully. Relationships and sex are the same all through our lives. A lot of it is about communication. A lot of it is about feeling loved. A lot of it is about being prepared to give yourself lovingly. Some of it is about lust. A lot of it is about gut feeling, probably other factors too. It just depends on how much effort you are prepared to put in , and how important it is to you both.

Don't worry too much about your uterus getting dislodged again by sex. It might, and it might not. The important thing to remember is that you got it back there to a manageable degree, so you can do it again. We all have temporary setbacks in our POP journey. The more you have, the more you can recover from. This gives you the confidence to realise that what you are doing is what your body wants.

We are designed to have sex. Our bodies are simply not fragile enough to be damaged irretrievably by sex, not normal sex anyway. Really rough play is probably not in your body's best interests now. I will say it again. There is really nothing like an erect penis to move all your organs way in to your body. A pessary has nothing on a penis!

When you feel confident enough to chance it, give it a go. There are heaps of posts on the Forums from women who are 'scared' to have 'sex' with prolapse. You can find them with the Search box. To my knowledge not one woman has ever posted that her prolapse has returned or worsened as a result of having sex. Check it out for yourself. I would add the rider that I have experienced a well-documented urge to bear down just before orgasm. This can be disconcerting when you have POP, but it is not easy to fight, a bit like the urge to bear down in childbirth. Anyway, I have not experienced any problems after it. Orgasm itself probably has some normalising effect on organ positioning. If I was God I would organise this as a service to both women and men! It would simply be commonsense, and God is the source of commonsense, so God knows best! :-)

Louise

ps I *do* realise that I am not God!

Thank you Louise. The one thing I do have is a patient husband, but that just makes me feel all the more guilty. Before this happened we were actually having a renewal of some pretty good sex. We were taking advantage of our empty nest.
I thank you for your kind words; I will get there.

I am not aging gracefully! I am being dragged, kicking and screaming. My main goal is to now accept the changes that come with age and embrace what I have; not what I have lost. There are wonderful aspects of being older. I am a more confident person than I was in my youth and nicer. Wiser. Funnier. Probably sexier!

My symptoms came out of the blue, the morning after sex. I cannot blame sex, of course, but the association still makes me nervous.

Perimenopause does put a damper on things in my case. I have a lot of moments where I feel floaty and unsteady. I struggle with a flight or fight response that comes out of nowhere, a rapid heart rate, low blood pressure and fatigue. I'm working on remedies that don't involve low dose birth control or HRT (what I have been offered thus far). It doesn't take much to remove my desire for intimacy, which unfortunately makes planning ahead for romance nearly impossible.

I hope I have an understanding husband. We have been in therapy for the past 6 months and he is getting better with not being angry or resentful when sex isn't plentiful. I still have to keep up my end of the bargain since I realize sex=love for many men. Avoiding resentment on both of our parts is the trick in our marriage.

He remains my best friend and laughing companion. I've dated him for 26 years; been married for 18. I have few memories of life without him!

Yeah, one of the interesting things about the menopause continuum is that I have found myself morphing into a largely different woman than I was in my reproductive years. Some of it has been a wonderful surprise, but it is not without its shortcomings. I have found it as profound as menarche and puberty. I feel like I have a new identity, and the old assumptions and rules are all up for grabs and renegotiation.

I am very glad I am me, and I am the same basic person, but I cannot help the changes that are still happening to me. I can't do anything about them, and there are a lot of adjustments to make in other parts of my life. My poor husband! Being married to one woman, and watching her change before his very eyes! We, as women, are married to the same man from altar to grave. That's hard enough at times!!! ;-)

I am so glad you are in counselling with your husband. It is on the agenda for us too. I guess extended family used to be very good for sharing stuff like this, and finding solutions to difficulties may have been shared more within a trusted female family network. It is not easy to make sense of this stuff in a vacuum.

L