new here... have questions! Where, what, when? :)

I also have 5 children and things sure are not what they were :)
Sorry about the difficult birth.
Hang around here, use the search function and you will find answers to questions you didn't even know you had.
Have you tried *splinting*?
The good book you are looking for is available right here in the wholewoman store. You can also find it on amazon.
and yes, you can feel your pelvic anatomy through your vagina- you can palpate your ovaries, your sit bones, your pubic bone, muscles, ligaments- all of it. We are wonderfully made ;)

Hi Cloudbutterfly, glad you found us here! I too have rectocele and I have a feeling of incomplete emptying a large part of the time. I go to the bathroom quite often, and while I sometimes feel like I didn’t finish, other times I feel like I did, so I don’t splint. However, some gentle splinting would be a solution if I needed one. In addition, I wear a panty liner all the time, as a little added security between bathroom visits.

Do not be overwhelmed. Please check all around this website, blog and forum for lots of information about Whole Woman. Go to the Resources tab, then to Videos and watch the first video on the screen, in which Christine explains why surgeries should be avoided, how we lost our wonderful supportive posture, and how we can get it back. This is the true source of pelvic organ support. I’ve been here going on three years and it has been life-changing. There is no quick fix for prolapse, but there is something just as good – this program. It does things for your spine, hips and overall health that go far beyond prolapse stabilization.

Start with Christine’s book, and First Aid for Prolapse DVD. After that, I guarantee you will want to build up your collection with the rest of the DVD’s. Lots and lots of tools for your toolbox. If you go to PT, you will basically be told to do kegels. Check out the Blog tab above to see why this isn’t the way to go. I’m living proof of that, having done them religiously for years……

Hope this gives you some food for thought. I thank my lucky stars (and Christine) every day, that I landed here before getting any other ideas in my head about how I was going to deal with this. - Surviving

Hi CloudButterfly

It is all very well for Surviving to say, "Don't be overwhelmed"! ;-)

I am sure that she meant it in a reassuring way. If you are overwhelmed, you are overwhelmed. How to you get over that? You find some small digestible bits, and eat them first. Then, when they are no longer giving you indigestion, go look for one more thing that you are led to explore. As Surviving suggested, the FAQ's and Resources Tabs will give you some staring points.

Then you can search the Forums for different women's experiences and simple suggestions that you can try.

The DVD, First Aid for Prolapse, is a very 'actions you can take' resource. The first half of it will give you some education, and the second part will give you some exercises you can do, which will help to increase the strength and flexibility of your muscles that are used in WW posture, which may currently be weak and tight. Later, you can explore the other WW Exercise DVD's which will give you more variety in the exercises you choose.

You can change your posture, bit by bit, so that you carry your pelvic organs further forward on your solid pubic bones, instead of back, over your vagina. Your pelvic floor will also move to the back of your body, where it will stabilise your pelvic organs, rather than trying to hold them up.

You can amend your diet, to ensure that it will produce easy to pass stool at the end of your digestive tract, so that you don't have to strain to empty. It will also ensure that your body is being optimally nourished for function and growth.

You can amend your clothing style so that your belly is not constricted at all, and so that it can expand forward at the bottom and leave a space for your pelvic organs to move into, where they are safe from intraabdominal pressure, rather than being pushed backwards by tight clothing.

You can learn how to load your body in ways that keep your pelvic organs forward and safe at point of lift and carry.

You can learn how to identify POP-safe seats that are easy to use in WW posture.

Then you can read Saving the Whole Woman, which will teach you more about why these techniques work, and give you other background information. It will also explain why surgical repairs need to be actions of last resort for a woman with prolapse.

Lastly, you can apply all the principles you have learned to work out the POP-best ways of doing any task or activity that comes your way.

Baby steps.

Louise

Thank you, Surviving, for your clear guidelines and for sharing your insight. Discouraged here and moving forward (again) inch by inch. Daphne11

HI Louise,
It was so helpful for me to read your comments to Cloudbutterfly. It can feel overwhelming to accept that there is no cure all surgery for POP and that what we've learned in PT and biofeedback an from our aerobics instructors has not only been fruitless but probably damaging to our condition. I've had POP for many years, and have just recently come to the acceptance that I need to use heavy duty self care to live with this happily. I liked what you said about baby steps and bit by bit. Even just rethinking not holding my belly in....that's a major change for me....it feels very strange and un-natural and I think how am I ever going to learn to do all of this?!! I want so badly to live comfortably with this,and I believe it is possible from listening to the tapes etc.AND from posts like you wrote! Thank you. And Cloudbutterfly, we're learning this together. If you can possibly get the DVD First Aid For Prolapse, that was helpful in explaining things too. wishing you all the best.

Are OK, as long as they are real low riders, or at least very low in front. You can also get jeans that look like low riders, but have a stretchy, lycra tummy band, that looks like a long top; and they don't fall down!. (I haven't tried them.) You just wear a shorter top, so the stretchy band is visible as a part of your dressing style.