Prolapse following vaginal delivery

Hi Julie, welcome and congrats on your precious boy. Yes, of course things will improve, you are only 9 weeks out. But it is essential to get your posture under control now, to avoid all straining on the toilet, and to empty your bladder completely. Christine's book will help you with all these things. Posture is the key, and now is the time to start learning about it. Surgery should be considered out of the question, and not only because you want more kids. This is something else you'll come to understand after you do more reading. Meanwhile, enjoy your babe because every day that passes in his life is a day that will never come again. Let this be a time for joy and self-discovery! Prolapse is common, and it is manageable. Good luck to you on this journey - Surviving

Hi Julie

Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy. Pregnancy and childbirth are genuine miracles, but sometimes they leave us wounded and sad. You say that you feel depressed, and that you initially wanted to die. Have you been assessed for postnatal depression, and are you getting some professional help to recover from it? Sure, having your pelvic organs suffering is really hard to handle in the first weeks but addressing your overall mental health is the key to your emotional recovery.

Surviving has given you very good advice about what you can do right now, as the start of getting your pelvic organs back to normal. It is quite common for these symptoms to worsen over the first three months. It is very distressing, and we don't know exactly why it happens. If you follow WW posture, good diet, good lifting and carrying techniques, clothes that don't compress your belly, care with seating and general lifestyle, don't strain on the toilet, empty your bladder completely every day. Once you get to about six months pp, your symptoms may be starting to really improve and will continue to improve. They will continue to improve for at least 2 years.

We are so used to the idea of the doctor or midwife signing off on the birth after about six weeks pp. All that means is that they have signed off on the birth, tears/epis healed, Mum OK, baby being well fed and cared for, family planning discussed, and that is about it. The six week checkup is nothing to do with your body reverting after the pregnancy! Your body will do that in its own good time over two years. Nothing will speed up the reversion of all the connective tissue that stretched during the pregnancy, over nine months. It just requires time and patience.

Remember the amazing job your body has done, growing and birthing your beautiful baby. It has been through some major changes. After the first birth our bodies have truly matured into the shape and configuration they have to be in order to nurse this baby and be prepared for another ... later. The second birth never seems to increase the changes. You will be fine in two years. Do your WW changes now, and it will help your symptoms stabilise while you are in this awkward, puzzling first six months pp.

Check out the videos and articles under the Resources tab. When you are ready, go to the Store, or to one of the practitioners and purchase the DVD, First Aid for Prolapse. This will be a good first step. You can also make an appointment with one of the Practitioners if you want more personalised attention. You can also Search these Forums for other women's experiences, and follow their stories.

Call back with more questions.

ps, constipation is the enemy of women with prolapse. Constipation is usually from not enough water in your diet, or not enough soluble fibre. Too much insoluble fibre can use up a lot of water, so increasing bran can make constipation worse by sucking water out of the stool.

I suggest that you look carefully at your diet. Replace processed and refined grains and other foods with unprocessed equivalents. Reduce your sugar. Get plenty of vegetable/plant protein in the form of beans and pulses, some meat, some dairy, plenty of green veges for calcium and coloured veges for vitamins and minerals. Take a *big* drink of water to your nursing chair every time you sit down to nurse your baby. It is amazing how much water a 9 week old baby will take out of your system as milk.

Louise

just want to say welcome and tell you a bit of my story. I have an urethrocystocele since my last birth 12 month ago.
First I was shocked and didn't want to do anything but lay down and cry. Then I found this site and started with posture. And slowly (almost too slowly for me, patience is not my buisness) things start to get better. I'm still not there, where I want to be, but now I know the way and I know, I still have another year recovery-time. So when things get worse (some days are still bad), I don't break down anymore. Just do more relaxing and think more about posture.
You'll see, you'll become so much better than at the moment.
All the best
Butterfly

Julie, it might be the chair. The seat needs to be horizontal. Most chairs slope backwards. Many office chairs are dished at the front, which contains the thighs and holds them together. It is better to be able to spread your thighs and place your feet well apart. With your butt on the seat this makes a stable triangular base. You could try a wedge or cushion that will fill in the dished bit and give you more lift at the back of the sear.

The chair also needs to be high enough so that your thighs are horizontal or sloping down at the front. If your thighs slope upwards this is the same as having the seat sloping backwards. You have to keep your hips flexed too much.

Also, if your seat slopes backwards you have to strain your torso forwards to balance, and then arch your back so you can keep your head level. It is possible to do this but hard on the body. It could also be that you are not straightening your upper back enough so you have to compensate by thrusting your pelvis forwards and making your lumbar curve very tight.

Yes sitting straight probably does work better for #2. There are lots of Topics about this. Use the Search box. Use different keywords for #2, eg pooing, emptying the bowel, etc. People have lots of different words for this taboo subject. Also search "lopo', which is about pooing behaviour in animals.

Hey, you are only 9 weeks pp. Your abdominal muscles are probably still pretty loose. Remember to lift your chest while sitting as well as standing. This will enable your abdominal muscles to do more work while sitting, because they will be under slight tenstion and stretched out. Muscles need to go through their full range of motion to get stronger. They work by contraction. There are two ways for a muscle to contract; by being stretched out and reflexively contracting to prevent strain, and contracting to shorten themselves. By lifting your chest you are keeping them in slight tension, which they like. This will also pull the two halves of the rectus abdominus together too, which will eventually heal any diastasis that you have. With your chest dropped the connective tissue between the two halves (linea alba) will distend sideways. Straighten up, and the two halves of the muscle will come together in a straight line because it is the shortest path between your pubic bones and chestbone, their two extremities.

Louise