Tampon/Pessary Use During Pregnancy

Submitted by abc123 on December 14, 2014 - 10:51am
Body: 

Hi,
I'm new to the forums, 12 weeks with my 2nd pregnancy. I was self diagnosed with a mostly cysotocele after the birth of my first child. I was in physical therapy for several years and was mostly symptom free except for a few days per month. During the past few weeks my symptoms have become much worse and I can feel my bladder after a few hours of being on my feet. I was recently fitted for a pessary but found it to cause an uncomfortable cramping feeling. Over the past few days, I've been wearing a tampon during most of my waking hours and it has helped me a lot. I still need to take time to sit or lay down and reduce standing. I should also add that my OB said it was ok to wear the tampon during pregnancy. I didn't go into detail with him about frequency yet. Has anyone had experience with either tampon or pessary use. Should I go back to the hospital to get fitted for a different pessary? When I first had it for the first few hours I loved it because I didn't feel my bladder but then I couldn't wait to take it out. Is this an adjustment period. Also, is it ok to wear a tampon for 2 months straight. My doctor said at about 20 weeks with anatomical changes, the bladder should remain in a high position and shouldn't be an issue. Any advice or experience in this area would be very helpful!

Forum:

chickaboom

December 14, 2014 - 5:05pm

Hey abc,

Here at wholewoman, we are trying to fix the actual problem (prolapse) rather than just the symptoms. Long term use of tampons and pessaries only address the symptoms while in fact many times contributing to the worsening of the problem. (I dabbled a bit with tampons in the beginning and clearly felt that they only added to the bulginess).

The most important advice I can give u at this point is to learn the proper posture. Whole woman posture helps in pulling those prolapsed organs back into place. Your doctor is right, your growing baby & uterus will eventually pull up and your prolapse symptoms will disappear (until the end of the last trimester perhaps). But your prolapse will surely show up again postpartum with all that shifting and moving of the organs back into place.

What u need is lots of posture, lots of jiggling, lots of floor sitting, and lots of bum-in-air position (my favorite during pregnancy). For starters you can search for wholewoman on youtube and find a video where Christine explains the posture.

chickaboom

December 14, 2014 - 5:19pm

https://wholewoman.com/blogpix/CAKonfloor.jpg

Here's a photo of Christine demonstrating the position.

This will allow your pelvic organs to fall back into place and, two, it'll provide so much relief and comfort as your belly grows! You can do it as often as you want but at least a fewtimes a day. Rock gently from side to side and make sure your lumbar curve is not flattened out.

Surviving60

December 14, 2014 - 6:40pm

Hi abc - here is a link to the YouTube video, which is actually a clip from Christine's flagship dvd, First Aid for Prolapse. It will get you started. - Surviving

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RvGROzIYN6w

abc123

December 14, 2014 - 10:02pm

Thank you so much for your response. I would love to fix the problem and had made decent progress postpartum last time with PT. I have a a few other issues with tailbone and SI that were addressed through PT so I'm hesitant to do exercises and posture that could impact those areas. I certainly can show these to my PT and see if he thinks they would be safe for my back and tailbone.

I'm just not sure there is much I can do to counteract the weight of the pregnancy so unfortunately for the next 2 months I am looking to deal with the symptom that is pretty unbearable throughout the day without the support of a tampon, unless I spend the day in bed or mostly sitting.

Thanks for all of the links. I will definitely check them out. Is there any information on recommended diet?

lifegoeson04

December 15, 2014 - 1:34am

Hello, really does depend though what is your physical therapist saying? Only from experience they normally don't teach the whole woman posture, normally like Kegals? I stopped seeing mine a few weeks after going and finding the whole woman approach, I got considerably worse once I started Kegals. I carried my second baby with prolapse from the first and my symptoms were pretty good just from walking in posture and taking the whole woman approach, I certainly didn't need to wear a tampon or anything. All I can suggest is throw yourself into this work and it will get better.. Take care and congratulations

Surviving60

December 15, 2014 - 4:14am

Abc, I may be bursting your bubble here when it comes to PT, but quite frequently, post-partum prolapse subsides all by itself. The PT may have had nothing to do with it. I was quite bulgy after both my births, but I didn't think anything about it. I didn't expect to feel normal after pushing out 9 and 10 pound babies. I didn't do a thing, and things went back to feeling normal. I returned to a life of horrendous posture, and kegeling because that's what we were all taught to do (mainly for our sex lives!). I know now that my episiotomies, and frequent straining on the toilet, contributed to my developing prolapse. After menopause, prolapse returned with a vengeance.

As for kegeling, which I assume you probably did plenty of (because that's basically what PT teaches), please go over to the blog tab and put kegels into the search box to find Christine's articles, explaining why they don't help and can actually aggravate. I can personally attest to the truth of that.

The posture correction is really the only answer. This is not a contrived posture. We all started out as kids with a nice lower lumbar curvature, which most of us lose after awhile. It must be restored for the overall health of the spine, hips, pelvis - the whole body. Study Christine's work. - Surviving