Very Uncomfortable and depressed due to rectocele

Body: 

Hi everyone

I had my first child, baby girl, 15 weeks ago and self diagnosed myself (doctor confirmed) with a rectocele 1 week post birth. It's at stage 2, you can see it at the opening. I had an episiotomy which has taken some time to heal, doc thinks it's due to the rectocele.
I'm seeing a pelvic floor physio who has confirmed my pelvic floor muscles are working well now, but I'm not feeling any more comfortable.
It makes me depressed as I'm only 31 and plan to have more children but the thought of bearing weight down there and making it worse is very upsetting.

I'm in constant discomfort, and it's not just at the end of the day. I feel heavy, it's hard passing wind, and I feel a scratching sensation where my scar is. I also feel much worse after sex and this is really important to me as my darling other half has been so patient.

Will this get better? The thought of living with this forever is so upsetting and ruining my quality of life. I want to excercise again for my health and to build up my self confidence again but can't.

Hoping some other mummies can give me some advice :(

Hi Zo,

Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girl.

Please rest assured that you have every possibility of recovering.

However, some subtle but important shifts in how you understand your condition need to take place in order for you to do the work of healing.

First of all, your doctor says the rectocele is the cause of the slow-healing episiotomy, when in truth the episiotomy undoubtedly caused or worsened the rectocele. But yes, loss of your natural vaginal sphincter, which can never be fully repaired or regained, is allowing your lower back vaginal wall to balloon against your perineum and irritate the wound.

A good place for you to start is with Whole Woman Wisdom for the Childbearing Years, which you can find here:

https://www.wholewomanstore.com/Whole-Woman-Wisdom-for-the-Childbearing-...

As has already become self-evident to you, the ability to contract your pelvic wall muscles has no bearing on the rectocele. What is needed is a new understanding, most particularly that in natural anatomy the pelvic organs are positioned at the front of the body and away from the outlet at the back.

When you learn to hold your abdominal contents forward, the back vaginal and front rectal walls are pulled up and into their natural alignment, which smoothes out the rectocele pocket.

The work is not just about exercise, but about how we hold our body as we sit, stand and move throughout the day. How we use the toilet is also critically important to healing rectocele.

If you follow WW techniques, I would expect you to feel immensely better within 6 months. There is no surgery for rectocele that doesn’t come without extreme risk of additional and far worse symptoms. Really, the only reasonable response is to bring all of these tissues back into their original alignment, which you can’t do with a few sessions of PT. It is a total lifestyle change.

Wishing you well,

Christine

Dear ZoWhat,
I was your age when I had my first baby & during my second pregnancy, I noticed what I now know is a rectocele.
I didn't worry about it- I had a third child as well and the prolapse was never an issue with giving birth or during the pregnancies. I had ipisiotomys with all and forceps with the first.

My biggest challenge post - partum was to manage bowel movements carefully with diet, but it took a while to realise that fruit was the key rather than lots of dry fiber and the resulting need to drink copious amounts of water.

There was nothing like this when I was your age, and I had to wait a long time hoping for an alternative to surgery before I found Whole Woman.

The advantage you have now is that you can delve into Christine's approach which is holistic and practical, with life - long benefits.

Wishing you all the best,
Aussie Soul Sister