Christine wrote in the blog

Body: 

Christine wrote in the blog (here:https://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=1431) against preparing the pelvic floor before labor by squatting.
I wonder if that applies to squatting only, because I learned a wonderful mayo-fascia technique, which incredibly helps to ease and shorten labors (I saw it with some of my students). It's supposed to lengthen and tone the pelvic floor. It helps babies to find more room to rotate and descend in birth, and helps women to avoid vacuums and cesareans.
Babies might have a hard time passing the pelvic floor in labor when it's very tight (due to too many Kegels, horse riding, being a professional dancer etc.) or twisted.
I believe it's a much more gentle technique than squatting (it's done with the woman lying down and not standing), and I wonder if such a way might be right for prolapsed women. I know that in this case the pelvic floor is not likely to be tight, but it might be twisted or too loose. Plus the technique works on many other muscle groups in the pelvis.
Thank you so much!

I'm not a professional, but it sounds great! I have no idea if such techniques could be harmful to women with prolapse but I think like with everything one's got to do riskasessment- weigh the benefits. If it can help women avoid cesareans and vacums I'm pretty sure in those cases the benefits would outweigh any potential risks. Wish more midwifes/doulas would know about pelvic friendly techniques. In my last birth we did some spinningbabies and it worked wonders- definitely shortened my labor!

You don’t describe at all what the technique is. I am guessing it’s some sort of internal manual stretching? Or perhaps having her draw her knees up and externally rotated?

First of all, the perineum grows and expands tremendously during pregnancy. I remember one of our beloved members, Alemama, commenting at the end of her last pregnancy, “Oh my gosh, my perineum is Huge!” What an amazing thing the body is, to prepare us in these ways.

Again, I really have no way of knowing, but what you describe sounds like another “pelvic floor” treatment focused solely on that diamond-shaped area of the female body that is the extent of the gynecologic (and by extension PT) perspective.

Fetal malposition is a whole-structure problem. It’s the entire framework that has allowed the fetus to become wedged in unfavorable positions. The same is certainly true for a “twisted pelvic floor”, which suggests significant malalignment of the spine and pelvis.

I'm all for better birthing, but sometimes I think we lose sight of how capable the body is to do what it needs to do without all sorts of interventions.