What actually happens to your pelvic floor when you have a baby and why do so many of us get to our six-week check-up and assume we’re basically good to go?
In this episode, I chat to Kendra, a biokineticist and movement practitioner, about pelvic health through pregnancy, postpartum and beyond. We talk about what the pelvic floor actually is, how pregnancy affects it regardless of whether you have a natural birth or C-section, and why recovery is often a lot more complicated and takes a lot longer than we realise.
Kendra shares her own experience of pregnancy, a previous coccyx injury, C-section, ectopic pregnancy and abdominal surgery, and how becoming a mom completely changed the way she understands and works with women’s bodies.
We also get practical about where to get help, what a pelvic floor physio actually does (including a heads-up on what that appointment might involve!), breathing and core connection, diastasis recti, leaking, tension, returning to exercise and why “just do more Kegels” isn't necessarily the answer.
Mostly, this is a conversation about knowing our bodies a little better and being a lot more patient with them. Because six weeks postpartum is definitely not the finish line and sometimes even when you do everything “right,” bodies are still bodies and life happens.
If you’re pregnant, postpartum, years out from having babies or starting to think about pelvic health as you get older, there’s so much in this conversation that I genuinely wish more women knew.