A Strong Pelvic Floor Will Complicate Your Labour!

Whilst I was pregnant, I was religious about doing my pelvic floors and transverse ab exercises. I wanted to give myself the easiest time in labour possible, so I did my exercises 3 times a day every day - and 5 times in the last trimester.

I knew that a weak pelvic floor would lead to stress incontinence, (where you leak urine when you cough, laugh or sneeze, etc), both during pregnancy and after and that was a problem I definitely wanted to avoid!

One day whilst training I got chatting to a couple of ladies in the gym who had children and we got onto the subject of, "your body will never be the same again". We started talking about pelvic floor exercises and they both said to me that my strong pelvic floor would slow down my labour and make delivery difficult!

I asked them why they thought this and they said they'd been told that the pelvic floor was used "to help everything stay closed" and therefore it would work against me when I wanted to push my baby out!

Apparently this was something one of them had read in magazine somewhere and she'd been telling all the pregnant women she knew - me included!

I could see where she'd gotten mixed up. In a way the pelvic floor does help keep everything closed. The pelvic floor is a saddle of muscle that sits like a hammock across the bottom of the pelvis. It has several functions:

1. It helps your bladders stay closed - stopping leaking and incontinence, especially when sneezing or coughing

2. It supports your pelvic organs and the contents of the abdominal cavity and keeps everything in place. Older women with weak pelvic floors can suffer slipping - where the organs slip down and an operation is needed to put everything back in place. (My ex-boyfriends mother had this and it's not pleasant I assure you)

3. It controls wind and your bowel movements

4. It improves your sexual awareness

In pregnancy the pelvic floor is stretched and weakened by the increasing pressure and load of your baby so it is EVEN MORE important to do pelvic floor exercises to maintain its strength and prevent stress incontinence both during and afterwards.

A strong pelvic floor will not hinder labour but in fact it will help in the second stage of labour and will reduce your pushing time - that's got to be good!

A Real Life Example

After I gave birth to River, I had a pretty speedy recovery - I was back training within 10 days of giving birth and I felt pretty strong and in shape. I was still doing my pelvic floors and transverse exercises, but as the weeks wore on and I got more and more tired and sleep deprived, I started to forget to do them. I became very blase about the whole thing, thinking that as I had done so much work already, I didn't need to stay on top of it to keep my pelvic floor at the same level it was.

BIG MISTAKE - BIG - HUGE!!

I had stupidly forgotten, (in my new mum foggy brain), that the pelvic floor is a muscle just like any other...

IF YOU DON'T USE IT - YOU LOSE IT!

I started back at the gym 5 weeks ago and my first foray on the treadmill was not a pleasant one! Within 3 minutes of jogging I had my first experience of stress incontinence! I was severely disappointed in myself. I knew that if I'd have kept up my pelvic floor exercises, that would never have happened.

So now I'm having to work very hard to get it back. So my message to you today is

DO NOT FORGET YOUR PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES!!!!


Here's some simple exercises you can do:

1. To find your pelvic floor try stopping the flow of urine midway when you go to the toilet. This is what it feels like to contract your pelvic floor.

NB: ONLY DO THIS ONCE! This is just so you know what it feels like to squeeze your pelvic floor. You should not not do this regularly whilst urinating as you may cause urinary tract infections.

2. Now that you know how it feels - contract and hold your pelvic floor for a count of 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times, working up to a set of 20 as you get stronger. Remember to breathe!

3. Imagine your pelvic floor is an elevator. Move your pelvic floor up inside you from floor 1 to 5. Hold for 1 count then descend slowly from 5 to 1.

You will probably find the descent very difficult to control at first. You'll know you are getting stronger when you are able to control the descent better!


Repeat 5 times, working up to a set of 10 as you get stronger.

Working your transverse for an easy labour

Now we've all heard about Kegels, the pelvic floor exercises designed by Dr Arnold Kegel, to support the pelvic structures and prevent urinary incontinence. But how many prenatal care professionals will tell you about the importance of working your transverse abdominus?

My guess is I could probably count the number on one hand...without the thumb. The importance of the transverse abdominus in labour is massively overlooked by care professionals but it is one of the major muscles you will need to use to ensure an easy labour.



As you can see from the diagram the TA is a deep seated abdominal muscle that attaches to the bottm six ribs at the front and the pelvis in back. It runs across our sides and inserts into the linea alba at the front (the middle of your abdomen). It is also connected to the diaphragm which helps us breathe.

It looks like and acts like a corset, pulling you in and helps stabilise your torso and pelvis. This little beauty is the muscle that, if trained correctly will give you a flat stomach.

It is also the muscle that will help you push your baby out during labour.

Transverse Exercises

1. Now to work the transverse you need to breathe. Start by taking a big belly breath into the pit of your stomach. If you put your hands on your belly the in breath should expand your belly making it rise and grow outwards. As you exhale imagine pulling your bElly button right back to your spine. Now hold it there for a count of 10 second before releasing with another belly breath. Repeat this exercise for a minimum of 10 holds.

As you get stronger you can increase the hold count to 30. Always count out loud so that you are not holding your breath as this is a dangerous movement called the valsava manoeuver which can send your blood pressure sky high.

2. Next imagine your belly button is like an elevator. When you take in a belly breath this is ground floor, as you exhale and draw the belly button back to the spine, imagine you are passing through 5 floors.

Pull all the way back to floor 5 on the first exhale.
Then as you inhale release your belly button to floor 4.
Exhale and pull back to floor 5.
Release to floor 3.
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 2
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 3
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 2
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 4
Pull back to floor 5
Inhale with a big belly breath to floor 1
Pull back to floor 5
Inhale all the way to ground floor

Do 3 sets of these exercises 5 times a day. You can do your Kegels in between sets as your rest.

Now when it comes to the big day your TA is going to act like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube to push your baby out. However, YOU MUST BREATHE! Unfortunately the majority of delivery room staff will try and get you to hold your breath whilst pushing. Not only is this ineffective, it's also dangerous.

*When you hold your breath and work a muscle (or push) your blood pressure will go mental, first rocketing upwards, then going down rapidly before shooting up to an even higher level than before. Many women have burst blood vessels in their eyes and increase their risk of stroke after labour because of this.

*Your transverse muscle will move forwards instead of back and push against your weakened rectus abdominus, (the six pack), pushing the muscle apart and giving you a diastasis - leaving your back weakened an unsupported.

*You will fatigue quickly - research shows that holding your breath whilst bearing down for more than 5 seconds is uneccessarily tiring. Labour requires stamina so you don't want to be tiring yourself out before you've finished the race!

So instruct your birthing partner to be firm with the delivery room staff. Keep breathing as your contractions come. Take a big belly breath in at the start and then exhale long and hard as you pull your transverse back to squeeze your baby out.

So long as you have been practising your transverse exercises daily throughout your pregnancy you will find you have great stamina and strength and labour should become a much easier process.