Seven days after squeezing my son’s 16-inch cranium and 8½-pound body through my birth canal, I still couldn’t feel my pelvic floor. We were thrilled to have a healthy baby boy, but while my son grew normally and happily, my body had turned into a pile of jelly. I was, after all, 12 years older now than when my first child was born at age 22. But as painful as the ensuing months were, they taught me to reconnect with my body and my pelvic floor in a new, more beneficial way, allowing me to take in stride anything else my body would throw at me in the future.
At my six-week postpartum visit, my OB/GYN’s official diagnosis was stage 2 triple pelvic prolapse. That means that my colon, bladder, and uterus were all leaning forward and downward toward my vaginal opening, but not protruding out of it. The complications of this situation are that any urine in the bladder will obstruct the bowel, and any matter in the bowel will obstruct the bladder. This can lead to infections of the bladder and kidney, bowel obstruction, and impaction, all of which are quite painful. If left unrepaired, the bowel, bladder, and uterus can also interfere with menstruation and intercourse.
Three months postpartum, I scheduled a posterior repair, in which the lining between the bowel and vagina is pulled together and stitched in place, creating divided compartments between the two areas. But the surgery didn’t go smoothly. The surgical sutures did not dissolve properly and poked into my colon, creating a painful spasm so great that I could not eliminate waste for an entire week. Doctors put me on stool softeners and opiate suppositories and encouraged patience for another week, and then another, and then another. After four weeks of agony, a second surgery was finally performed to cut the sutures out, and I was healed. (Except for the nasty little bit about withdrawing from medically prescribed opiates—but that’s another story.)
I eventually fully recovered from the posterior repair, and six years later, at the even more mature age of 39, I delivered a baby girl. I knew I would have to handle the pelvic healing differently, so in preparation for a pregnancy that threatened to compromise the posterior repair and set me back into pelvic prolapse, I learned and practiced several methods of pelvic strengthening.
Before my pregnancy, I had been practicing Pilates and the GYROTONIC® method. Pilates is good for abdominal and core strengthening but generally does little for the pelvic floor. In the second and third trimesters of the second pregnancy, I did a specialized yoga sequence to tone my pelvic floor, anticipating some prolapse after delivery. I allowed myself plenty of fourth-trimester rest and then resumed yoga asana and yoga bandhas, which work well to strengthen the pelvic floor, particularly when combined with mild inversions such as supported bridge pose.
After about six months of postpartum yoga, I could sense my pelvic floor engaging once again. I also used a yoni egg to practice stronger lifting of the pelvic floor on my own. A yoni egg is a sterilized and polished stone inserted gently and carefully into the vagina. The task is to hold the egg inside for a few breaths up to a few minutes. A yoga teacher or pelvic physical therapist can often help walk you through the process of reintegrating with your feminine self.
According to my OB/GYN, my saving grace was that I had strengthened my pelvic floor before pregnancy and used the principles of yoga to maintain the integrity of my pelvic organs “within normal range” after the delivery. I am 47 years old now, and I no longer have the symptoms of pelvic dysfunction. Pregnancy is not recommended after a posterior repair, so upon reflection we took a risk when deciding to have one more. I encountered more difficulties from the surgery than expected, but the prolapses could have been much worse after my third pregnancy had I not done it. This experience has helped me feel more confident about sharing that women who are proactive with their pelvic health and fitness can recover from pelvic prolapse following pregnancy. It has empowered me to educate and help women of all ages by teaching yoga therapy for pelvic health.
A woman’s health should not be taken for granted. Gravity will continue to pull, and we must maintain a good relationship and connection with the parts of us that will change sooner or later. For me, the next challenger is menopause and all of its associated bodily changes. My pelvis and I will be ready.
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