Proactive Pelvic Health Strategies for Pregnancy - Episode 37
In this episode of the Marron Pelvic Health Podcast, host Dr. Kari Roberts discusses the critical role of pelvic physical therapy during
pregnancy. The podcast outlines the common changes and dysfunctions expectant mothers may face, such as SPD pain, bladder
control issues, and posturerelated discomforts. Dr. Kari emphasizes the importance of proactive care, introducing her pregnancy prepprogram designed to strengthen, educate, and prepare women for a confident birthing experience. The episode serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding and managing the physical challenges of pregnancy with targeted therapeutic interventions.
Book a call with Dr. Kari Roberts today.
-
Dr. Kari: We talked last week about what therapy can do after you've had your baby. But let's talk today about how pelvic physical therapy can help you while you're pregnant.
Dr. Kari: Welcome to the Maroon Pelvic Health Podcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Carrie Roberts. On this show, we will be discussing a variety of things regarding your pelvic health. These conversations will be a mix of education,
personal experiences, and a blend of tips you can apply to have a healthier pelvis. And the goal of this show is to normalize conversations around pelvic health and help women stop suffering in silence.
Dr. Kari: What is, what's the deal with pelvic physical therapy and pregnancy? Put simply,
pelvic physical therapy is all about preventing things to go to the left,
improving comfort and support and education while you're pregnant. And this is really good if this is your first pregnancy, because you may be thinking, I've never done this before, I don't know what to expect.
But even if you've had children before,
every pregnancy is different.
And every pregnancy can have its host of challenges or its host of symptoms that might be different from the next.
Before I get into the common things that people deal with while they're pregnant, let's go into some of the norms and talk about what can happen or what things change as a pregnancy progresses.
Let's first get into what things happen during pregnancy. What changes can happen. One of them is hormones. Hormones fluctuate. You have new hormones and other hormones kind of die down.
And when you get this up and down, this, this change of hormones, your tissue integrity, your tissues, your muscular tissues can be altered.
Something else that happens while you're pregnant is your baby is growing. And as your baby is growing, that's increased load on your body. That's increased press into your lower abdominal and pelvic area.
Something else that happens is your posture. Your belly goes way out front, which means your center of gravity comes forward, which means that can directly change the posture of your spine and of your upper body.
And something else is your muscles, they change. They can get tight, some of them can get loose.
Sometimes the coordination, the way they play with each other or the way they interact with each other, that also can change.
So those are some of the normal that happen during pregnancy. And let's talk about some of the things that can happen as a result or some common dysfunctions that occur as a result of these normal changes.
One of them that's very popular is called SPD pain or let me make sure I get it right. Pubic, symphysis disorder.
And what happens is you get this pain right at the front.
You've got a right in the left side of your pubic bone, and you can, they can rub and that can cause a great deal of anterior pelvic pain.
Something else is generally general pelvic pain, crotch pain, that lightning crotch that I've heard patients talk about, that is another common one that people will go seek out care for.
Something else is bladder frequency and urgency. It's very common, or it's normal for that to really increase into your third trimester because that baby is growing, putting more pressure downward, but also taking up room so the bladder can't stretch as much.
But if you're having these increased frequency and duration in the first two trimesters, that is not normal. And that is something that we can help with. I've helped dozens of women regain their bladder control in early on in their pregnancies so that they can be comfortable throughout.
So that's definitely something that pelvic physical therapy can help with.
Something else that comes with these changes is low back pain. You can get low back pain, pelvic pain, and with that low back pain, you can get tailbone pain.
Some patients even report having constipation.
And then other people can have pain with intimacy, just generalized pain with intimacy in their pelvic area.
So as a review, normal changes that happen during pregnancy is the tissue, or excuse me, the hormones will shift.
Your baby grows, which increases pressure.
Your posture changes in your heart, and your muscles can change from those whether they be too tight,
too weak, or not coordinated. And then for common sense symptoms or common pain issues that come with the pregnancy is SPD pain, pelvic pain, bladder frequency early in the pregnancy, low back pain, constipation, tailbone pain, and pain with intimacy.
So what can physical therapy do?
Physical therapy, we can help you with the SPD pain. If muscles are tight, we can help them stretch out. If muscles are weaker, we can help them get stronger. If they're not coordinated, we can help them get coordinated.
We can help with, to stretching tissues and using potentially tools if needed to get them used to,
used to pressure for intimacy and things like that. If you have pain with your pelvic exams, we can help with that as well.
We can do lots of behavior techniques and education and stretches and things to help you manage your bowel and bladder changes.
And yeah, so that's pretty much in a nutshell, what pelvic physical therapy can do.
But a big part of what pelvic physical therapy does is we really can help with your preparation and your care for the actual birth. So we can do birth prep, we can do pregnancy prep and get you on the road for recovery even before you've had your baby.
So just as a little breakdown I have,
if you don't have any of those pains that I just mentioned and your pregnancy is going kind of smooth. I do have a pregnancy prep program and here at maroon public health, it's a six visit program.
Two visits,
sorry, One visit in the first trimester, one visit in the second trimester. Those first two visits, I call that the foundation visits. So we're really focused on keeping you mobile, keeping that spine mobile and keeping you strong.
If you're not strong, we're going to get you on a strengthening program so that you can get strong.
I tell my patients often your I like sports.
Your burst is like the super bowl. You never see an athlete take it easy and say, oh, I've got a big game coming up. I'm really just going to relax.
They don't do that. They prep, they train,
they do strengthening, they do simulation. They play in some scrimmages, they play in some games. They do everything that they need to so that when that big day comes, they're like, okay, I've got this.
I've never played in this particular game, but I've got this. I'm prepped and I'm ready to go.
So that's what I like to do with my patients. The super bowl is like, sorry, the pregnancy, the birth is like the super bowl. So now let. What can we do to make sure that you are practicing, you're prepped,
your mindset is good, your, your muscles are strong.
So I really like to focus in on found foundation, the fundamental strengthening in those first two visits. In your first two trimesters,
the second phase is the actual birth and pushing prep. And in Those, I'll do two visits. In the third trime,
really trying to get these two visits sealed up by week 36 because other appointments start to increase. And I want to have this to be one less thing that you're worried about.
So in the pregnancy prep, we go through pregnancy birth positions,
all sorts of positions. Side lying on your belly, on your back,
leg up, leg down. Do you have a partner? Do you not have a partner? Are we using the peanut ball? Are we not using the peanut ball?
We do a thorough training with pushing to make sure that you can push properly to minimize the risk of getting ab separation,
prolapse or,
or hemorrhoids.
So in that second visit Excuse me. The second phase, the pregnancy prep. We go through positions,
breathing and pushing, actually educating you on pushing. And we also talk about perineal massage.
Then after you've given your birth.
Baby, sorry, given birth to your baby, anywhere from two to six weeks post, depending on how you're feeling, were there any issues,
things like that?
Then I will see you for two more recovery visits and that's really where I meet you wherever you are.
Did you have a long pregnancy and you're really sore? Did you have a C section? And you've got to learn how to do some things. Managing that scar,
are you? Have you waited your six weeks? You're cleared for intimacy and things don't feel right. Maybe you had some pelvic issues before the pregnancy that you've kind of put on hold and now that everything's been good, you've got that good bill of health from the physician.
Now you want to transition and focus in and deal with that.
It's just kind of a pick your own adventure in that last visit. So that's how I do my pregnancy program for my patients here at Maroon Public Health.
So the takeaways from this conversation,
you don't want to wait until you need something.
Pregnancy is the perfect time to be proactive with your care. So then that way you can get the education you need, the support you need, help you stay comfortable and help you go into the birth as confident as you can.
So thanks for checking out this episode. If you think that you might want to benefit from my pregnancy prep program, go ahead and reach out to me. Otherwise, I will be in your earbuds with your next episode next week.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
Dr. Kari: Of the Marron Pelvic Health Podcast.
Dr. Kari: Please do me a favor and leave.
Dr. Kari: A review so that more people can find this content and make sure you like and subscribe yourself so you never miss another episode.