“You don’t want your pelvic floor to get in the way of delivering your baby,” says Carrie Pagliano, DPT, a physical therapist who specializes in pelvic health.
Unless you've experienced urinary incontinence or pelvic pain before, most people ignore their pelvic floor muscles until they become pregnant. Therefore, we may not be familiar with the difference between contraction and expansion or how to relax these muscles. Pregnancy pelvic floor exercises can help you understand how to properly engage the area as the big day approaches.
How can pregnancy pelvic floor exercises help?
Pregnancy hormones, such as relaxin, help loosen pelvic joints and increase the flexibility of soft tissues, but if your pelvic floor muscles are too short, tight, or overactive, they can cause more pain during vaginal birth.
“Strengthening, relaxing, or letting go of your muscles is an essential part of your childbirth preparation program,” says Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, a pelvic floor physical therapist and founder of Fusion Wellness PT in Los Angeles. “[That’s] “I’m so nervous that it’s hard to push something away.”
How do I know if I need pelvic floor flexibility exercises? “If you have a history of pain from sex before pregnancy, pelvic pain, constipation, or leakage,” says Dr. Pagliano. Even very active athletes can sometimes have trouble relaxing their pelvic floor muscles, she adds. Dr. Jeffcoat says that in her own practice, she often teaches how to use medical dilators vaginally to help patients manually stretch their muscles. There are also some pregnancy pelvic floor exercises you can do at home to help open your pelvic floor muscles during pregnancy.
Keep in mind that no amount of exercise or other birth preparation can 100% prevent a C-section. “You can have the best pelvic floor in the world. You can prepare everything properly,” says Dr. Pagliano. However, if a medical event occurs, the delivery team must remove the baby in the safest way possible.
7 pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy
Pelvic floor training involves not only working on the pelvic floor muscles themselves, but also opening up nearby muscles and joints.
“There functional relationshipOne It’s between your pelvic floor and your glutes, so strengthening your glutes can help strengthen your pelvic floor,” says Dr. Jeffcoat. Dr. Pagliano adds that we have deep hip rotators near our pelvic floor muscles, which need to be able to move through a greater range of motion to open the pelvis and get into the position needed for childbirth.
Exercises recommended by pelvic floor therapists include a mix of movements that specifically target the pelvic floor muscles and movements that exercise the hips and pelvis in general.
There should be no pain while doing these exercises. If it is painful, stop immediately and check with your healthcare provider to make sure you are doing this exercise correctly and that it is safe for you.
1. Contraction, relaxation, expansion
These pelvic floor exercises help develop the coordination needed for the active pushing phase of labor. If you're not sure you're doing it right, you can install a mirror underneath to make sure the hole opens and closes on command, says Dr. Jeffcoat. Once you get the hang of it, practice this at any time. Positions to use during childbirth, such as squatting or lying on your side.
- Start by contracting your pelvic floor muscles, as if you were doing Kegel exercises. “Can you isolate that muscle group? What does it feel like to close the anal and vaginal openings and adjust that lift? Can you feel that tension?” asks Dr. Jeffcoat.
- Relax and feel the heaviness and softness.
- Finally, flex or press down on your pelvic floor muscles to straighten your sit bones. “Can we make more space in the holes in the front and the back holes? Can you feel the downward pressure? That will be a position that will need to be accessible to facilitate the baby’s descent into the canal during labor,” says Dr. Jeffcoat.
2. Lower abdominal breathing
The pelvic floor muscles are “breathing accessory” muscles, says Dr. Pagliano. “When you breathe in, your lungs fill with air and the diaphragm expands to make space. With a little downward pressure, the pelvic floor takes that pressure and stretches only a few millimeters. And when you exhale, your pelvic floor rises.” This means that taking deep breaths can be helpful when trying to stretch and relax your pelvic floor.
- Take a moment to find a comfortable position and notice where you usually breathe. “Are you upper chest breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, or lower belly breathing?” Dr. Pagliano asks. “Obviously having a baby on your diaphragm makes things more difficult.”
- Focus on bringing your breath further down into your lower abdomen. If you're not sure if it's working properly, place your hand on your perineum and feel the movement.
- Think about relaxing your pelvic floor muscles as you inhale and activating them as you exhale.
3. Glottal opening breathing
The glottis is the part of the throat that contains the vocal cords. During labor, you want to keep it open enough to make sounds, such as buzzing or exhaling. It turns purple.
- Inhale deeply.
- As you exhale slowly, think about breathing through pursed lips and opening up the area around your vocal cords. See if you can feel your pelvic floor activating as you exhale.
4. Spinal mobility of the birthing hole
These movements work to access different planes of motion in the lumbar spine, says Dr. Jeffcoat.
- Sit on a large stability ball with your feet wide apart and your hands on your hips.
- Dr. Jeffcoat says to do a few pelvic circles counterclockwise, “as if you were belly dancing.”
- Do a few turns clockwise and then go in the opposite direction.
- Then try pelvic tilt. Keep your spine high and engage and release your pelvis.
5. Modify your child’s pose
Child's pose is a great move for opening the hips, glutes, and lower back, and can also be used as a self-assessment to see if one side is tighter, says Dr. Jeffcoat.
- Starting on your hands and knees, spread your legs wide enough to fit your stomach, and place your feet together.
- Lean your hips back toward your heels while extending your arms forward.
- Move your hands to the left to open the right side of your body. Take a moment to breathe.
- Move your hands to the right to open the left side of your body. Take a moment to breathe.
6. Happy baby
Happy Baby is a great pelvic floor stretch for your butt muscles (and it feels good when you arch your lower back).
- Lie on your back, bend your knees at a 90-degree angle, and bring your knees to either side of your chest.
- Grasp the outside of your foot with both hands and gently pull it toward the ground, keeping your knees at a 90-degree angle and your back flat on the floor.
- Wait for 1-3 minutes.
7. Butterfly stretch
If your hips are tight, the butterfly stretch may help increase flexibility in your inner thighs, glutes, and lower back, says Dr. Jeffcoat.
- Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet touching each other, bend your knees and spread them wide to the sides.
- Lean forward slightly until you feel a stretch.
- Hold for about 30 seconds.
When to do pregnancy pelvic floor exercises
Dr. Jeffcoat suggests starting these exercises by week 32 of pregnancy. Even if you give birth a little early, hopefully it will take at least a month to open up your muscles.
How often you do it depends on what you have time to do (without being stressed). If you can fit it in once or twice a week, that's great. If you can do it once or twice a day, even better. Remember, something is better than nothing.
Are you doing prenatal yoga or Pilates? Some of these exercises will likely be incorporated into your classes.
Benefits of pregnancy pelvic floor exercises after giving birth
Pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy can be helpful even after the delivery room. After having a baby, your pelvic floor may feel a little foreign, says Dr. Jeffcoat. “Because your core has changed, the way your muscles activate will also feel different.”
Developing awareness of your pelvic floor muscles and learning how to adjust them before birth will help you with the healing process after delivery by putting you in greater contact with your pelvic floor muscles. commonly Same feeling.
Well+Good articles reference scientific, credible, recent and robust research to support the information we share. You can trust us on your wellness journey.
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Siess, Maximilian et al. “On the potential morpho-mechanical link between the gluteus maximus and pelvic floor tissues.” scientific report volume. 13,1 22901. December 21, 2023, doi:10.1038/s41598-023-50058-8
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