If you’ve had a prolapse, you might be feeling like there’s very little you can do to feel better. But I want you to know that there are some fairly easy things you can do to help with prolapse.
When I had a prolapse not long after my first baby, I wanted to do everything I could to get better and a huge part of that journey was treating the prolapse naturally. And I’m not just talking about kegels. I encourage my clients to see those isolated pelvic floor exercises as just a small piece of the puzzle. It’s important to look at pelvic floor health as part of a much bigger picture.
Oh and just so you know how powerful a holistic approach is – I ran a marathon this year only a few years after mine. A marathon AFTER prolapse! I never thought I’d be able to run long distance again. But I ran 26.2 miles!
So there is hope and you CAN feel better soon! Here are my Top 5 tips for how to treat prolapse:
1. Breathing for healing prolapse
Breathing is an underrated healer! But it’s an essential part of the work I do with my clients.
When we breathe we create intra-abdominal pressure and it’s important we keep this is as balanced as possible through the torso.
Make sure you’re breathing into the whole rib cage not just doing a ‘belly breath’ which increases the pressure going into your pelvic floor.
You can also co-ordinate your breathing with movement to create an unconscious pelvic floor contraction.
2. Posture for easing prolapse symptoms
Improving your posture can massively help your prolapse. Did you know that excessive rounding of the upper back has been shown to correlate with pelvic organ prolapse? This makes sense because it’s likely to cause the person to slump, bearing down and putting extra pressure into their pelvis.
Everything in your body is connected by a wonderful web of fascia or connective tissue, so we need to look at your pelvic floor as part of the whole body.
When your bones are well aligned it makes it easier for the muscles and fascia to function well. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that there’s balance throughout your body, that your legs are aligned within your hips and you have a sense of lift throughout your torso rather than bearing down.
3. See a Women’s Health Professional about your prolapse
A Women’s Health Professional (WHP) understands the physical and hormonal changes that happen in women’s bodies throughout their lifetime. They have usually undertaken post graduate training around the assessment of the pelvic floor muscles and are passionate about your pelvic health! They listen and won’t try and fob you off with “oh this is all normal, have you tried kegels?”
Before you try exercising or making changes, get signed off by a women’s health professional if you have been diagnosed with a prolapse. There is so much you can do to support it better but exercising in a way that doesn’t suit you can make things worse. Therefore It’s advisable to get as much support and guidance from an expert as possible for your prolapse.
4. Don’t be afraid to move after prolapse
It might feel a bit scary to move much after prolapse, but usually it’s recommended that you do some gentle movement. Once you’ve had the all clear from your WHP that exercise is okay for you and your body (everyone is different!), you can introduce movement into your daily routine.
Begin with some simple exercises you can do at home to strengthen your core and pelvic floor. These might include Pilates moves, such as pelvic lifts, clams, squats, ball squeezes and a few others. Read more about movement after prolapse here.
You could try a gentle gravity free exercise like swimming which is complementary to Pilates.
5. Build at your own pace to treat prolapse
When it comes to recovery from prolapse, there is no one straightforward answer that works for everyone. You have to do what feels right for you and your body. And that means doing things at your own pace.
Little and often, allowing your body to develop a routine with daily movement is a good idea after prolapse. Listening to your body to ensure you don’t make things worse is important.
I hope these tips for naturally treating prolapse have given you a sense that things can get better.
You can find more information about Pilates for Prolapse here. And if you would like to try Pilates, our “Your Core Matters” classes are designed to support you in the best way possible after prolapse.
