Leaky Bladder After Having A Baby?
You are not alone.
Many women report leaking urine during their pregnancy and into postpartum. Leaking urine is medically called Urinary Incontinence (UI). For some women, UI that began during pregnancy persists after delivery as chronic UI. In addition, women who are incontinent during pregnancy, even if they become continent after delivery, are more likely to develop incontinence later in life.1
There are different types of UI like leaking with laughing or sneezing, leaking with a strong urge to urinate or even a mixture of both.
So when this happens to us, what do we do? Most of us reach out to our girlfriends, sisters or mothers and it is all too common that we hear similar stories that reinforce the thought that we just have to deal with this issue or that there is nothing you can do about it.
But there is good news- you CAN do something about it. Your pelvic floor muscles are a group of muscles that affect your ability to hold in your pee. If you optimize those muscles, you can help improve your leaky bladder! Sometimes we leak because our muscles are too weak, sometimes we leak because our muscles are coordinating correctly, and sometimes we leak because our muscles are holding too much tension.
Here are 5 tips from a Pelvic Floor Expert to optimize your pelvic floor muscles:
- Make sure you can correctly contract your pelvic floor during a kegel. Almost Check with a mirror or your hand to make sure you are squeezing and lifting those muscles.
- Make sure you can relax your pelvic floor muscles ALL the way after performing a kegel. If too much tension is your issue, then this will help those muscles relearn to relax.
- Work on how these muscles coordinate to be able to plug the leak for good. Your pelvic floor muscles need to coordinate with your abdominal muscles, so make sure you can feel your pelvic floor working when your abs are working. Your pelvic floor exercises should also include different types like quick, slow, isolated and even integrated kegels!
- Try decreasing the foods or drinks that can irritate your bladder. Look at how much water you are drinking, if you are drinking too little, then the urine can get so concentrated that it can become a bladder irritant and make you leak. But there are other acidic drinks or foods that can irritate your bladder.
- Retrain your brain-bladder connection to release urine ONLY when you are supposed to! You should be the boss of your bladder, NOT the other way around. When we pee “just in case” without an urge to go, we are actually training our bladder to go whenever it wants instead of when it should normally empty. A quick way to retrain your bladder, among many, is to stop going “just in case.”
Not sure if you are leaking because your pelvic floor muscles are too weak, uncoordinated or too tight? Not sure what foods, drinks or activities are affecting your ability to stay dry? Want to improve your bladder situation as much as you can regardless of WHY it might be happening? Many women go see a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist, but that requires going to an office, spending a good amount of time and money. As Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists, we acknowledged that not everybody can invest in themselves in that way, especially during these uncertain times.
That is why we created a self-paced, online program for moms of any age who are leaking! It’s called Leak-Free After Baby Bootcamp.
Learn how to help yourself live leak-free from the comfort of your own home and on your own time! It’s jam packed with Five 30 minute educational videos, Three Coaching Calls over the time of the course, handouts for each lecture and bonus videos. Learning how your body should work and how to heal yourself using the tricks we give our clients all the time!
This is our pilot program and we are offering a special introductory price of $99, but the entire course is valued at over $300. There are only 15 spots available. Once filled, the course will be closed and we don’t know when we will offer it again.
Go to our website to sign up or learn more about the Leak-Free After Baby Bootcamp! https://hudsonvalleypt.com/product/leak-free-after-baby-bootcamp/
Reference: https://www.ics.org/publications/ici_4/files-book/comite-1.pdf
