Training of the pelvic floor after birth
Childbirth involves a great deal of physical effort and the muscles of the pelvic floor in particular are significantly weakened. Therefore, you should take care to stabilize and train your pelvic floor as soon as possible after a birth. However, women should take care not to exert themselves too much.
After giving birth, one should definitely rest and give the body the opportunity to regenerate. You are welcome to lie on your stomach and thus support the regression of the uterus. You should also avoid lifting heavy loads.
Heavy lifting only puts additional strain on the pelvic floor. The rule of thumb for this is: Never carry anything heavier than the baby. This includes above all posture.
An upright posture not only protects your back but also significantly stabilizes the pelvic floor muscles. An exercise that can be done well at the changing table is the elastic standing in the knees. The buttocks and also the abdominal muscles are slightly tensed.
In addition, the thoracic spine is pushed forward. When the perineal scar has healed after the birth, women can start with light training exercises for their pelvic floor. Light gymnastic exercises are now also possible.
These strengthen and tighten the stomach and leg muscles. Yoga exercises or light recovery gymnastics are particularly suitable. However, you should take care not to overdo it at the beginning.
Before the training of the abdominal muscles can begin again after birth, the pelvic floor should first be sufficiently strengthened. Overloading the still too weak pelvic floor can cause the training effects to turn negative. Particularly in the case of physical exhaustion and/or sore muscles, a gear should be shifted back and the body should be allowed sufficient recovery.
If there are signs of weak pelvic floor muscles, overexertion should be avoided and only light stress stimuli should be applied. Symptoms of a weak pelvic floor are: A feeling of heaviness after long periods of sitting or standing. A swinging feeling of pressure that can occur when walking and jumping.
An extreme urge to urinate when the bladder is full and the resulting insufficient control of the urinary stream. A feeling as if the vagina is still dilated. An exercise that can counteract this comes from recovery gymnastics.
This exercise can be done anytime and anywhere and can be performed lying, sitting or standing. The pelvic floor is tensed for five seconds as if the urge to urinate is to be held back. Afterwards the pressure is released again.
This exercise should be repeated about 20 times. The motto here is, it is better to exercise shorter, but more often.Other exercises include the knee stand, lateral support and an abdominal muscle workout. With the abdominal muscle training, however, you should make sure that you have already done a strengthening of the pelvic floor training before.
When kneeling, the back is straight and the arms are joined above the head. The upper body is stretched and then you sit on the left side of the buttocks. Then one stretches upwards again and then sits on the right side of the buttocks.
This change is repeated several times before sitting on both legs again and leading the arms down. With the side support, only the arm is raised, the abdomen and pelvic floor are tensed. Now the bottom is pulled upwards.
Lower leg and hand support the body. Now the upper body is slowly raised and lowered again. After a little practice, the upper arm can be raised and lowered again.
For the abdominal muscle training take the right leg forward and lower the left leg. Now the right leg is taken back and the bottom is led to the lower legs. Then you go from the side position to the supine position.
The legs are positioned hip-wide and the feet touch the floor completely. You need a towel as an aid. The towel is taken in both hands with the arms stretched out.
Now the towel is placed next to the right thigh. This position is held briefly before returning to the starting position. Now the other side is on and the towel is led to the left thigh. This change can now be made up to 10 times. You should make sure that the head is in extension of the spine.
