How to conduct perineal exercises in pregnancy
The time from knowing about the pregnancy to postpartum can be very stressful and uncertain. Hopes and dreams can quickly become fear of the big day or of the new family member and the responsibilities associated with them. Activities that were a key part of your life now may be a distant memory and now you are preparing to prepare as best as possible; the roosting instinct has kicked in. You have sorted out the baby’s room, cleaned everything twice, bought clothes they will grow into and assessed their role and yours for the first 18 years of their life.
So, what’s next, what are you missing? Well, you now need to conduct perineal exercises in pregnancy from week 34 onward to relax and create elastic tissue at the base of the vagina. This stops taring occurring during child birth or the need for a surgical cut prior to tearing occurring. Around 85% of women suffer this with 15% of them needing surgical procedures to repair the damage caused. Some of the main issues are not just the pain and the months of healing that is required but also the life changing impacts that are also caused. These include anal leakage and the need to wear adult dippers for life as well as psychological impacts such as PTSD.
An exercise that is easier than you think
Perineal exercises in pregnancy sounds like hard work, especially when you read the word exercise however, it’s more like a massage that only takes 10 minutes and on alternating days in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Hopefully they sound a little easier now however don’t discredit them, for a hundred years now they have been widely known in the medical community and taught to midwifes. This is because of the large number of tares and the long-term implications; thus, you need to be strict with these exercises to reduce pain, make the big day easier and allow you to recover much quicker, allowing you to get on with your life.
Aides
There are many different ways to conduct the exercise including by hand however in late-stage pregnancy it is much more difficult due to the baby reducing flexibility. This is where a perineal massager becomes useful as you will need to put pressure on the perineal region and even if you can reach it can be difficult to do this without an aide. These also allow for lubricants to be gravity fed to the tip of the device to reduce mess and give better control during the exercise. When using a perineal massager, it is important to use perineal oils that are specifically designed both to both lubricate and hydrate the skin, opposed to mineral oils and petroleum-based lubricants that dry the skin and can help initiate tares during birth.
Summary
Your next steps after getting the roost together is to enable yourself to give birth through the use of a perineal massager that is specifically designed to work with your body contours to stretch the perineal region reducing the potential for tares to occur. As perineal exercises in pregnancy only take a few minutes every other day from week 34 onwards to get significant results in flexibility and approved by medical councils and midwifes there really isn’t a reason not to conduct these exercises. Failure to maintain the exercises may result in you being one of the 15% that have serious tares that require surgical procedures to help repair the area, or the 85% who may not need surgical procedures but experience tares that will take months to heal and impact long term health. Remember to keep up with these exercises and they will help you during the big day and beyond.
