Guest Blog: Prepare your pelvic floor for birth

Our names are Laura and Nadia, and we’re the co-founders of birthwell!

As pelvic floor physiotherapists we saw a huge gap in the level of knowledge that people were provided about their pelvic floors, their options for pushing, their options for labouring and on top of that, how to advocate for themselves.  

So, we made it our mission to make this information more accessible and teach people how they can feel confident going into their birth, so that they can birth smarter and not harder!

Today, we’re honoured to be a guest blog writer to share how to prepare for birth from a pelvic floor physiotherapy perspective, and why this might be an important aspect of your birth prep. 

Let’s dive in and start with two of the biggest things we think you should know to physically prepare for your birth: 

Number one: you need to understand how to connect with your core and your pelvic floor. 

Now when people hear that, they usually start wondering; should I start doing kegels to prepare for birth? And our answer to this is actually no.  The biggest role that your pelvic floor plays during birth is to relax and stretch for baby to pass through the birth canal. 

Doing a kegel is a contraction of the pelvic floor, and doing this during birth will make the space that the baby has to move through smaller, so it is more valuable to be able to lengthen out the pelvic floor during a push. This is why we always teach our patients to relax & lengthen their pelvic floor before we work on any type of kegel exercises.  This is a perfect way to use your pelvic floor to make your birth work for you. 

The other muscle that we love to help train in preparation for birth is the transverse abdominus.  This muscle is deep in your abdominal wall and it runs horizontally like a built in corset.  This muscle is key to helping get the baby around the pubic bone and into the birth canal.  Learning how to engage this muscle during your pregnancy is so important to build the brain-muscle connection, so that during pushing you can use more muscle technique than brute force (we’re looking at you purple pushing…) So, in preparation for birth, we always recommend strengthening your transverse abdominus and learning how to relax your pelvic floor.

Number two: we always recommend spending time learning how to push and getting feedback about how effectively you are pushing.  

One thing we spend a lot of time doing in the lead up to delivery is practicing how to push, how to use different breathing techniques and how to push in different positions.  We’re big believers that if you have had an opportunity to know what feels good for your body, it’s much easier for you to advocate for what you want during your birth.

There’s so much research that supports birthing positions off your back, and there are many positions to choose from.  And when you’ve had the opportunity to try them out with coaching and encouragement, knowing what you might need in your birth becomes a whole lot easier.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to physically preparing for birth, but in the interest of keeping this email readable, these are the two most important places to start! 

Now, you might be wondering, that all sounds great, so what does this birth prep look like or how do I get that? 

At birthwell, we’ve got a few options to help you prepare for birth:

Both Laura & Nadia see patient’s one on one pelvic floor physiotherapy in Kitchener at Encompass Health and Wellness.   These sessions include developing a personalized plan to help suit your birth prep needs, and may or may not include an internal pelvic floor examination depending on your comfort level, medical history etc.  

Number of appointments can range from any number of appointments, including just 1-2 sessions of education, or weekly sessions leading up to your birth depending on what you need.  These sessions can be submitted under physiotherapy benefits for Ontario residents. 

If pelvic floor physiotherapy isn’t your jam, we also have a very comprehensive e-book that is designed to walk you through everything you need to know to prepare your pelvic floor for birth.  It includes exercises to learn how to use your pelvic floor and core, labour position practice, pushing practice, partner pain relief techniques and a guide to postpartum care.  You can find it here. 

Lastly, if you’re not sure where to start, we’ve also got several free resources + the birthwell podcast which we would invite you to check out! Our top five tips to birth guide is full of some easy to implement items that you can start doing today to prepare your pelvic floor for birth. 

We hope this gives you a foundation to prepare your pelvic floor for birth and we’re always here to support in any way you need! 

Here’s to birthing smarter and not harder,

Love Laura & Nadia