The first time I heard of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy, I was a second-year grad student at Columbia University in New York City. My first thought was “Weird and kind of gross; Who would want to do that?” Well, here I am, about 9 years later, specializing in the pelvic floor, pregnancy, and postpartum rehab. And, I’m LOVING it!
This first blog post is designed to explain how I got into this field, why Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is important, and how it can help YOU!
So, about me: I always wanted to be a physical therapist and had a special passion for moms and babies. The gift of life is so precious! Experiencing pregnancy and having a new baby is such an exciting time in a women’s life. Because of this passion, I took the Pelvic Floor Specialty course at Columbia University, even though I never imagined I’d actually be pursuing that passion.
After grad school, I was moving to Pittsburgh and saw a job opening for Women’s Health. I applied and got the job! I learned so much and absolutely loved it. Not many people can say they loved their first jobs :). During my 6 years at this company, I had 2 babies of my own. I got to experience the joys and challenges of pregnancy and postpartum and realized firsthand how important pelvic floor physical therapy is. During my first pregnancy, I had hip and back pain and then in the postpartum period, had prolapse symptoms and some pelvic pain. Not fun! With my second pregnancy, I had incontinence symptoms during the 1st trimester when puking over the porcelain throne. Postpartum, I again had prolapse symptoms and had SIJ pain (sacroiliac joint) that limited my ability to walk, climb stairs and lift my children. Doing what I knew from being a pelvic floor physical therapist and going to physical therapy myself helped so much! This further solidified my passion and I knew I was in the right field.
About The Pelvic Floor
So what exactly is the Pelvic Floor? And what is Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy? The pelvic floor is the group of muscles that support your internal organs in a hammock fashion. They run from the pubic bone to the tailbone and are between the hip bones. Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is a specialty area of physical therapy that addresses pain and dysfunction as it relates to the muscles of the pelvic floor, the abdominal, and the hip and back – technically, we address the whole body to help YOU get back to doing what you love.
So what do we actually treat? Many things!! It may be pelvic pain, pain with sex, or chronic pain related to endometriosis. It may be when a woman becomes pregnant for the first time and has back/hip/pelvic pain, incontinence, or prolapse issues. Or perhaps, it’s in the postpartum period when mom continues to have incontinence issues or prolapse symptoms, has a diastasis recti, has pain with sex due to tearing during vaginal delivery, has C-section scar pain, or is having back/hip/pelvic pain that is limiting function. Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy can help with all of this!
Unfortunately, many people have never heard of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy until they themselves start having problems with their own pelvic floor. Oftentimes, I find that people are nervous to talk to their providers about their symptoms, are embarrassed or they don’t get referred to us when they do mention their symptoms! This is NOT okay. Please reach out to me or another provider in your area for help. Research shows that pelvic floor physical therapy is effective!
Check out this article supporting Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy!