One day, OT Lily asked me shyly: "After giving birth to Zhong Ji's brother, laughing, coughing and even exercising will leak urine!" ! And it seems more and more uncontrollable, so embarrassing! 」
Compared with other parenting topics, postpartum urinary incontinence may be the most common problem for mothers, but it is also the most difficult problem!
Be careful when coughing, you can't relax and laugh when you are happy, and even if you finally find time to exercise well, you should always pay attention to whether you will accidentally leak urine. As soon as mothers bear the pressure of parenting, they have to face all kinds of inconveniences brought by their own bodies, but because of shyness or embarrassment, they don't know how to ask for help and dare not discuss with each other, which makes many mothers exhausted.
So, what I want to tell you today is how to maintain your physical and mental health, establish a correct concept about the above situation: "stress urinary incontinence", and reduce the impact of urinary incontinence on your life through your own training at home.
Postpartum female urinary incontinence
According to clinical statistics, more than half of pregnant women will leak urine during pregnancy. Among them, nearly half of mothers will continue to be troubled by urinary incontinence after giving birth. However, less than 20% people will seek medical assistance.
Why? Because some mothers will think that it is normal to have only mild urinary incontinence, and it should be nothing, so don't worry too much. However, if we do not face up to postpartum urinary incontinence for a long time, it will seriously affect our daily activities, social and mental health.
Even when you get older, it may cause more serious pelvic problems.
"What? ! "OT Lily exclaimed," It has been two years since I gave birth to Zhong Ji's brother. Is there any salvation now? ! 」
"It's not too late for treatment. Let's talk about pelvic floor muscles first! 」
Pelvic floor muscle disability
The main cause of most urinary incontinence is pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.
Pelvic floor muscle is like a spring bed, which is used to support our internal organs and help control defecation. It is also closely related to breathing, sexual behavior, pregnancy and delivery.
After delivery, pelvic floor muscles will be affected by endocrine, thus changing muscle tension. At this time, coughing, laughing and even lifting heavy objects are easy to cause urine leakage. Severe pelvic floor muscle disability may even cause prolapse, low back pain, constipation and other problems.
"Before I gave birth to a baby, many people said that you could do Kegel exercises to practice the strength of the footwall, which would make you feel better. Can I do Kegel exercise to improve urine leakage? " OT lily continues to ask.
Kaigl, did you do the right thing?
Kegel exercise can almost be said to be a national fitness exercise in the mother world. But looking at the articles and videos on the Internet, are you still wondering if you are doing the right thing? (In fact, there is no time to do it after giving birth! )
When you do it, do you want to practice with an abdominal clip?
The muscles to be induced by Kegel exercise are the deep pelvic floor muscle and the core muscle. If you contract the abdomen or clamp it hard, you may only get gluteus maximus and rectus abdominis, which is not helpful for the induction of pelvic floor muscles.
The real Kegel exercise should be to feel the muscles between the pubic bone and the coccyx, contract and pull up, and at the same time, the abdomen and * * *, there will be no excessive movements. In other words, when you induce pelvic floor muscles, if you can see that your body has great ups and downs, it is probably that you used the wrong muscles!
You can only lie down and do Kegel exercises?
Of course not. Only when lying down, other major muscles can relax, and pelvic floor muscles don't need defying gravity, so most of the entry methods will start from lying down. But in fact, in different postures, such as prone posture, sitting posture and standing posture, they are also indispensable exercises.
You can do Kegel exercise as long as you leak urine?
For most mothers with stress urinary incontinence, most of them are caused by the relaxation of pelvic floor muscle tension after delivery. Therefore, it is helpful to improve urinary incontinence by inducing pelvic floor muscle contraction through Kegel exercise.
However, there are still some mothers, in fact, because the pelvic floor muscle tension is too high, leading to related problems. At this time, it may not help to continue to do Kegel exercise. In this case, you may need to seek the help of doctors and physiotherapists to establish a training method that suits you.
What should I do to correctly induce pelvic floor muscles?
1. Imagine that in a crowded elevator, you suddenly want to fart, but you are afraid of embarrassment and hold back. This is the feeling that the pelvic floor muscles between the two ischias contract and pull up.
2. Roll the towel into a bundle and sit on the club. When the pelvic floor muscles contract, the area between the pubic bone and coccyx is separated from the towel and bulges upward.
3. Sitting posture, feet push down. Imagine a line in the center of your head pulling up, stretching your spine and keeping breathing. Pelvic floor muscles contract, keep going up, and then slowly relax. Remember to relax completely before you finish! The number of seconds and times can be determined according to individual circumstances, and gradually increase. The ideal situation is ten seconds at a time and three times in a group.
4. In addition to sitting and lying, you can also practice pelvic floor muscles supported by elbows and knees. In addition, core stability training can also be added at the same time to make pelvic floor muscles more stable in various postures.
In addition to Kegel sports, you can also .....
In addition to practicing Kegel exercise at home to induce pelvic floor muscles, combined with other core induction related systematic training, it can also greatly improve my physical and mental health and reduce urine leakage. For example, Pilates training and spinal spiral exercise, which are very popular in Europe and America, including mat training and equipment training, can safely and effectively help postpartum women induce core stability and help restore postpartum figure.
Of course, continuing to maintain exercise habits and helping the body and mind to be in a good balance will help the postpartum mother to control urinary incontinence.
Don't feel depressed, don't feel ashamed, and start to face it at once.
Giving birth to a life, from conception, childbirth to caring for children, every process is a challenge, and your physical and mental health is an essential element! If you also have urinary incontinence, start to face it as soon as possible, ask for help and start training. By establishing more positive ideas, exercising correctly, adjusting life and saying goodbye to urinary incontinence together!
Introduction to OT Lily Author │PT ARIEL
Graduated from Yangming University, currently working as a physical therapist in 50+ Fitness Club.
I hope to combine physical therapy with sports, so that mothers can get rid of pain and be safer and healthier.
* This article is published with the authorization of OT Lily's mother, and it is forbidden to reprint without permission.
"This article is the author's view on cooperative innovation, not his position."