How healthy is your pelvic floor?

Now that I’ve become a mom, I spend time around other moms. For Carin I’m curious to learn more about pelvic floor health and of those pelvic floors around me. This means that in the coming period I’m going to investigate and explore this topic and share it with you. I hope you follow my research on this!

Last summer when I moved from Hannover to the ‘Farm’, I joined a post-pregnancy course (called Rückbildungskursin German) at my midwife’s practice. This is reimbursed by the healthcare insurance. Women in 6-8 weeks after delivery do this course to strengthen the core muscles and get healthy again.

Honestly, before I joined this course, I wasn’t aware at all about the importance of pelvic floor exercise  after delivering a baby. You can’t escape it, really. At this point I don’t have urine loss myself. Just like many other women of the baby boom generation, I also know that without doing anything in 20-30 years of time I will have to run to the toilet and be too late anyway.

So that’s for now about me. But what about the pelvic floor muscles around me? When kick starting the conversation to my family members it flows easily. They share with me their stories about going for trips with a group of women aged 50 and first they look for is the location of the restroom. Others tell me “Well, if I’m really honest I have urine loss when lifting something heavy or while dancing like a maniac…” Or they recognize it from their mother: “My mom often has to pee so badly and it she is often too late”.

I decided to act on it and invite the other moms from the post pregnancy Ruckbildungskurs class for a ‘tea party with Carin‘. They are all curious about this new special pants that will save their pelvic floor muscles. Still I noticed some discomfort when I ask about their pelvic floor health. Is it okay to talk about it? Urine loss is a taboo, having to admit something lands in the wrong place some time is not easy… Who out of the women around me themselves has urine loss is still unclear to me but research proved that at least 1 in 3 women have urine loss. But at least the conversation has started!

By Nikee Corstens

Hi, my name is Nikée, I am 27 years old and mother of a daughter Julie. Before I became a mother, I worked internationally as a model and studied theater therapy. After my studies I took a break from my job in Hannover (Germany) with my husband and baby. Nowadays I live in a little town in Germany which I will call ‘the Farm’. I'm curious to learn more about pelvic floor health and how women around me experience this in daily life.