What is the Pelvic Floor?
The pelvic floor is a large sheet of muscles between your legs, from your pubic bone at the front to your tailbone between your buttocks. These muscles help keep in place your bladder, vagina, uterus and bowel, additionally they help to control the function of these organs.
How do pelvic floor problems occur?
Pelvic floor problems can occur when the pelvic floor muscles are stretched, weakened or too tight.
Pregnancy, childbirth and aging can put these muscles through their paces. Across the world, millions of women suffer from incontinence and related
conditions, contributing to a massive emotional, physical, social and financial costs and stress.
How can Chiropractic help?
A new ground breaking study was recently approved for publication, and the results were:
- Pregnant women who received chiropractic care had a greater ability to relax their pelvic floor muscles at rest.
- This relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles may mean that chiropractic care could be of benefit to pregnant women, as it may help them have a natural vaginal delivery.
Why this study matters.
Your pelvic floor muscles are integral to the birth process, and to the prevention of incontinence and other issues, which makes this an exciting piece of knowledge for chiropractors and for women receiving chiropractic care. Chiropractic care may actually enhance your chances of having a natural, complication free childbirth. This is better for both mother and baby.
In addition, for non-pregnant women – it is possible that adjustments improve the condition of the pelvic floor muscles, enables greater sensory-motor control, and potentially decreases the risk of future stress urinary incontinence, incontinence and prolapse.
References:
Pelvic floor functional changes with spinal manipulation in pregnant and non-pregnant women: A pilot study. JMPT 2016. In Press.
http://welladjusted.co/blog/2014/05/01/be-the-master-of-your-pelvic-floor/
