Pelvic floor exercises and pregnancy

Pelvic floor exercises are good for many things, from preventing incontinence to speeding up postpartum recovery, and enjoying a better sex life. Why should you do pelvic floor exercises when you are pregnant? How can you do a pelvic floor exercise, and how many of them should you be doing?

The pelvic floor muscles play an important role in keeping your lower internal organs your bladder, bowels, and uterus in good shape. Pelvic floor exercises, also called Kegel exercises, were developed by one Dr Kegel to help women prepare for labor and delivery. Today, these exercises are well known for various benefits to both men and women, but when you are expecting a baby, you should definitely be working those pelvic floor muscles.

What are the benefits of pelvic floor exercises for pregnant women?

At a glance they are:

• Pelvic floor exercises will help prevent pregnancy incontinence.
• Having muscle control allow you to play a more active role in your labor and delivery.
• Women who regularly did pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy say that their postpartum recovery period was smooth and not as long as usual.
• Hemorrhoids are common late in pregnancy, and after giving birth. Pelvic floor exercises help you avoid those suckers.
• Finally, you'll be glad to hear that Kegels encourage perennial tears to heal quickly.

You can do pelvic floor exercises anywhere, and at any time. All you do is tense the muscles that you use when you have to wait to pee up for a few seconds, then let go, and repeat. You can do as few or many pelvic floor repetitions as you like but as with all muscle building workouts, you will have better results if you faithfully exercise every day, and do quite a few repetitions.