How does my women’s health physio help me prepare for birth?

Women’s health physiotherapist are experts in the pelvic floor and entire musculoskeletal system. We are well connected in the women’s health world, we know midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, obstetricians, psychologists and even more. The benefit? We can provide you with the most up-to-date evidence on birth, provide you with education on how to reduce birth trauma, and connect you to endless support networks.

We have done specialised training in preparing the body and mind for birth. This encompasses an entire body approach, creating a supportive and safe space to provide you with as much education (or as little information) as you decide, with techniques and practical tools that you will actually be able to use.

We view things from a pelvic health perspective, with our aim to reduce pelvic floor trauma and ultimately birth trauma. Less fear, less anxiety, more knowledge, and more control changes birth outcomes for you.

How will they help me?

So many ways, but to name a few:

• They educate you on the birthing process

Everyone talks about labour, dilation, waters breaking, hormones and pain relief but do you know what any of this means and what actually happens? If you don’t – you aren’t alone! We believe this is assumed knowledge, but where do people actually learn this? Movies? Their mum? My mum definitely didn’t tell me about her waters breaking.

We educate you on what the stages of labour are, what hormones are produced and how important these are for contractions, what instrumental assistance is, who is more at risk of interventions and much more. The more knowledge you have, the greater ability to understand what your body is doing for you when you are in the moment. Its scary, terrifying and nerve-racking all at the same time. Guidance and reassurance eases these feelings.

• They teach you how to push

We hear so often ‘they told me I didn’t push well’ or ‘I didn’t understand how to push’. Just like labour, pushing is something we assume we know how to do. Its never actually taught how to push your baby out. That’s where we can teach you how to push to decrease the pressure on your pelvic organs and pelvic floor muscles. This reduces your risk of perineal tearing and the cascade of interventions that may follow if the baby is not descending optimally.

• They teach you how to do perineal massage

Statistically proven to provide major benefits, including: 21% reduced risk of episiotomy, 64% reduced risk of 3rd and 4th degree tears, 70% less likely to have faecal incontinence, Reduced length of second stage of labour, 2.39 x more likely to have perineal pain postpartum if you do not perform perineal massage

See our free guide on how to do perineal massage.

• They teach you how to manage pain

Pain management strategies and distraction techniques! So many options, so many positions, so much to learn!

• They set up a postpartum plan for you to help you recover

They develop a postpartum plan to manage your pelvic floor better, improve recovery of tears and stitches and give you tips and tricks on how to get back to exercise.