Congratulations on your pregnancy!
It’s ideal to schedule your first pelvic health appointment right after your 20–22-week morphology scan. This is what we cover during your session.
Discussing Your Goals and Concerns
We begin by asking your goals and any concerns you have about your pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Many of our clients feel a mix of excitement and nerves about childbirth. Our goal is to prepare you for the birth, support your recovery, and address any issues that arise along the way.
Your Pelvic Health History
We will ask about your overall pelvic health, general health, and family history. This includes questions about your bladder, bowels, sexual function, and any previous births. This information helps us identify any potential risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction that may need attention and guides your personalised assessment.
A Pelvic Floor Assessment
If you’re unsure how to engage your pelvic floor muscles, don’t worry—we’ll ensure you get the hang of it and feel confident. We assess your coordination (including your ability to contract and relax your pelvic floor muscles), strength, and ability to push effectively for birth. During this appointment, we also take baseline pelvic floor measurements, which we review again later in your pregnancy. These measurements help us identify any potential risks or areas where you may need extra focus to prepare for birth.
Your Plan
During this consultation we will create a personalised plan that includes advice, education and exercises you to help you work towards your goals. Our next session will be around 34 weeks, where we’ll focus more on birth preparation and recovery.
Your 34 week pregnancy appointment
These sessions are the most exciting! You are welcome to bring your birth partner to this appointment.
We focus on using the latest evidence-based strategies to prepare you for labour, birth, and the postpartum period, all tailored to your personal goals. This includes discussion around the most common concerns around birth such as risks of tearing, pelvic floor dysfunction, abdominal separation and how to address these.
We also reassess your pelvic floor function and measurements, and offer practical coaching on second-stage pushing, as well as teach you and your partner perineal massage techniques (and make sure you get some hands-on practice!). We can also help you with birthing positions and pain relief techniques, and have Labour TENS machines available for hire.
And for after bub arrives, we provide tips on postnatal care, abdominal separation, return to exercise and intercourse, and any other concerns you have.
If you are having a caesarean section birth, we’ll guide you through the essential steps for the first 24 hours, one week, and six weeks postpartum.
Given the amount of information, it might be challenging to cover everything in one session. That’s why we typically schedule a few appointments leading up to your delivery, focusing on your specific goals from pelvic floor physiotherapy.
