Pregnancy and Post-Pregnancy Don’t Have to be Painful: Protect Your Pelvic Floor

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders, and many of those will undergo surgery. Pelvic floor disorders include pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence or urinary frequency and urgency and anal incontinence (accidental bowel leakage). Dr. Whitney Ellsworth, a physical therapist and owner of Balanced Pelvic & Physical Therapy in Tulsa, wants to raise awareness of pelvic floor disorders and to let women know that help is available.

Dr. Whitney Ellsworth. Photo by Taylor Romaine

Ellsworth holds a doctorate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oklahoma State University. A physical therapist for 17 years, Ellsworth has spent 10 of those years specializing in pelvic floor dysfunction.

A mom of four, Ellsworth’s interest in pelvic health began after the birth of her second child. “I had a lot of pelvic floor dysfunction,” she says. “I went back to exercising after the doctor said I was good to go at six weeks. I quickly realized I wasn’t doing OK.”

Pregnancy & Exercise

The bootcamp exercise that Ellsworth loved caused pelvic organ prolapse because she went back to it too soon. “I felt like it could have all been prevented with more knowledge about a safe return to exercise,” she says. Because she felt that women like her need more information and more preventative care as well as postpartum care, Ellsworth completed certification courses to specialize in pelvic care, found a mentor and eventually opened a practice, much of it focusing on postpartum care.

“I get to see a lot of women during pregnancy,” Ellsworth says. “They may come to me for back pain, and I may transition them to postpartum care.”

She says awareness of pelvic health has grown over the last 10 years, thanks largely to social media, but she believes that postpartum care is still lacking in the United States.

“I get a lot of women self-referring,” Ellsworth says. “For example, I have a woman who is a weightlifter who wants to stay safe during pregnancy, and she wants to return to lifting.”

Ellsworth says she would like to see women, especially those who want to return to exercise, get a postpartum wellness exam between six and 12 weeks because six weeks is too early to know if their bodies are ready. If they are not ready, women may just give up on exercise altogether.

“For me, it was like a spiral event,” Ellsworth says. “I couldn’t exercise, so I had more postpartum anxiety because I couldn’t exercise.”

Pregnancy, Pain & Pee

She also wants women to pay attention to pain. During pregnancy, women may experience pubic pain, which can be debilitating as the pregnancy progresses, even to the point of being unable to walk. Lower back pain is another common complaint, which she says is typically due to an imbalance in the hips or core, which leads to a tight pelvic floor.

After giving birth, women may experience pain, incontinence, pelvic prolapse or pain during intercourse.

“I don’t want women to think of pregnancy pain as ‘normal’,” Ellsworth says. “I think it’s your body’s way of telling you that something is off. A lot of women think it’s normal to pee when you sneeze after you’ve had a baby. It’s a sign that something’s wrong.

Correcting Problems

Because the pelvic floor is impacted by the hips and the deep core (the area beneath the upper abdominal muscles), Ellsworth does a muscular skeletal evaluation on her patients. “It’s important to know what’s going on with the hips and the deep core, which is key because it gets very stretched out during pregnancy. You have to make an effort to keep it strong.”

To correct imbalances, core and hip issues that affect the pelvic floor, Ellsworth has created her own program to align the pelvis, and to strengthen the glutes and deep core.

Ellsworth believes that women often suffer unnecessarily. She helped a young woman who had been having pain during intercourse for the first five years of her marriage. Ellsworth says she had her feeling better in two weeks.

“She thought the pain was normal, but it can be fixed,” Ellsworth says.

Don’t Wait

“If you have pain, even mild pain, get it checked out,” Ellsworth advises. “Call your doctor. If you’re feeling good, be sure to maintain strength of mobility and flexibility during pregnancy. My mission is that I want people to have more awareness and knowledge of what’s normal and what’s not.”

To that end, Ellsworth is working on an online program for women using the techniques she has developed.