Prenatal Womens Health Physiotherapy

Pregnancy is often the biggest change a Womans body will go through in her entire life. There are the physical changes of your pelvis, ribs and hips as well as postural changes, stretching of your ligaments and an increased load on your pelvic floor. Alongside this there are altered sleep patterns, an added mental load and of course the hormonal changes!

There is strong evidence that having a Womens Health Physiotherapist as part of the health care team throughout your pregnancy can keep you feeling good during pregnancy, improve your birth outcome and give you the best chance of an optimal Post Natal recovery.

Conditions treated at Rebound

  • Lower back pain

  • Pelvic girdle pain

  • Carpal tunnel syndrome

  • How to safely stay active during pregnancy (for both low and high risk pregnancies)

  • How to manage varicose veins

  • Incontinence

  • Prolapse

  • Prep for birth

  • Reducing risk of perineal tears

  • Setting up a ‘recovery plan’ for the first six weeks once Bub is here

How can a Womens Health Physiotherapist help you prepare for birth?

Aside from helping you manage any aches and pains a womens health physio can help you put together a safe exercise program for your pregnancy, as well as help you prepare for birth. This includes things such as:

- Assessing your pelvic floor

- Screening for a high tone pelvic floor that could impact your birth

- Teaching you and providing you with an individual pelvic floor exercise program leading up to birth. This also often involves breathing exercises, which if you are doing something like a calm birth course, can link in nicely.

There is strong evidence that working with a Physiotherapist to help you prepare for birth can improve your birth, decrease the risk of tearing, and give you the best chance at having a good recovery.

What can I expect at my first appointment?

Your assessment and treatment will depend upon your presenting condition. We will start with taking a confidential and detailed history of your health and general wellbeing followed by asking specific questions that relate to your condition or concern.

During the assessment we may ask personal questions about your bladder and bowel control, lower back/pelvic pain, sexual history and other questions related to general wellbeing. Whilst these sensitive issues are often difficult to discuss, understanding the onset and extent of your symptoms and how your daily life is affected is essential in determining your treatment.

Dependent on your presentation, the physiotherapist may assess your lumbar spine, abdominal and pelvic area. Assessment of the pelvic floor muscles can be performed externally via abdominal real time ultrasound assessment. This provides detailed information relevant to pelvic floor muscle tone, strength, endurance, proprioception and absence or presence of a prolapse. Assessment and treatment can be modified or ceased at any point if you are feeling uncomfortable. A management and/or treatment plan with an individualised home program will be discussed with you after your assessment.

Don’t suffer in silence! If you have a women’s health problem, now’s the time to do something about it.