AfterBabyBody-injuries to pelvic floor from childbirth

"Great, I have some muscles I didn’t know about. What’s that got to do with babies?"

Well, carrying a baby to term and then delivering the baby is like a marathon on your pelvic floor. It’s certainly a marathon our bodies are designed for – but not necessarily injury free.

Just think what your pelvic floor muscles go through when you get pregnant. The pelvic floor has to support the extra weight as you and your little bundle of joy grow and expand.

Then there’s the delivery – that’s no party for your pelvic floor! Now the pelvic floor muscles have to push and squeeze your little cutie through a fairly narrow passage. You can only imagine the strain your pelvic floor muscles, nerves, ligaments and connective tissue are under.

The most common nerve injury a woman will experience in her lifetime is pelvic nerve injury from pregnancy and delivery, claims
Dr. Roger Goldberg in Ever Since I Had My Baby.

Your pelvic floor can be even more susceptible to injury if you add some extra spice to your delivery such as:

forceps
suction
episiotomy
long, difficult delivery
a big baby
several babies at one time

Really, when you think about the physical effort to deliver a child, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the pelvic floor muscles and nerves can sometimes get a little strained, stretched or injured. But the pelvic floor is truly amazing because, in most cases, after childbirth the pelvic floor will heal on its own.