Knowledge Of The Pelvic Floor

It is one of these moments when you just log onto facebook and found this particular workshop/event and your instinct tells you that this is something you may be interested regardless if your friends are joining you and indeed…a talk on Pelvic floor information, good bladder & bowel habits, good defecation dynamics and finally, with all the said information, recommended pelvic floor exercises for women. How appropriate it is to attend this event on Woman’s Day 8th Mar ’17?

Through many workshops I have attended, most of the information given sounds like you should know better as it is right in front of you everyday but many times we fail to mindfully remind ourselves to keep up with the good habits and stop the bad ones.

During this Pelvic Floor Workshop, besides the usual advices of drinking 2 litres of fluid per day and reduce caffeine intake were re-iterated by the presenter, a few interesting points were raised where most of us were taught the wrong habit from generations to generations…therefore, sharing with you in this article…

“Try not to go to the toilet ‘just in case’ or when it is a habit to go”. Continuing to do so will not instill good controlling of your bladder as you age. Your bladder could then only hold such small amount of urine if this controlling of bladder is not continually being practiced through your daily lifestyle. Once we hit our 40’s onwards (According to the National Association for Continence, one in five individuals over the age of 40 suffer from overactive bladder or urgency or frequency symptoms, some of whom leak urine before reaching a restroom.), the less control of bladder we have and with such small amount we can hold in our bladder, it would be a chore to have to keep visiting the toilet in our senior years.

“Sit on the toilet, don’t hover”. Well…it is difficult to sit on some toilets where the toilet rims are wet and you never know what contributed to that…mmm. Yoga chair pose comes into handy for me in these situations. Well, guess what…it’s a bad idea….the problem with “hovering” above the toilet seat while urinating is that the muscles of your pelvic floor and pelvic girdle (i.e. your hip rotators, buttocks, back, and abs) are extremely tense. This muscular tension makes it difficult for urine to flow easily, often requiring you to push or “bear down” slightly to initiate urination. So, if sanitation is a concern, use a toilet seat liner. If a liner is unavailable, line the toilet seat with toilet paper… Or just take a risk and sit down on the seat! A person’s bottom and upper thighs, which are covered most of the day, are usually much cleaner than a person’s hands, and we tend to have no qualms about social situations that require a handshake.

Then the presenter explained prolapsed bladder whereby we will not be able to detect any grade 1 symptoms if it occurs during this stage. Unfortunately not many women in Singapore would see a doctor or gynecologist to check on their bladder unless there are obvious symptoms.

Mindfulness practices are gaining popularity and even appear to be quite trendy nowadays. We talk about mindfulness in Yoga so why not also be mindful while going to the bathroom? Yes, mindful toileting…Namaste.