0:10 pregnancy and childbirth can be an amazing
0:13 amazing
0:16 experience I remember how excited I was
0:20 when I first found out I was pregnant
0:22 and I couldn't wait till the day I was
0:25 going to hold my child in my arms
0:27 arms
0:31 but along with the excitement
0:33 can come some physical
0:36 problems that can become
0:40 permanent like back pain pelvic pain a
0:43 leaky bladder and a flabby
0:51 pregnant a special bond forms between a
0:54 mother and a daughter I remember all the
0:58 great advice my mom gave me and I still
1:05 and one day when I was complaining about
1:07 morning sickness she said don't worry
1:10 Maryann I know how to handle
1:13 it okay just put a plate of Saltines on
1:16 your nights side table and every time
1:18 you get out of bed eat
1:23 it okay didn't work but okay she also
1:26 suggested I use supportive
1:29 shoes and then she bought me a pregnancy
1:31 girdle and this thing was huge and made
1:33 out of rubber and I was supposed to stop
1:36 back pain or prevent it and I never used
1:39 it but she did give me lots of good
1:41 advice because she wanted to make sure I
1:43 had a healthy
1:46 pregnancy and she wanted to also make
1:47 sure I was fully prepared to take care
1:50 of her
1:52 grandchild so that's why she shared so
1:55 much information about what it was like
1:57 to be be pregnant herself and gave me
2:01 great tips on how to to prevent um or
2:04 how to take care of my newborn
2:07 baby but what I
2:10 wonder with all of
2:13 the tips and advice my mother gave me about
2:14 about
2:17 pregnancy why didn't she warn me about
2:21 what might happen after I
2:23 deliver I mean she had plenty of
2:25 opportunities why didn't she tell me
2:28 during one of our millionth of trips go
2:29 while we went shopping for nursery
2:33 furniture and the baby's clothing or one
2:36 of the many times we sat in a restaurant
2:39 and instead she would reminisce about
2:41 her pregnancies and what it was like to
2:43 carry me and tell me the same story for
2:45 the hundredth
2:47 time I
2:50 wondered did my mom ever think
2:54 about the physical punch my body would
2:57 take after
2:59 childbirth I know she meant well I know
3:01 know you know maybe she just thought I
3:09 ones who wouldn't experience a problem
3:11 problem
3:14 or maybe she thought there isn't
3:17 anything she can do about it now so why
3:19 worry her thanks
3:22 Ma so as a woman's health physical
3:25 therapist what I've noticed is um and
3:28 discovered is that women assume that
3:31 their bodies are just going to magically
3:33 just snap back together right after
3:35 child birth and if you've been through
3:37 child birth you know this isn't
3:41 true um or realistic and what you might
3:43 not understand is
3:48 that after child birth your body is less
3:51 efficient and left and the muscles are
3:53 weaker the muscles that used to support
3:56 your pelvis and belly are now all
3:58 stretched out and a lot weaker than they
4:01 were before you were pregnant
4:04 and this can leave your body um and make
4:06 it more unstable and can lead to developing
4:08 developing
4:11 injuries and it takes time A lot more
4:13 time than you think to regain the
4:18 muscles
4:20 so women
4:23 beware when you go for your six week
4:25 postpartum checkup to your doctor or
4:27 health care provider and they say
4:29 everything looks normal you can go back
4:32 back to all your normal activities it
4:35 doesn't mean your body fully
4:39 recovered the danger is moms usually
4:42 tend to focus on taking care of their
4:45 babies and ignore their own personal
4:48 needs they go back to business as usual
4:51 they start doing their pre-pregnancy
4:54 activities and with the also add the
4:57 added um responsibility taking care of a newborn
4:58 newborn baby
5:05 and this is just too much too soon by
5:08 doing so women are at risk of injuring
5:12 themselves now the best way to prevent
5:15 injury is by going to a physical
5:18 therapist for a thorough evaluation when
5:20 you're six weeks postpartum that's six
5:22 weeks after giving
5:24 birth that way you can find out where
5:28 your body is and how to gradually
5:31 gradually
5:35 um add and safely add um activities to
5:36 your schedule until you get to your normal
5:43 activities but here's the thing that
5:46 really drives physical therapist
5:50 crazy new mothers often think and are
5:54 often told it's normal to have back
5:57 pain it's normal to have pelvic
6:00 pain and so what if you leak a little
6:03 urine it's normal after child birth it
6:07 might be common but it's not
6:09 normal and it's not normal to live with these
6:11 these
6:14 problems gals you got to listen to me if
6:15 you leak
6:18 urine it means the support system that's
6:20 holding up your bladder has a fault in
6:22 it and you need to seek help and go get it
6:24 it
6:27 fixed and if you have pain guess what it
6:30 means something's wrong
6:31 please try to take the time out to
6:33 figure out what's causing it and get
6:36 some help to get rid of it if your
6:38 body's screamy at you please don't ignore
6:46 it so that's not the whole story re
6:49 research has shown that these problems can
6:50 can
6:54 linger one year after childbirth 77% of
6:57 women reported having back
7:02 pain 49% % of women reported having
7:04 incontinence so that means one year
7:08 after childbirth 3/4 of the women said
7:11 that they had back pain and half of them had
7:13 had
7:16 incontinence 18 months after child birth
7:19 24% of women complained of having
7:22 painful sex now do you think a guy would
7:29 that a third of the women also
7:31 complained to flabby tummies now the
7:33 medical term for that is called
7:37 diastasis reti and that's where the uh
7:41 six-pack abdominal muscles spread and
7:43 this can make a woman look pregnant when she's
7:45 she's
7:47 not but that's not the problem the
7:50 problem is that that condition can also
7:58 incontinence and
8:00 and
8:04 Believe It or Not these problems um
8:06 these conditions can show up as problems
8:09 years later so even if you've made it
8:12 through childbirth without any
8:14 problems it doesn't mean you're in the all
8:15 all
8:18 clear that's why I tell women once
8:21 postpartum you're always
8:25 postpartum moms are often shocked when I
8:28 tell U explain to them that the
8:30 incontinence or the pain that they're
8:32 experiencing today could be directly
8:33 related to their child birthing
8:45 ago my best advice to new moms is don't
8:49 do too much too soon I'd like to tell
8:51 you a story about a patient of mine and
8:52 we're going to call her
8:55 Megan she had a great pregnancy without
8:58 any complications and a terrific
9:00 delivery experience by the time she was
9:02 going for her six week postpartum
9:05 checkup she felt good she was told
9:07 everything looked good you can go back
9:09 to your normal activities you have the
9:12 green light so Megan being Megan she was
9:14 very excited she went back to the gym
9:17 and resumed her her
9:21 um her gym program and then also all of
9:23 her other household
9:25 tasks and everything was going well
9:28 until suddenly without warning she felt
9:30 something really really
9:33 strange she said I suddenly wet my
9:37 pants and I felt as if I had a golf ball
9:38 in my
9:41 underwear she looked at a miror and was
9:44 absolutely horrified she saw something
9:47 poking out of her
9:50 vagina she called her doctor made an
9:51 immediate appointment because she knew
9:55 something was terribly wrong and was
9:57 diagnosed with pelvic organ
10:00 prolapse and that a condition where the
10:03 pelvic organs like the bladder and the
10:04 rectum can move
10:07 downwards and this can become a serious
10:09 problem and lead to
10:13 incontinence chronic pain and a lot of times
10:14 times
10:17 surgeries so even though Megan had no
10:20 problems right after childbirth she
10:23 developed them because she put too much
10:35 so anyway so after three months of
10:36 physical therapy she had a great
10:41 recovery and this was uh lucky for Megan
10:43 and it was good that she did this
10:45 because she was wise and sought out
10:47 Physical Therapy treatment but this
10:50 isn't the norm do you know that most new
10:52 moms don't consider going for physical
10:56 therapy treatment if they're in pain or
10:57 even if they have to live with the
10:59 embarrassment of incontinence
11:01 and you might be saying to yourself why
11:04 why aren't they going and the answer is
11:06 really simple they don't know it's an
11:10 option and I know I've been
11:12 there um after my I'm going to share
11:15 something that's a little personal um
11:17 after my first
11:20 pregnancy I suffered with uh chronic
11:22 back pain and a leaky bladder for over
11:25 two decades and I didn't know there was
11:26 anything that I could do about
11:29 it until about 10 years ago I read an
11:32 article about how French women all go
11:35 for physical therapy treatment after
11:38 each baby for 2 to three months to
11:39 rebuild the strength in their pelvic
11:42 floor and
11:44 abdominals and the French have been
11:46 doing this for
11:47 decades I didn't know that there was
11:50 treatment for this so I became
11:53 determined to fix my problem and for a
11:54 couple of years I tried several
11:56 different programs including Physical
12:01 Therapy biof feedback acupuncture
12:04 meditation various exercise programs I
12:06 did keegle exercises until I was purple
12:10 in the face and nothing
12:15 helped so I decided I had to find a
12:19 solution and um I did tons of
12:22 research and countless clinical
12:26 trials and as a result of what I learned
12:30 I created an exercise program that works
12:33 and that was it I solved my problems I
12:35 am fully healed and now I can
12:38 offer um to help others do the
12:41 same my program comes in the form of a
12:44 book and can be used in conjunction with
12:47 physical therapy or a woman can do it on her
12:48 her
12:51 own it's unfortunate but in the United
12:55 States most uh mothers go home or sent
12:59 home without proper information and
13:04 support about postpartum rehab or
13:06 Rehabilitation the focus of Medical Care
13:08 goes from the baby to the mother from
13:13 the mother to the baby and um I remember
13:15 when I was leaving the hospital my
13:17 doctor gave me a pat on the back for a
13:21 job well done and a piece of paper with
13:23 a ke with Keele exercises on it that was
13:26 it and this is really sad because
13:29 studies now show that these problems are are
13:30 are
13:32 preventable they can be reversed or at
13:35 least made better better by the proper
13:37 Medical Care by a women's health physical
13:39 physical
13:44 therapist it's essential that we focus
13:46 on the on the physical health of new
13:51 moms to prevent future chronic
13:53 problems that's why I believe in
13:55 providing women with the right
13:59 information and opinion and options so
14:00 that they
14:03 can make the decision to control their
14:05 own health and
14:09 life physical therapy is not common or
14:12 not is uncommon for child birth after
14:16 child birth but I'd like to make it the new
14:16 new
14:19 norm and I and we can make it the new
14:23 Norm if you help spread this message
14:26 with your sisters friends and colleagues
14:28 you might want to give them three pieces
14:32 of advice new moms please don't do too
14:33 much too
14:36 soon it might be common to have physical
14:38 problems after child
14:41 birth but it's but it's not normal to
14:42 live with
14:45 them and physical therapy can help a
14:48 woman fully recover from childbirth and
14:58 [Applause] it
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