Pregnancy, The Pelvic Floor & Pilates

Pregnancy is an exciting, beautiful, but sometimes overwhelming and challenging time, especially physically. We recommend Pilates during pregnancy, and also after pregnancy, but how can specific Pelvic Floor Pilates workouts help? It can be a time when we don’t know what is safe to do, we have minimal energy and don’t know where to focus it and we can read very contradictory advice. Pelvic floor and Pilates have come to the forefront, being recommended widely and often. However, women often think ‘well I don’t know where my pelvic floor is or how to contract it’ and ‘I’ve tried Pilates before and well….its boring!’ I’m hoping to try and help with these two common thoughts and show why Pilates is so beneficial to a pregnant woman, and as the wonderful ladies at Dynamic Pilates show Pilates is much more than lying on a mat, which is often the misconception.

The Pelvic Floor

So let’s start with the pelvic floor…and a bit of anatomy. This image is an aerial view looking down into the pelvis showing the pelvic floor in light pink extending from the pubic bone, at the front of the pelvis, to the coccyx at the base of the spine. It wraps around the urethra, vagina and bowel keeping us continent and contributing to sexual pleasure. It also relaxes to allow us to open our bladder and bowels – so pretty important!