Show Notes
Bowel incontinence, also known as faecal incontinence, is estimated to affect up to one in ten women after childbirth. More if you include those who can’t hold wind, which may sound trivial but can obviously be pretty mortifying. Severe tears in childbirth are a common cause; third and fourth degree tears - which affect the muscle around the anus. In this episode, Helen is joined by Erica Macdonald - a listener who lives in Devon with her husband and three-year-old daughter. Erica was diagnosed with an anal injury - a severe tear - after her daughter was born and has been living with bowel incontinence ever since. She talks about the impact it's had on her life, her struggle to access support and her decision to take control of her own story: 'You know when you're pregnant and you wear a badge on the Tube? It's like me wearing a badge saying 'my bum doesn't work'. And I own that. For me it just works so much better.'
You can find out more about Sacral Nerve Stimulation here You can find the MASIC foundation here Listen to the Why Mums Don't Jump episode: Sara's Story here NICE guidelines recommend that all women who have had a vaginal birth should be offered a post birth rectal examination. Find out more > Season 5 of Why Mums Don't Jump is sponsored by IMEDicare - Pelvic Health Naturally. IMEDicare supplies a range of easy-to-use, medically approved products including Lumana incontinence leggings and running shorts, the Efemia bladder support and Enna Pelvic Ball; a discount code is available via my online affiliate shop. Sign up for the Why Mums Don't Jump email newsletter for the latest news and offers!
More from Why Mums Don't Jump
Helen is back with a one-off episode in association with IMEDicare - Pelvic Health Naturally, sponsor of season 5 of Why Mums Don't Jump. You'll hear from Vicky Grubb who's an upholsterer from Hampshire and mum to two boys. Vicky discovered she had stress incontinence when she took up tennis and then running in her mid thirties. She explains how she found a new lease of life with the Efemia bladder support - a vaginal pessary designed for stress incontinence: 'It's been life changing...I don't think I've ever leaked when I've worn it running' And Helen catches up with iMEDicare's founder Darren Breen to find out what motivated him to start the business 20 years ago, and to take a look at some of the other products that are helping people to manage their pelvic health symptoms: 'Making people aware that these devices exist is the great passion for me, because it can transform their quality of life' Season 5 of Why Mums Don't Jump is sponsored by IMEDicare - Pelvic Health Naturally. IMEDicare supplies a range of easy-to-use, medically approved products including Lumana incontinence leggings and running shorts, the Efemia bladder support and Enna Pelvic Ball; a discount code is available via the Why Mums Don't Jump online affiliate shop. Find out more about pessaries in this episode of the podcast and this episode of the podcast. Listen to this episode to find out more about what to expect at an appointment with a pelvic health physiotherapist.
Somehow it's the season 5 finale! And it's a good one! In this episode Helen speaks to the German footballer Melanie Leupolz who returned to play for Chelsea just months after giving birth to her son and to the pelvic health physiotherapist Emma Brockwell who worked with Melanie to get her back on the pitch. They talk about the unwavering support Melanie had under former Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes; a lack of female-specific research when it comes to elite sport; and how taking female health into consideration can be game-changing. We get an insight into how pelvic health conversations go down in the locker room and Melanie explains why she wanted to share her story. Buy Emma's book: Why Did No One Tell Me: How to Protect, Heal and Nurture Your Body Through Motherhood in my affiliate shop. Season 5 of Why Mums Don't Jump is sponsored by IMEDicare - Pelvic Health Naturally. IMEDicare supplies a range of easy-to-use, medically approved products including Lumana incontinence leggings and running shorts, the Efemia bladder support and Enna Pelvic Ball; a discount code is available via my online affiliate shop. Sign up for the Why Mums Don't Jump email newsletter for the latest news and offers!
It’s so easy to get confused about pelvic floor health. One minute you know nothing about it, the next you’ve fallen down a social media rabbit hole of do’s and don’ts.
POP Club returns! You may remember, way back in season 1, that Helen met up with a couple of local mums who had pelvic organ prolapse and birth injury in common. They became friends, she persuaded them to speak on the podcast and well, the rest is history! In this typically chaotic episode, Helen catches up with Skye and Jess (not their real names) to find out where they're at with their pelvic floor problems. There's frustration over hospital care, nerve damage (pudendal neuralgia) and a missed birth injury. They discuss symptoms - old and new - and Jess makes a new prolapse friend...nearly. That first POP Club! episode led to unofficial POP Clubs forming in the UK and around the world. If you'd like to know more, read this.
Helen speaks to Hayley Schoenberg who lives in Hamburg, Germany, with her wife and three-year-old daughter. She discovered she had a prolapse two years after her daughter was born, whilst going through fertility treatment for a second child. It's something that had a big impact on her life and on her work as a dancer, burlesque performer and hypnobirthing teacher.