HELPING FEMALES REBALANCE THROUGHOUT ALL STAGES OF LIFE

If you’re finding it difficult to contract your pelvic floor or If you’re not sure if you are contracting your pelvic floor correctly then we are here to help.  To contract a muscle group you need to first connect with that muscle group. Secondly, this muscle group needs to be working from an optimal resting state- that is, not overly lengthened and not overly shortened. A short, tight pelvic floor can occur as a result of  contracting your pelvic floor too much (consciously or subconsciously), excessive high intensity exercise, from poor technique during Pilates, from lifting heavy weights, emotional stress, or trauma, including birth trauma.  A lengthened pelvic floor can occur as a result of pregnancy or due to general hypermobility of tissues (excess flexibility).  Mindful and gentle treatment of trigger points and scar tissue within these tissues can improve your ability to contract your pelvic floor and decrease symptoms:

• occurring locally in the pelvis (pelvic pain, pelvic heaviness, frequent urination, urgency or leakage, painful sex, pain associated with endometriosis, associated with uterine prolapse etc)
• occurring globally in the body (improved posture, improved gait pattern, more balanced weight-bearing, more comfort with sitting, standing and feeding, improved ability to lift and exercise etc)

Our approach to assessing and treating the pelvic floor can be external by palpating for tone and contraction near your sit bones in a lying position.  The most accurate way to measure pelvic floor contraction and tone is via internal palpation and Osteopath Haylee Finn is qualified to perform this.  

If you are wanting to become pregnant, then Osteopathy is a great form of bodywork to help prepare the body to conceive, grow and birth a baby.  Where and how we carry tension in our pelvis and pelvic floor can have implications for how well our body can expand to grow a baby and how our body can expand to birth a baby.  If we can resolve any asymmetry and tension in your pelvis prior to falling pregnant then this can help the body better adapt to the increasing load of the baby, preventing low back and pelvic pain during pregnancy.  A pliable and supple pelvic floor creates optimal space for the baby to assume throughout the pregnancy, paving the way to facilitate a natural vaginal delivery. 

Holistic Pelvic Care™ (HPC™) is a really useful tool for finding out the baseline tone in your pelvic floor prior to falling pregnant.  Most women think they need to have a strong pelvic floor to conceive and grow a baby during pregnancy, but the reality is that many women have an excessively tight pelvic floor which in fact needs releasing so that it can expand and hold a pregnancy and expand further to give birth.  Excessive tension in the pelvic floor can impede blood flow to the pelvis and create congestion and stagnation - treatment to release tension and bring improved blood flow in the pelvis creates an optimal environment for conception.  

If you are planning for a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) then Internal Pelvic floor therapy prior to falling pregnant again, can be useful in resolving pelvic floor tension and congestion which may have been present both before and since your C-section delivery. 

We respect that a woman who has experienced miscarriage, birth loss or termination is indeed still in a postpartum state.   Osteopathy, Closing of the Bones and other Ayurvedic practices, and Holistic Pelvic Care™ are examples of grounding somatic practices that can be helpful for mothers going through these difficult processes.  

Haylee is passionate about changing the status of  postpartum nurturing and care - a  hugely neglected aspect of health in today’s Western world.  She encourages mothers to place the same emphasis on postnatal care as they do on prenatal care when it comes to caring for their bodies.  Women need support and loving touch when birth goes well, and women need support and loving touch when birth has been tough.  The standard definition of a postpartum woman is a woman who has given birth less than six months ago.  At Rebalance Osteopathy, our definition of a postpartum woman expands beyond six months, for the majority of women who have birthed, their bodies remain in a postpartum state for the remainder of their lifetime.  We also expand this definition of a postpartum woman to a woman who has experienced a misscarriage, a stillbirth, or undergone a termination of pregnancy.  We use a gentle approach to help rebalance women, wherever they sit on their postnatal timeline.

Internal Pelvic Floor therapy for the postpartum woman

If you are recovering from a recent pregnancy or even a pregnancy long ago, Internal Pelvic Floor Therapy and Holistic Pelvic Care™ (HPC™) can be extremely valuable in resolving any tension in the pelvic floor from pregnancy and birth.  Whether you had a vaginal delivery, tearing, episiotomy, forceps or vacuum, a long birth or a long pushing stage, a quick birth, the tissues of the pelvic floor are often simply rehabilitated via pelvic floor contractions alone - this approach is failing to address the length-tension relationship of the tissues which can potentially lead to low back, pelvic pain, urinary symptoms, and menstruation issues.  If you have had a C-section or multiple C-sections, Internal Pelvic Floor therapy can be useful to help restore optimal function between the abdominal wall and the pelvic floor which is disturbed as a result of an incision through the abdomen. Regardless of how you deliver, pregnancy still places load on the pelvic floor, and labouring prior to delivering via C-section places additional load on the pelvic floor.

Birth trauma

In her book ‘Mothering from your center’, founder of Holistic Pelvic Care™ Tami Lynn Kent  includes a number of meditation exercises to help mothers rewire their traumatic experience of birth.  These energetic tools can be used in combination with or instead of HPC™ to help women who are experiencing anxiety or post-traumatic stress or a sense of disconnect with themselves or their baby. 

Osteopaths Haylee Finn, Sophie Beks, Kelly Thompson , April Thewlis and Nadine McNamara all share an interest in Preganancy Care.

Even  before  becoming a  mother herself,  Haylee was drawn to helping  women throughout  their   pregnancy  journeys (check out her extensive extra training in pregancy care here).  Haylee loved that women in this phase of their life were feeling empowered to learn about and care for their changing bodies.  Pregnancy really is such a mind-blowing process and Haylee loves coming along for the nine month  ride with her pregnant patients.  Haylee's study and experience  enables her to use touch and guided movement to help mothers to grow a baby, to deliver a baby and to rebalance fully in the postpartum period.  She loves that pregnancy offers a window to treat old strains that the hormone relaxin (which often cops a bad rap) has opened the door and exposed - think dodgy old untreated ankle injuries or a sore wrist.  And she takes a caring and curious view to to the various aches and pains that expectant mums present with (they're often clues that the body indeed needs some rebalancing but in a truly osteopathic way, often the problem area is not always at the site of pain!)

From a movement perspective, Haylee calls upon her Pilates training, and her training as an Optimal Maternal Positioning Ambassador to implement an approach to facilitating natural birth that uses physiology before force and utilises concepts of balance, gravity and movement to achieve:

• lots of space and even space for baby to grow within the mother's body (ensuring more comfort for mum too)
• baby hopefully attaining a position in utero prior to birth that promotes a smoother labour (left occiput anterior presentation)
• relaxation of mothers pelvic floor tissues to facilitate expansion during the birth process
• comfortable and confident mums who are gaining the endorphin benefits of exercising and moving during their pregnancy.

Osteopath Sophie Beks  loves being a part of a mother's journey throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period. She gets great reward from helping a mother’s body adapt to the changes of their growing baby, and to make this special time in their lives as enjoyable as it should be. The postnatal period is equally as important, with Sophie’s treatment aiming to aid recovery from childbirth and create comfort and ease while navigating the new roles of motherhood, ensuring our mums stay happy and healthy.  Sophie has completed further training with Osteopath Elizabeth Howard from the Women's Health Research Instititute of Australia, in "Managing Pain in Pregnancy & Beyond", Spinning Babies and Birthwork with Fiona Hallinan and Jenny Blyth. 

April Thewlis was a pregnancy and postpartum masseur prior to becoming an Osteopath.  She's also trained in Spinning Babies. 

Nadine McNamara has completed Birthwork with Fiona Hallinan and Jenny Blyth. 

Osteopath Kelly Thompson is enjoying newborn snuggles on maternity leave but we'll be sure to let you know she'll be back on deck at Rebalance.