Pregnancy Exercises That Will Help You Avoid Incontinence

When it comes to pregnancy, you can read every book and ask every person around you, however, there will always be some things that they simply won’t tell you to prepare for. One of the most common things is urinary incontinence.

This particular issue is relatively commonplace during pregnancy and is usually down to the increased pressure that is being placed on your pelvic floor. As the months go on this can get worse and it can be an embarrassing issue. So, with this in mind, you may be wondering if there is anything that you can do to try and help, or even halt incontinence both during pregnancy and after pregnancy too.
The answer is yes there is. In fact, there are a variety of exercises that you can do throughout your pregnancy (and after) which will help to avoid you having to face the issue of incontinence.

Work On Your Stomach Muscles

It isn’t just your pelvic floor that you can work on, it is also worthwhile working out your stomach muscles too as this will help to control any bladder issues that you may have.
In order to work on your stomach muscles, you are going to need to start on all fours, your knees should be underneath your hips and your hands need to be under your shoulders. Your fingers will be facing forwards and your back should be as straight as you can make it.
The first thing to do is to pull in your stomach muscles, raising your back towards the ceiling. Your head should relax forwards and your elbows should never lock in place. You need to hold this position for a few seconds, then return to the first position.
Your back always needs to be in the same straight position, whilst you repeat this move 10 times. It is important that you only ever move your back as far as feels comfortable to you.

Pelvic Tilt Exercises

Another important exercise to do is to work on your pelvic tilt. To do this you need to stand against a wall, with just your shoulders and bottom touching it. Your knees should be soft and your belly button needs to be pulled against your spine.

Doing this should mean that your back is then flat against the wall. You need to hold this position for a few seconds before releasing. This should then be repeated about 10 times.
Exercises for your pelvic floor
Pelvic floor exercises are probably the most important one to do. These are what helps the muscles to strengthen which not only helps with issues such as incontinence but also can help during labour too.
In order to work on your pelvic floor you need to close your anus like when you are trying to stop yourself from doing a poo. At the same time you need to draw your vagina upwards just as if you would be gripping a tampon, or stopping yourself from weeing.
You should start by doing this quickly, tightening and releasing the muscles immediately. Then start to do it slower and slower. Your aim is to hold it for around 10 seconds. You should aim to repeat this nine times and practice it up to 3 times a day.
It is also a good idea to try and tighten your pelvic floor when you are coughing and sneezing, as these are times when it will be under more pressure than normal.

Slow Squeeze

This particular workout is ideal for pregnancy as it works out a whole bunch of muscles, however, it can be hard to do during pregnancy.

In this exercise you need to lift your pelvic floor muscles upwards and inwards, slowly tightening them, you can continue lifting your pelvis up to your belly, before holding it for four seconds and releasing slowly.
If you find that it is too difficult to hold the squeeze, then hold for as long as you can, you may find that as time goes by and you practice this, it gets easier to hold the squeeze.
You should aim to do five squeezes per session and five sessions a day. This will help to give your pelvic muscles as much of a work out as possible.
If you are suffering from pregnancy incontinence and you feel that you need some protection, then it is worthwhile taking a look at HARTMANN Direct, a place where you can find all the accessories that you may need to keep yourself protected and save yourself embarrassment too.