Sneeze pee no more

Welcome to the “healthy postpartum pelvic core - sneeze pee no more” herbs & essential oils course!

Let's put a big smile on your face for that FIRST TIME you finally are sneezing, jumping, walking, laughing, and moving your body without peeing your pants!

You are not alone.

This is not normal.

This is very common.  Common does not mean normal.  

(Do not let someone shrug you off and say, “It’s common.”  That is GARBAGE.)  

This can be fixed, prevented, and healed.

Some women find healing in herbs, while others may need professional pelvic womb space therapists to help massage and shift organs.

I needed both.

This is a safe space for all of us women to come together to share our respective womb space stories.  

They may look very differently, or quite similar.

I'll start by sharing that my journey began with a very long pushing for our first baby who was born with an epidural at a hospital with a midwives’ group.  I pushed for 3.5 hours and no one ever told me he was sunny side up, “face up,” which hurts a lot, and is not the typical presentation.  

It isn't dangerous, it's just not helpful while laying on your back, which I also was, and nobody told me to move around, walk, dance, NOT get an epidural, or do any of those really HELPFUL things that I now know all about.

So fast forward to the next 7 years - I had been sneeze peeing my pants - which by the way - is the WORST AND HARDEST to heal, fix, help, reduce, cure- so I have been told by my pelvic womb therapy specialist.

Nobody ever told me that there were things I could have been doing the entire pregnancy to prevent...yes, you heard me correctly, PREVENT my sneeze pee.  I'm pretty honest when I say that I was fxxxxxx angry and upset with my midwives, the hospital, doctors and everyone in the birth world for letting me down.

This was my first baby.  I trusted them to tell me what I needed to know.  I was, after all, paying them...

I told the midwives I wanted a natural birth and just expected them to guide me gently towards what books to read, what things to look at, what soundtracks to listen to, what foods to eat, and to hire a doula!  They did NONE OF THAT!

(This is why you are here.  I don't want to let you down.  I’m going to be honest and authentic and 100% real.  That’s me, with teal hair, and our third baby.  I was still sneeze peeing my pants at this point.)

Back to YOU! -

It isn't easy, and it does take time, energy, and attention - TEA.  It may even take seeing a specialist.  I'm not going to lie.  I saw a specialist and she shifted my bladder with one 10 minute session even though she said that this was going to take a LOOOOOOOOONG TIME.  I was 7 years into this sneeze peeing business and poorly tended pelvic core muscles, weak core, and wrong thinking.  

She said it would take maybe a year, maybe 10 sessions, she just didn't know.  Nope!  She fixed it immediately.  I walked out of her office and sat in my truck and just wanted to cry.  I fixed my lumbar support, and sat up straight, took some good breaths like she told me, and decided I would DO THIS!

It's embarrassing, sad, emotional, frustrating, maddening, debilitating, discouraging, and just plain NOT TALKED ABOUT!  I’m going to talk about it and we are going to talk about it!

PREGNANCY

People laud all over you pregnant, but at your baby shower nobody gives you a book about NOT peeing your dang pants!! Why the hekkk not??

Everyone loves the pregnant belly.  They even want to rub it, touch it, kiss it, talk to the baby, and shower you with gifts and presents for your home to make things easier, like baby bottle warmers, or body pillows the shape of a strange alphabet letter hybrid, but where are the gift cards to see a pelvic womb therapist during your third trimester!?

Let me tell you a thing or two.  

My pelvic womb therapist told me:  (in nicer words, i'm paraphrasing)

you stand wrong

you sit wrong

you drive wrong

you do the dishes wrong

you eat wrong

you kegel realllly WRONG

you breathe wrong

you wear the wrong shoes

you wear the wrong mindset

I think that some of Western medical personnel have zero fxxxxx clue just how to treat a pregnant women when it comes to their pelvic womb space.

I have a friend from France and she lives in America now.  In France, they get a pelvic core specialist who visits them weekly for weeks and weeks, I think maybe months postpartum.  

She had 2 babies here in America and went home to France for a family summer visit and checked in with her doctor.  Her doctor asked how her pelvic womb therapy was going and she replied, "Oh, they don't do that there."  

In your best French accent say this, "WHAAAAAT?? ZIS IS NOT OPSHUUNAL!!!"

So you see, it is all cultural, very societal, and completely doable.  If they manage to send pelvic womb therapists to every single postpartum woman's home for months and months each week to show them exactly what and how and why and when to prevent and heal and fix and strengthen their pelvic womb space before and after birth, then surely we can also!

Let me say it again.  For ya'll in the back.

ZIS IS NOT OPSHUUUNAL!

NOT OPTIONAL

All it takes is one.  

One person.  

You can be that one person.  

Tell a friend.  

Pregnant women are the most important people because they carry the future. 

Let's start there.  

PELVIC WOMB SPACE

Your pelvic womb space:  what's that?  What's a womb space?

Your womb looks like this.  Muscles, ligaments, bones.

Imagine you are inside of a toilet looking up and you wanted to see the muscles that are underneath. This is a super cool picture of both men's and women's muscles - or - womb space and man genital space.

I'm getting pretty real here, so BUCKLE UP!

The start of a prolapse is when the pregnant belly grows or from repetitive straining or even in any person, not pregnant, or never pregnant, and in men also, but let's focus on pregnant women.

The idea is that during the pregnancy the doctor or midwife would 100%, or maybe even the doula, (if the woman has a doula; not everyone even knows what a doula is!!) encourage:

good posture, 

good sitting, 

yoga balls, 

stretching, 

leaning forward, 

good driving, 

happy sleeping positions with pillows between the legs, 

a body pillow perhaps, 

good figure 8's, 

nice cat cow, 

pencil-tail movements, 

good breath work, 

yoga perhaps, 

and all sorts of other core strengthening exercises, movements, and poses to prevent PREVENT prevent the weakening of those very important pelvic womb core muscles and core muscles.

Not all doctors, midwives, or doulas know about pelvic womb health.  If they do - they certainly aren't doing a good job of telling us how to prevent pelvic womb dysfunction or we wouldn't all be peeing our pants at every jumping jack, sneeze, walk, and plank!

1.  For good posture- have lumbar support. Sit up and put a pillow behind your lower back. 

2.  For good sitting- choose a seat that is going to allow your body to have firm rather than soft for 90 days while you train your brain and body.

3.  For good posture and sitting and core health sit on a yoga ball.  Check them out here.

4.  For good stretching- make a point to lengthen your body and sit on the floor as much as possible, using your legs to make a triangle and putting your hands on your knees, and as time goes on reaching for your feet.  Once you reach your feet, the next goal is to reach forward in the center and have your elbows on the floor.  (I am working on reaching my feet! Knees are okay!  Everyone is different.  It may take you a year to reach your knees.  THAT IS OKAY!  It's about the stretching, not the reach.  Gentle. Slow.  Easy.  Blood flow.  Body connection.)

5. For good pregnancy posture and baby positioning, and also any time (not pregnant), practice leaning forward in a chair, or sitting forward on the couch.  Spread your legs apart making a triangle and lean forward.  Practice leaning forward over a countertop, instead of leaning back into a squishy couch.  This bum out lean forward position is optimal for pregnant mama and babe to get in a wonderful position.  Leaning back puts your womb space into a non neutral position and isn't aligning for your body structure.  You don't always have to sit like this, I promise.  This is just a training period.  Imagine you are in training for an ultra womb triathalon!

6.  For good driving- in the car, you can add a pillow or use the button to push the lumbar support all the way forward.

7.  For happy sleeping positions- with pillows between the legs, so the knees are wide apart pushing that hip socket into a nice aligned position.  You can see some cool pregnancy pillows here.  ANYONE can use them and benefit!  Use a body pillow or make one yourself out of many pillows.

8.  For good figure 8's-  The way to measure a good proper fitting yoga ball is to sit on the yoga ball with a 90 degree angle behind the knees.  You yourself, or with someone standing behind you, move your hips in a figure 8 movement really using your entire lower body to "dance."

9.  For good cat cow- get into a hands and knees position on the floor.  With your inhale, draw up your spine into an arched cat pose, and on the exhale release and drop the back down into a sway like a cow pushing that belly button down with chest out. Make sure to engage your whole body. This is a wonderful pregnant movement to breathe into.

10.  For good pencil-tail movements- get into the same hands and knees position on the floor as the cat cow, now pretend you have a pencil tail poking out of your bum.  Draw figure 8's in the air with your pencil really focusing on moving those hips all around.  Feel free to play some music and enjoy your body.

11.  For good breath work- take your time and feel what it is like to inhale into your belly.  Pull that oxygen into your cells, filling all of your body; using the image belly button into your spine with the exhale, and gently releasing it out exhaling all that does not belong to your higher self.

12.  For good yoga- 

Use a block for positions that need to be modified.  

Here is a yoga/pilates mat. 

I love these yoga pretzel cards.  Fun for the whole family!

PELVIC CORE MUSCLES

Let's compare both men and women for a moment.  

See how similar we are?

When the pregnancy puts pressure on the bladder and the uterus grows to house many pounds of baby, bag of waters, extra blood, and placenta, the rest of the intestines shift, the colon even gets smushed, and all of the mother's entire insides move around to accommodate the growing baby inside!  And for good reason!  God knows exactly what He is doing.

I know this is a cartoony picture but let's take it bit by bit.  

---If pelvic core muscles get too weak around the colon and rectum, then the rectum and colon can- I used to say "fall forwards" BUT THAT IS A LIE--- it is PULLED into the space in front where the uterus/yoni goes.  (and it's hard to poop, or poop leaks out)

---If the pelvic core muscles get too weak around the bladder, then the bladder can I used to say "fall backwards" BUT THAT IS A LIE--- it is PULLED backwards into the space where the uterus goes.  (and it's hard to pee, or pee leaks out)

---If the pelvic core muscles get too weak around the cervix, then the cervix can dip down--NOT TRUE!--it is pulled down--- and not stay up where it is supposed to go.  (and it feels like your insides are "falling out of you," and sometimes THEY DO COME OUT- not fall out!  Yes, like all the way out.  That is very serious and may require surgery.  In very extreme situations surgery is definitely a necessary solution. I 100% recommend always seeing a professional no matter what.)

There are medical terms for things like:

bladder prolapse - cystocele

rectum prolapse - rectocele

cervical prolapse

uterine prolapse

Some symptoms include...

painful sexual intercourse

recurrent UTI (urinary tract infections)

feeling heavy or boggy in your yoni

difficulty eliminating feces/pooping

leaking feces/poop

difficulty urinating/peeing

leaking urine/pee

distended cervix

There are ways to determine how much of a prolapse exists.  Some use numbers to grade how far down the prolapse is and how severe it is.

Typically the more children a woman has had the more stretching her muscles will experience, and so it is very important for her to strengthen DURING the pregnancy.

FOOD

The first step to supporting the pelvic womb space is food.  Creating a balanced diet with the main helper for strengthening your womb space being collagen, bone broth, and a rich source of healthy minerals, and vitamins.  

Let’s start here with my top 3 favorite things to begin incorporating into your diet.

1.  Collagen

2.  Bone Broth

3. Miso Soup

Collagen - it is a powder made from the skin of animals.  This may throw a few of you for a loop; it certainly does for me and I don’t like to eat certain things for many reasons, but this is a hard one and I did it anyways JUST because I really wanted to support my body in every way possible.  

Collagen powder is easy to eat, drink, add to foods like oatmeal, healthy chia puddings, juices, and make homemade gelatins with little gummy bear molds, or pop in stews and soups.  It hardly tastes like anything when it is in food; yogurt is a good hider, applesauce, orange juice, and a shot glass of it mixed in elderberry syrup has worked for me.  Alone, yeah, not so much.  It tastes like a paper shoe.

“It’s one of the major building blocks of bones, skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Collagen is also found in many other body parts, including blood vessels, corneas, and teeth.

You can think of it as the “glue” that holds all these things together. In fact, the word comes from the Greek word “kólla,” which means glue.  

BOTTOM LINE:

Collagen is a protein that provides structure to much of your body, including bones, skin, tendons, and ligaments.”  https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/collagen

Bone Broth

“Some call bone broth meat water. We call it liquid gold.

Since we don’t eat bones in their whole form, cooking them into a broth that’s simmered for 10 to 20 hours (or more) is the best way to release their powerful nutrients, and experience a whole new level of benefits.”

Promote Gut & Digestive Health

Support Joint Mobility

Support Skin, Hair, and Nails

Support Sleep

Can’t You Get Collagen From Plants?

No. Plants are a great source of vitamins and minerals that can help stimulate your body to produce its own collagen, but there is no known plant food that offers type II collagen, the form that offers all of the benefits listed above.

One thing to consider about bone broth that sets it apart from plant foods: Even if you do eat a variety of plants that contain collagen-boosting nutrients, if you have a weakened digestive system, you may not fully absorb them. On the other hand, the collagen in bone broth is incredibly easy to absorb, even for those with compromised digestive systems."

https://www.kettleandfire.com/pages/what-is-bone-broth

Let me break these down for you:  

Why do I even need to “Promote Gut & Digestive Health?” 

- as a pregnant woman is growing a baby, her entire body is moving and stretching and being spread in all directions to be the most amazing vessel for this human life inside.  

Having a really good gut and digestive system primed with collagen is setting up the body for what is to come.  BIRTH.  

Once birth happens, the next journey a mother goes through is the rebirth of her.  She is now a mother.  Maybe this is her first baby.  Maybe this is the fourth.  The body is rebuilding all of those important ligaments and joints with new cellular structure and eating really delicious nutrient dense foods will facilitate the structural soundness of her body.  

If her body is struggling to digest what she is eating because it is extremely difficult to digest, 

like highly processed foods which put a huge burden on the liver and kidneys, 

her body isn’t focused on making good breastmilk, supporting her brain and nervous system with healthy oxytocin and prolactin, 

and instead is taxed by the fatty foods, processed foods, and unhealthy things that are coming down the esophagus to the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine - 

slugging everything along.  

This also may cause straining while pooping; nobody wants that!  

Straining can also be a cause for pelvic womb space dysfunction.

In order to really provide your body its BEST chance at recovery - you must give it all the building blocks it needs to do the job.

Collagen is one of those building blocks.  It focuses on bones, ligaments, and muscles.  

It also has a job for skin, teeth, hair, and nails.  

These are fast growing cells.  In order to get the pelvic womb space properly aligned it must have good components.  You don’t want to build a massive life sized LEGO® pickup truck with a pile of melted goo plastic.  That’s why eating collagen is amazing for your insides.  While it is supporting joint mobility by doing all it can for giving your body these really nourishing amino acids like glutamine, you are feeling better!  

What else does it have in it that mothers need?  

Hyaluronic acid - in connective, epithelial, and neural tissues, is a sugar that makes skin plump and young looking

HA “a key molecule in skin aging”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583886/ 

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/searchId.do?chebiId=16336

Glucosamine & chondroitin  - “Glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate are naturally occurring substances found in the connective tissues of the body, including the cartilage that covers the ends of bones in the joints.”

https://www.oaph.com/patient-resources/education/truth-about-glucosamine-and-chondroitin-sulfate

Calcium -  helps blood clot normally, builds strong bones and teeth, regulates muscle contractions including the heart

Magnesium - supports proper neural function of the brain, aids sleep, calms down hyperactivity and smoothes out nervousness, helps restless legs

“Magnesium is an essential mineral and a cofactor for hundreds of enzymes. Magnesium is involved in many physiologic pathways, including energy production, nucleic acid and protein synthesis, ion transport, cell signaling, and also has structural functions.”

https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/magnesium

What’s an amino acid?

...Good question.  

Photo credit: https://jmichaeldunn.com/2014/12/27/3-building-blocks-for-your-marketing-plan-in-the-new-year

And every triplet of nucleotides aka CODON of DNA or RNA of an amino aci is like 3 building bricks put together which equal... a PROTEIN.  

Fine. What’s a protein?

Proteins are very important in your body because they do all sorts of things for you in order to live!

Proteins are: antibodies, enzymes, messengers, structural components, transport and storage.  

For example:  Immunoglobulin, phenylalanine, growth hormone, actin, and ferritin.  

Probably the most important in our case would be the messengers aka the hormones! 

Imagine a conveyor belt and on that conveyor belt are packages, tiny and medium, large and extra small, extra large and every shape and size imaginable.  

Those packages are hormones and the conveyor belt is your blood!  

Your blood now carries all of these messengers all over your body taking the message inside of the package and delivering it perfectly to where it needs to go.  

“Proteins are large, complex molecules that play many critical roles in the body. They do most of the work in cells and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs.

Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are attached to one another in long chains. There are 20 different types of amino acids that can be combined to make a protein. The sequence of amino acids determines each protein’s unique 3-dimensional structure and its specific function.”  https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/howgeneswork/protein

This is why it is sooooo important to take care of your blood!  Your blood is the flowing river that carries all of the packages.  The boats are the package carrying the message inside and the river is the blood.  Too thick, too thin, sluggish, clogged, too much pressure, too little pressure...all sorts of things can block the flow of messengers!

Also the shape of the package makes a HUGE difference.  Synthetic hormones are a different SIZE!  So now we have shape and size.  

Imagine the door way where the machine flips the packages off into the right chute and the package is the wrong size...what is going to happen?  First of all it clogs up the chute.  

Next, it blocks the flow behind it.  That’s a HUGE problem.  BIG.  Terrible.  Awful.  This is why it is so important to understand all of the parts of our body and how they work.  We don’t want a clogged blocked message.  

This might be the message that says to run, or be calm, or to ovulate, or metabolize food, or sleep, or make breastmilk.  Every single message is important and needs to get exactly where God wants it to go.

I have a nucleotide gut biome rejuvenator that I take every single day.  I need my body to be 100% in tip top shape, fully functioning.  No empty tank for me.  If my body can't absorb the food I am eating because my gut is lacking the basic nucleotides it needs and is in a state of disrepair - I end up with what is called leaky gut.

Where were we?  

Miso Soup  

Miso soup can have it’s own section.  Here is why.  

Miso soup is amazing and anyone can have it eat it, drink it, and make it.  

Children love the noodles.  

It can be full of fattttty fattt huge thick udon noodles made with wheat and gluten.  

It can have rice noodles that are thin little sticks that seem to just become invisible as they soak up the bone broth.  

It can have veggies, or not, a well cooked piece of meat, or not, an egg, or not, some spicey peppers, or not, some sour or not.  It can have lots of miso paste and be quite flavorful, or toned down with just a smidge in the bone broth and be nice and smooth and very delicate.  You can use this miso as a healing broth made with bone broth base.  

It can have healing mushrooms in it.  Mushrooms are a fantastic way to get in some super nutrient dense goodies.  The options for miso are endless when you come to what kinds of miso to choose from.

There is white miso, yellow miso, red miso, 

White is sweet and mellow, fermented for a short time in less salt.  Red can be a darker red to brown color.  It can be saltier, and show “a more assertive, pungent flavor.”

https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/article/know-your-miso

My favorite way to make a really easy quick miso is like this:

Annie Roo's MISO Soup RECIPE

Boil water/BONE BROTH in a hot pot, or on the stove.  

(Never boil water in the microwave.  I once was in the ER working and a very young teen girl came in who had burned her entire face by boiling a cup of water for tea in the microwave.  She inhaled the steam when she opened the microwave door and the vapors burned inside of her nose, her throat, her esophagus, and her entire eyes and face were burned.  It was horrible.  She couldn’t move or speak.  Anyways, please - just boil on the stove or get one of those 1 minute hot pot kettles.)

Pour some hot water (BONE BROTH for us!) in the bowl.

Add a tablespoon of your choice of miso paste.

Stir and dissolve the miso.  

*Never boil miso, it will kill the fermentation and living goodies!

Add some chopped green onions

Add some squeezy ginger and squeezy lemongrass

Add a few grated carrots

Toss in some mushrooms

Add a few seaweed pieces

Maybe add a dash of fish sauce (totally optional)

Put a spoonful or 2 of rice in and mix.

Add a piece of well cooked meat (must be able to fall apart)

Add a cooked egg

Plop in a few pieces of cooked sweet potato

(an alternative is to sauteé the mushrooms in the ginger and lemongrass with the carrots and meat in a pan and get them really soft)

Let sit and then enjoy!!

Stop.  

Stop doing those things that are impeding your recovery and reset.  Stop doing the things that are blocking your healing.

Like what? 

Eliminate any types of movements that are putting stress on your pelvic core muscles.  

Lifting for example...

If you are postpartum - the rule of thumb says to only pick up things that weigh as much as your baby does.  

It's like trying to heal a broken arm while you keep using it.

You need to understand that some cultures treat the postpartum woman with care, kindness, reverence, priority, and intrinsically know that she is new now.  She is mother.  She will never again be the same person she was before.  Physiologically.  Chemically.  Biologically.  Medically.  She is new.  Hormonally she is new.

To have created a human being from one cell brought together with another cell and grown the baby from a tiny speck into a living breathing, crying, peeing, pooping, dreaming, thinking, speaking, loving, breastfeeding, walking, human being tiny replica hybrid of herself and her partner takes time, energy, and attention.  

And you did it!

Let’s sit in this for a moment for those mothers who have bare wombs.  This class is not just for you who have alive babies.  This is a class for healing the womb space for mothers who have birthed.  Perhaps that baby was small.  I have birthed a baby so small our baby fit in my hand.  My womb needed tending as well.

Birth is birth.

There is no depth to the grief or sorrow.  

One person asked, “How long will you be sad and grieve for your lost loved one?”

The reply, “For as long as they are gone.”

The nourishing foods will also create a space in your body where ease will replace dis-ease thus creating healthy poops and reducing any type of straining or constipation.

Stop all exercises, especially kegels and planks.  No CrossFit, please.  Not now. Maybe later. Only do pelvic womb safe poses, exercises, and lifting.  If you are 100% sure you are doing all of the breathing, bending, sitting, lifting, driving, cooking, standing, sitting proper pelvic womb safe poses and postures while living...then have at it!  Do your thing, mama!

Once you eliminate the things that are causing the dysfunction, you can start working on strengthening and healing the function.

Incorporating foods like collagen and bone broth are providing your body with the exact building blocks that it needs to correct the issues that are causing imbalance.  Fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as stews and broths that have fully cooked meats pull out all of the vitamins and minerals, while making it much easier to digest and poop out.  

This rich delicious broth and sauce now has all of the important cellular building blocks you want.

It can be the base for making rice, vegetable soups, beef stews, chicken soups, or just drinking as a healing broth. 

You can eat congees, rice, miso, hearty stews cooked all day, broths, and vegetables that have been cooked fully.

A trick that I use is to puree my vegetables and make a smooth soup that is easy to digest, easy to poop out, and easy to use by my body which gives the postpartum mama more time to focus on making those pelvic womb muscles, joints, and ligaments strong and healed.

BREATHING

Let's work on breathing.  

A body has muscles over the belly.  

“Diastasis recti, an unnatural separation of the abdominal muscles, is not just a “weak core.”  It’s a symptom of a whole-body problem.”  

Bowman, Katy, and Christiane Northrup. Diastasis Recti: the Whole-Body Solution to Abdominal Weakness and Separation. Propriometrics Press, 2016.

P.S. Katy Bowman has a whole section with a How-To DIY make your own chicken bone broth on page 208 of the above book on diastasis recti as well as four references to scientific journal articles about...you guessed it.

RESEARCH ON THE BENEFITS OF...BONE BROTH!

New therapeutic strategy for amino acid medicine:  glycine improves the quality of sleep in The Journal of Pharmacological Sciences. 

The FASEB Journal talks about Dietary glycine supplementation mimics lifespan extension by dietary methionine restriction in Fisher 344 rats.

24-week study on the use of collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in athletes with activity- related joint pain in Curr Med Res Opin.

Anat Rec has an article on Glycine Improves Biochemical and Biomechanical Properties Following Inflammation of the Achilles Tendon.

She is a mama of two and knows her stuff.  I don’t need to write a book about it because she already has!

All we have to do is read the book and do what comes next!

Check out those muscles on the left and on the right.  Notice anything?  Not pregnant, or not big belly pregnant, and very pregnant belly.

HOW TO FIGURE OUT IF I HAVE DIASTASIS RECTI SEPARATION

A really neat way to check and see what you have postpartum is to lay on the floor knees bent, bring your head up just slightly, and using your pointer and middle finger (and maybe more) check above your belly button and also below it and see how many finger widths you have across as a separation.

Now, this may be different above and below.  Some women have a separation only above the belly button.  While others only have a separation only below.  Perhaps you have a separation on both sides.

I just checked myself before writing this sentence and I have a two finger width above my belly button and I am exactly 1 year postpartum.  I have maybe a one or none separation below.  When we had our third baby I was a four finger separation.  I can show you how to use your hands to make some hugging sweeping motions that will allow those muscles to gently return to their balanced spots.  After learning what they were I was able to get my 4 finger separation to a 2 in about 5 minutes.  

Exercises:

Practice doing the following gentle soft easy movements while breathing

1 - imagine you are picking up a jelly bean with your labia lips.

2 - imagine you are picking up a bean with your cervix.

3 - imagine you are holding in a fart.

4 -imagine you are raising a mini elevator inside of your yoni

5 - imagine you are pulling your belly button towards your spine

Do NOT squeeze your bum cheeks together!  

That is not it.  It feels funny.  

I know.  

You can do this.  

Practice!  

Relax the bum cheeks.

Try again.  

Do it sitting.  

Do it laying down.  

Do it standing up.  

Do it right before you cough.  

NOW...Do it right before you sneeze.

Pelvic core strengthening exercises cost nothing, may relieve pain, and can be effective for some women as a non-surgical course of healing. 

Challenge:

STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP, please.

Stop doing kegels.

Why Kegels are HORRRRRIBLE, and why you should never ever do them.

Why this picture below is going to save your yoni and how!

You can try this with your own finger, or have a partner use their finger.  

If you decide you want to feel your own body, this is what it looks like inside, sorta. 

Minus your organs, 

but let’s look at the muscles and see how incredible they are!

Let's spend some time looking up these words.  

I think if you just read my words, it will be boring, so take a second or 120 and look them up and then look at the picture above and see if you can match them up.

urethra

yoni 

(vagina is not a nice word so we say yoni)

rectum

Why are kegels horrible awful terrible and why do they make it worse?

Okay.  Let me tell it to you straight.  I could show you a video of a woman doing a kegel, but I'm not sure you want to watch that so you can watch yourself do one and it will be even better!  

Kegels done wrong weaken the pelvic core and maybe make you leak pee.  

If a woman has been doing them her whole life and nobody checked to see if she's doing them CORRECTLY then she LITERALLY has been ruining her own pelvic core muscles for no good reason!!  (That was me.  I did them wrong my entire life.)

Answers in case you didn’t look them up.  Go back and match them up.

(The rectangle opening represents the yoni/vagina. The circular larger opening represents the colon/rectum anus opening. And the tiny bitty circle in front is the urethra.)

Also, don't EVER start to pee and then stop and start to "practice" strengthening your pelvic womb space, bladder, muscles, and ligaments.  THAT REALLY fxxxxxs up your womb space and your bladder.  Uggggggggggggh, why did I just accidentally find this out in 2019?

Kegels - when done wrong can potentially ruin and weaken your pelvic core muscles and you can leak poop.  YIKES!

So...we have sneeze pee, jump pee, laugh pee, cough pee - made worse - by you - because nobody took the time to tell you that you're doing it wrong.

Why am I assuming everyone does them wrong?  

Because I have never ever met a single woman in all my almost 40 years of life who has ever done them properly.

Don't wait your whole life, and find out too late, this all could have been prevented.  Gramas know a lot, and are amazing because they have lived and learned.  

I'd like to save you some trouble and teach you really fun and funny ways to strengthen your pelvic womb space, heal this womb space, and educate you and all the women and children in your life.  

I only ask that you teach all the females around you what the womb space does for us, our babies, our bodies, and how to do these amazing easy, FREEEE breathing techniques, and poses so we can CHANGE the world.

Mirror Challenge:

HOW TO CHECK IF YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT!

Step 1: Go get a mirror, or have your partner hold one, then lay on your back and do what you think is a kegel and watch what happens to your muscles.  

Remember that finger inside the yoni picture from up above?  

Yeah, go look again.  

Okay, now with your finger or your partner’s finger inside of you gently...

do what you think is a kegel.

Step 2:  Next, cough while watching in the hand held or giant mirror.  

Yes, while still having a finger inside of your yoni.  

What happens?

If at any point the muscles go outwards and down when you cough or kegel, you're "doing it wrong."

If your muscles squeeze your own finger and push it out or down - yer doing it wrong. (It's kinda hard to put your finger inside of your yoni and also at the same time reach and cough and kegel, so some women find it useful when a partner helps or you can use another way to tell what is happening.  Some women find that it helps to use a vibrator and gently have it inside of the yoni so they can lay flat on their back and not do a crunch but still see if they are going OUT and DOWN or not... (because crunches are so not good for your pelvic core if you are in a weakened state.)  This is simply you looking at the mirror or trying to use proprioception to see what’s going on with your yoni.

What?  

What is proprioception?

Lemme splain.  NO.  There is no time.  Lemme summup.

Proprioception is “kinesthesia” aka “the body’s ability to sense its location, movements, and actions. It’s the reason we’re able to move freely without consciously thinking about our environment. is basically a continuous loop of feedback between sensory receptors throughout your body and your nervous system.”  

https://www.healthline.com/health/body/proprioception#anatomy

So what is it exactly?

Proprioception is your ability to know the inside of your body and where things are and how to move them and understand how to send messages to specific muscles inside of your body using what some people call a “sixth sense.”

I like “Momsense.”

If anyone has ever told you that squeezing out and down is a good practice for your yoni, or squeezing your partner's penis while having intercourse such that it squeezes the penis and pushes out and down, that, my friend, is weakening the pelvic core muscles.  

You want to keep things up and in. 

UP and IN

UP UP UP 

and 

IN IN IN.

The baby pushes down and out.  Coughs push down and out.  Improper kegels push down and out.  So, for the time being, I shall just say, "Don't do kegels."

Name them after me.  

Do annieroo's instead.  

Do jellybeans instead.  

Do elevators instead.  

Do beans instead. 

Do unfarts instead.

If you are the magical unicorn person who coughs and kegels and your muscles do NOT push out and down, then you, my friend, are doing it RIGHT!!

Congratulations! You win!  

(Also, immediately email me at annierooguru@gmail.com, because, I have yet to meet a woman who does a kegel the pelvic womb space safe way.  I shall now make you famous.  I may even send you a prize.  I’ll probably send you a prize!)

Annieroos Challenge:  

The thing you WANT to do is this...

Step 1:  Lay back on the bed or floor and have a partner put their finger very gently, or your finger, or a vibrator inside of your yoni

Step 2:  You want to use those muscles and attempt to pick up that imaginary jelly bean with your labia.

Step 3:  Use those muscles to gently and carefully lift the imaginary elevator bringing it up to your ribcage

Step 4:  While doing this also imagine bringing that belly button in towards the spine

Keeping the bum cheeks relaxed at the same time.  

Tricky.  

You can do it.

I believe in you!

The Cough Test

Another cool way to see what is happening is to lift your shirt up, go stand in front of the mirror, and cough and watch your stomach.  

(This is super tricky when pregnant...just when you have a big belly baby.)

What happens?

Does your belly go OUT?

Does your belly go IN?

If you said out...sorry, Charlie, no go.  That's weakened core muscles, which are all connected to your pelvic core muscles.

If you said in...hooray!! You win!  Those are activating the core muscles properly!!

How do I practice activating my core?

Now do a fake sneeze & fake cough while activating your core

First, you pull that belly button into the spine and back, THEN cough.

Same goes for your sneezing.  Just before you sneeze, grab that jelly bean with your labia - imaginary, of course, and draw that belly button back, lift that bean up with your cervix, and SNEEZE!

Once you start doing this a few times, you will train your brain.  It's all about training your brain to draw back, up, in, and cough.

Back up in, and sneeze.

Back up in, and laugh.

This will take time.

 Happy (Shoes) Challenge:

How to get out of bed safely, and other supportive ways to tend the postpartum happy 

womb space

-Roll out of bed

-Do NOT sit up and do a "crunch type rising up" out of bed.

How to lift safely for a happy womb

-Pull that belly button in, draw that elevator up, jelly bean pick up, bean lift, before lifting anything (only things weighing what your baby does)

-Practice bending with your legs and knees bent, squatting instead of bending over at the hips.

 How to wear womb happy shoes

- Wear flat shoes.  

When I had a prolapsed uterus and bladder I immediately purchased a pair of flat flat flat flat shoes and I still wear them.  I wore them allllllll summer long and all autumn as well.

-Do NOT wear high heels.  

Wearing high heels puts extreme imbalance shifting on the womb space.

The higher the heels the more the body shifts off balance and the worse the pelvic womb space gets and is weakened.

Shoot for some flat shoes; the flatter the better.

How to drive with a happy womb

-When you are driving in the car, use the electronic seat heat warmer if you have it.  Click on that seat heat for extra circulation vulva warmth! Even in the summer!

STRING TEST

When you stand, take a string and hold it at your hips and have someone look at you from the side.  

(Or try with a mirror.)  

You WANT the string to fall down to your ankle bone.  

If it falls behind or in front then practice shifting your body so you are more balanced in your stance. 

Now, this might feel weird or funny or you may even fall over or take a step!  

This might be years of improper neutral balancing position you’re going to have to undo!

Tip your pelvis under and feel what that feels like. 

Squeeze your bum cheeks really hard together and tip that pelvis under with your pubic bone in line with your belly button.  

This is imbalance.

Not tip your pelvis back and out, like you are trying to hold a shelf up on your bum cheeks.  

This is imbalance.

Now, just relax and find a neutral space between those two. 

 There's no perfect way to describe it, but the string test is the closest you will get.

 This is balance.

Don't rest on your heels, and don't rest on your toes.  

Find the neutral space in between shifting your balance between the two.  

Rock forwards and back again, letting your body s balance seeing what it is like to lean forward barely taking a step before you fall forward.  

Push all of your weight onto your toes.  

Now tip and lean all the way back until you are resting on your heels.

The perfect balance will change each day based on many things, however, the neutral stance will align your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and head.

-DO find your neutral stance balance and be conscious of how you stand...while doing dishes, cooking, holding a baby, reading, waiting, talking, shopping, being on your phone or computer, and all other times.

-Do use a backpack which can be placed over the shoulders evenly.

If you do carry a bag, make sure you do not carry too much weight, which will throw off your shoulders, making your hips compensate, which then offsets your ...you named it...pelvic womb space.

See?  It's alllll related!!

Babywearing

Choose a baby carrier that allows you to wear your baby in the front or on the back with even distribution of weight.  Check out my babywearing free resources here.

Babywearing, Breastfeeding, Cosleeping

Wrap small washcloths or pillow cases around the edge of the pan.

Widen your stance so your legs don’t touch the pan.

Essential Oils for the Pelvic Womb Space

Essential oils support the postpartum imbalanced pelvic core emotionally, and physically.

Frankincense and myrrh encourage cell regeneration.  "Frankincense is also known as "olibanum." The name frankincense is derived from the Medieval French word for "real incense."  Frankincense is considered the "holy anointing oil" in the Middle East and has been used in religious ceremonies for thousands of years.  It was well known during the time of Christ for its anointing and healing powers and was one of the gifts given to Christ at His birth.  Used to treat every conceivable ill known to man.  Frankincense was valued more than gold during ancient times, and only those with great wealth and abundance possessed it.  It is mentioned in one of the oldest known medical records, Ebers Papyrus dating from 16th century BC, an ancient Egyptian list of 877 prescriptions and recipes." (DiscoverLSP.com, version 1.4.4 2015-2019 Life Science Publishing)

Baby number 5, kitchen, 2019

What essential oils support bones, ligaments, joints, muscles, skin regeneration, and support emotional balance?

There are many.  Let’s start with a short list from the Raindrop Technique Emotional and Physical Release bodywork kit and class.

Raindrop essential oils in particular support bones, ligaments, joints, and muscles.

White Angelica

Oregano

Thyme

Basil

Marjoram

Wintergreen

Cypress

Aroma Siez

Skin healing and rejuvenation oils include:  

Rejuvenate and Heal:

Rose

Sandalwood

Frankincense

Myrrh 

Vetiver

Regenerate:

Geranium

Helichrysum

Spikenard

Melrose

Sandalwood

Restore skin elasticity:

Sandalwood with Lavender

Ylang Ylang with Lavender

Patchouli with Lavender

How can you best support emotional balance?

These emotional oils may be singles or blends of herbs that bring calm, peace, quiet, courage:  

Transformation™ includes Idaho Blue Spruce, Palo Santo, and Ocotea. These powerful essential oils empower you to replace negative beliefs with uplifting thoughts when diffused.

Harmony™, is a blend of pure essential oils that contains scents to provide an uplifting aromatic experience.

Forgiveness™, essential oil blend is formulated with Melissa, Geranium, Frankincense, Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood, and other essential oils to help create a calm, uplifting environment when forgiving yourself and others.

Inner Child™, The sweet fragrance of Inner Child™ can be used aromatically to encourage you to connect with your authentic self.

Present Time™, When diffused, Present Time™ helps you focus on the here and now, so you can get beyond the past and move forward.

Release™ is a blend with a relaxing aroma that facilitates the ability to let go of anger and frustration. It also promotes harmony and balance when diffused.

Valor®,  Use it to greet each morning with a positive attitude or to unwind at the end of the day. Its powerful yet calming scent is versatile enough that you can integrate it into your morning and bedtime routines and anywhere in between.  It promotes balanced energies, instills courage, bravery, self esteem, and confidence.  The recipe was from long hours researching how the Roman soldiers would prepare for battle.  Its ingredients include Rosewood, spruce, blue tansy, and frankincense, 

Woman oils:

Myrrh

Myrtle

Cypress

excerpts from the book -HEALING OILS OF THE BIBLE BY DAVID STEWART. PH.D.

You can choose to anoint your belly button, 

your ankles (great reproductive vitaflex points), 

your arms, 

your head, 

your feet, 

toes, 

hands, 

legs, 

or anyplace else that you feel especially needs some soul care.

If you want to add some carrier oil:

 like coconut, 

or almond, 

or apricot kernel oil 

to a small glass jar or dish and add a few drops of your favorite essential oil, you can make your own salve, lotion, or anointing balm.

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