How do I remember – or more accurately how do I push myself to do pelvic floor training, every day? Several times per day…

Because the reality is that it is incredibly boring.

First of all (as I have been on about already) I cannot enough stress the importance of seeking professional help with pelvic floor training. Anyone recovering from childbirth – with or without injuries – but we should all do this type of training afterwards to prepare ourselves for the future as parents and for potential further pregnancies and births. (Of course even better to start before pregnancy!)

But it needs do be done right.

I naively thought I knew how to do it, but my women’s health physiotherapist very quickly identified what I was doing wrong and she coached me how to do the exercises properly. It is awkward, sometimes uncomfortable, and you feel vulnerable when you have an internal examination to check the strength of the muscles ‘down there’, but for your long term benefit it is worth it.

There are endurance type of contractions which are long, and should be kept for ten seconds – or longer. And then there are the short type of contractions which are aimed to be a quick squeeze, and then a quick relax. I was told to do my long squeeze and my quick squeeze ten times. At least. And then repeat it three times a day. At least.

Personally, I find it very difficult to relax the pelvic floor. So I need to not only do my ‘squeezing’, but I also need to focus extremely hard on the ‘letting go’ in between.

All this takes time. It requires me to focus. A lot.

The good thing is that you theoretically can do pelvic floor training anywhere, even when you are out and about and know one will be able to tell when you are doing it. At least if it is done correctly, as then no other muscles should be tensing up at all. This is all very good, but I find I still need my 10minutes or so of complete focus for the training to be effective. Even if I am sitting on the bus with my son for half an hour it is hard to get those minutes in, as there is always something going on when you are out with a toddler. And at home! If I lie down on my exercise mat to do my squeezing I can be sure to soon have my son sitting on top of me.

And on the topic that things are usually pretty ‘full on’ when you take care of a child, it is very easy to simply forget about the pelvic floor training.

So I have come up with a few cues to help me remember. For example. Every time I have a coffee I need to do one set of exercises. This is a good one because I like my coffee, and in this way I push myself to ‘earn’ it. I usually have 2 or 3 coffees a day and some of the training sets are sorted.

Another cue is that every time my son falls asleep, it is time to do some squeezing. He now sleeps once a day so I am sure to get one set done in the middle of the day. When he then falls asleep for the night it is time for another.

Lastly when I stand at a bus stop waiting for the bus, and especially if I have a good few minutes until it arrives (and my son is not too bored) then I do some more squeezing.

I won’t pretend that the above works exactly all the time and every day. It doesn’t. But it is a way to keep it in my mind and never forget about that it has to be done. I may miss it for one coffee but when I remember it I force myself to do more next time. But to be frank – even if I didn’t have the cues I have come to a point where the pelvic floor subject is hard for me to overlook. It may sound depressing but it is often the last thing I think about before I fall asleep at night… Although it could simply be because I sometimes end up trying to do my last squeezes for the day before I go to sleep but it usually doesn’t work when I am too tired. Again, I need that focus or it won’t be successful!

I kind of hate that it is on my mind so much and that I have to do this training – but I do have to do it – and I have had to come to terms with this idea. I cannot escape the fact that I need to take care of my pelvic floor, and not just for now but for the rest of my life.