Postpartum Pelvic Recovery

Ashlyn started coming to Body Motion PT after delivering her first kid. She had a pretty traumatic 3rd-degree tear that reopened during her recovery. (No one had given her instructions not to squat and she blew open the stitches after squatting to put her baby in the car seat).

Healing went on for another 3 months, but at that point, they couldn’t re-sew the tear and she had a lot of irritated scar tissue.

Everything about her anatomy felt different. 

She was still too scared to have sex with her husband, and when she got her period back at 2 months,s she felt like there was more leakage because her vaginal opening felt so much more significant. 

She was extremely uncomfortable and self-conscious.

She brought up the concerns to her doctor and even asked about cosmetic surgery options to fix this. 

She was now bothered with how her vulva looked. 

Her doctor told her, “you are going to be wasting your money, and this might make everything worse. ” 

This was super discouraging. She was devastated, and it weighed heavily on her mind all the time. 

Her doctor did not mention pelvic floor work as an option to restore the integrity of her vulva. 

She had a friend who was coming to Body Motion during her pregnancy, and she reached out to that friend and asked if she thought this could help her. Thankfully the friend gave a glowing recommendation, and Ashlyn couldn’t wait to start. She wished she came during pregnancy but no one really told her that was even an option. 

Ashlyn has now been coming to Body Motion for 3 months, consistently combining pelvic floor work and shockwave therapy. She has been so pleased with how her pelvic floor and her vulva have transformed. The tissue is now much healthier, and she has a structure to her vaginal opening! 

There was no way she was going to consider having more children after the trauma of her first birth, but now she feels like that door has opened again. 

If you’re concerned about your vagina or your vulva looking different after kids, I want you to know that’s valid. There are anatomical changes that happen. But equally, there is so much that we can do to restore the integrity of the vagina and pelvic floor, leaving your vulva healthy, happy, working, and pain-free. 

This week I recorded an episode about the vagina, vulva, and pelvis to help better acquaint you with your anatomy.  Feel free to share with your daughters too! Let’s normalize these parts of our bodies. No need to feel shame.