Condition
Pelvic Floor After Birth: Leaking, Prolapse, and Diastasis
Pregnancy and birth put a lot of demand on your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles. Leaking urine, a feeling of heaviness, and abdominal separation are common afterward, and they are treatable. You do not have to just live with them. This page is educational, not medical advice.
Talk to your clinician if you have
- Leaking urine or stool that affects your daily life
- A feeling of heaviness or a bulge in the vagina
- Pain with sex that does not improve
- A gap down the middle of your belly that is not closing
Pelvic-floor physical therapy helps these. Ask your clinician for a referral.
What happens to the pelvic floor
The pelvic floor muscles support the bladder, uterus, and bowel. Pregnancy and birth can stretch or weaken them, leading to leaking (incontinence) or a dropping feeling (prolapse). The abdominal muscles can also separate (diastasis recti).
It is treatable
Pelvic-floor physical therapy, not just generic kegels, is the first-line treatment for most of these. A trained therapist checks what is actually happening and gives you the right exercises. Improvement is common.
How Materna helps
Materna connects you with bilingual pelvic-floor physical therapy and recovery guidance, and tracks your postpartum recovery so nothing is missed. Spanish-first and Medicaid-friendly.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it normal to leak urine after having a baby?
- It is common, but it is not something you simply have to accept. Pelvic-floor physical therapy helps most people improve, often a lot.
- What is diastasis recti?
- It is a separation of the abdominal muscles down the middle of the belly, common after pregnancy. Targeted pelvic-floor and core therapy helps it improve.
- Does Materna help with pelvic-floor recovery?
- Yes. Materna offers bilingual recovery guidance and connects you with pelvic-floor PT, and works with Medicaid in AZ, CA, TX, and PA.
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