Can a Mummy MOT Help With Pelvic Floor Problems?
Leaking when you sneeze. A sudden dash to the toilet. A feeling of heaviness or pressure in your pelvis. Pain during sex. Perhaps you’ve even noticed a sensation that something is “dropping” or bulging.
If you’ve experienced any of these symptoms since having a baby, you might have been told they’re simply part of motherhood.
They’re common after pregnancy and childbirth — but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with them.
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, we believe postnatal care should be about more than simply waiting for your body to recover. A Mummy MOT® can form part of that process by helping you understand how your body is functioning, identifying areas that may need attention and, where appropriate, guiding you towards the right rehabilitation or specialist care.
But pelvic-floor problems can be complex, and not every pelvic-floor symptom needs exactly the same treatment.
So let’s look at what you can expect and when a Mummy MOT may be appropriate.
What Is the Pelvic Floor?
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles and connective tissues at the base of your pelvis.
It helps support your pelvic organs, including your bladder, bowel and uterus, and plays an important role in:
Controlling urine and bowel movements
Supporting the pelvic organs
Sexual function
Managing pressure within your abdomen
Working with your abdominal and breathing muscles during movement
Pregnancy places significant physical demands on this system.
Vaginal birth can stretch the pelvic-floor muscles and, in some cases, cause muscle or connective-tissue injury. But pelvic-floor symptoms can also occur following pregnancy and C-section — they aren’t exclusively a consequence of vaginal delivery.
And pelvic-floor dysfunction isn’t simply about having weak muscles.
The muscles can also be:
Overactive or difficult to relax
Poorly coordinated
Painful
Weaker than before pregnancy
Unable to respond appropriately to increased physical demands
Sometimes more than one of these factors is present.
What Do Pelvic-Floor Problems Feel Like?
Pelvic-floor problems don’t always announce themselves clearly.
You might notice:
Urinary leakage
For example, leaking when you:
Cough
Sneeze
Laugh
Run
Jump
Lift weights
Exercise
This is often called stress urinary incontinence.
You may also experience urgency — a sudden, difficult-to-ignore need to urinate — or a combination of symptoms.
Pelvic heaviness or pressure
Some women describe:
A dragging sensation
Pressure in the vagina
Feeling as though something is “coming down”
Symptoms that become more noticeable towards the end of the day
Discomfort after prolonged standing or exercise
These symptoms can be associated with pelvic-organ prolapse and deserve proper assessment.
Pain
Pelvic-floor problems can sometimes involve:
Pelvic pain
Pain around the hips or lower back
Pain during or after sex
Difficulty relaxing the pelvic-floor muscles
Pain doesn’t necessarily mean that your pelvic floor is weak. In some cases, muscles that are excessively tense or difficult to relax are part of the problem.
Bowel symptoms
Some women experience difficulty controlling wind or bowel movements, constipation, difficulty emptying the bowel or a feeling of incomplete emptying.
These symptoms are worth mentioning during your assessment rather than assuming they’re unrelated.
Does Leaking After Having a Baby Mean Something Is Wrong?
It means your pelvic floor may need some attention.
Urinary leakage is very common after pregnancy and childbirth, particularly when you return to running, jumping or other high-impact activity.
But “common” shouldn’t become a reason to dismiss it.
NICE recommends pelvic-floor muscle training as part of the management of urinary incontinence, with supervised programmes particularly important when symptoms are persistent or troublesome.
And there’s an important distinction:
The answer isn’t automatically “do more Kegels”.
If your pelvic-floor muscles are weak and aren’t generating enough force, strengthening may be appropriate.
If the muscles are already overactive and unable to relax properly, simply doing more contractions may not be the right approach.
That’s why assessment matters.
So, What Can a Mummy MOT® Actually Do?
A Mummy MOT® is a structured postnatal assessment designed to look at the physical changes associated with pregnancy and childbirth.
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, we’d start by understanding what you’re experiencing and what you want to get back to doing.
That might be:
“I want to run without leaking.”
Or:
“I don’t feel comfortable having sex.”
Or simply:
“Something doesn’t feel right since having my baby.”
Those are all useful starting points.
1. We Take Your Symptoms Seriously
We’ll talk through what you’re experiencing rather than assuming every postnatal problem is the same.
This can include:
When your symptoms started
What triggers them
Whether they are getting better or worse
Pregnancy and birth history
Bladder and bowel symptoms
Pelvic pain
Sexual symptoms
Exercise and activity levels
What you want to return to doing
This helps determine whether a Mummy MOT® is appropriate and what needs to be assessed.
2. We Look at Your Core, Breathing and Movement
Your pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation.
It works as part of a wider system involving your abdominal wall, diaphragm, pelvis and surrounding muscles.
We’ll therefore consider relevant aspects of:
Breathing
Abdominal-wall function
Movement
Posture
Hip and pelvic function
Lower-back movement
How your symptoms respond to different activities
This doesn’t mean that your posture needs to be “fixed”.
It’s about understanding whether particular movements or loads are contributing to your symptoms.
3. We Consider Your Pelvic-Floor Function
Depending on your symptoms, training and the scope of the service being provided, pelvic-floor assessment may involve external assessment and/or referral for more specialist pelvic-health assessment.
An internal pelvic-floor examination is not automatically part of every postnatal assessment.
If an internal examination is clinically appropriate, it should only be undertaken by a practitioner who has the appropriate training, competence, insurance and consent to perform it.
And you should never feel pressured into having one.
If your symptoms suggest that you would benefit from a specialist internal pelvic-floor assessment, we can recommend referral to an appropriately trained pelvic-health physiotherapist.
That isn’t a failure of osteopathic care.
It’s good clinical practice.
What If I Have a Prolapse?
If you’re experiencing pelvic heaviness, pressure or a sensation of bulging, don’t ignore it — but don’t panic either.
Pelvic-organ prolapse is common following pregnancy and childbirth, and there are effective conservative treatment options.
Management may include pelvic-floor muscle training, lifestyle and activity advice and, depending on the presentation, specialist pelvic-health assessment.
A Mummy MOT® can help identify symptoms that warrant further assessment, but it shouldn’t replace an appropriate medical or pelvic-health assessment where prolapse is suspected.
If you notice a vaginal bulge, persistent heaviness or difficulty emptying your bladder or bowel, mention it when you book.
What Treatment Might Help?
The answer depends entirely on what’s causing your symptoms.
For some women, the focus will be progressive pelvic-floor rehabilitation.
For others, the issue may involve coordination, difficulty relaxing the pelvic floor, pelvic or lower-back pain, or broader musculoskeletal factors.
Your plan might therefore include:
Pelvic-floor rehabilitation
Where appropriate, progressive pelvic-floor exercises can improve strength, endurance and control.
Breathing and pressure management
Learning to coordinate breathing, abdominal pressure and pelvic-floor activity can be useful when returning to lifting and exercise.
Core rehabilitation
If your abdominal wall has changed during pregnancy, we can work on rebuilding strength and control progressively rather than simply prescribing generic abdominal exercises.
Osteopathic treatment
Where musculoskeletal pain or restriction is contributing to your presentation, osteopathic treatment may form part of your care.
This could include treatment directed towards relevant areas such as the lower back, pelvis, hips, ribs or surrounding muscles.
Exercise progression
If your goal is to return to running, strength training, Pilates or another activity, we’ll consider how your symptoms respond as physical demands increase.
The objective isn’t simply to avoid the activity that causes symptoms.
It’s to build your capacity to do the things you actually want to do.
What If My Symptoms Are Really About My Pelvic Floor?
This is where knowing when to refer matters.
Pelvic-health physiotherapists have specialist training in the assessment and rehabilitation of pelvic-floor conditions and may be the most appropriate practitioner for certain presentations.
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, we don’t believe in treating everything within one profession.
If your assessment suggests that you would benefit from specialist pelvic-health physiotherapy, your care may work best as a multidisciplinary approach, with osteopathy addressing relevant musculoskeletal symptoms alongside specialist pelvic-floor rehabilitation.
That gives you access to the right expertise rather than trying to make one treatment fit every problem.
How Long Does Pelvic-Floor Rehabilitation Take?
There isn’t a universal timeline.
Some women notice changes relatively quickly once they understand what they’re doing and have the right exercises.
For others, particularly where there is significant muscle injury, prolapse, persistent pain or symptoms that have been present for years, rehabilitation can take considerably longer.
NICE recommends a structured pelvic-floor muscle training programme for at least three months for women with stress or mixed urinary incontinence.
That doesn’t mean you’ll need three months of appointments.
It means meaningful rehabilitation generally requires consistent work over time, rather than expecting one treatment session to solve the problem.
Is It Too Late If My Baby Is Already a Toddler?
Absolutely not.
Perhaps your baby is now two.
Or five.
Or you’ve just realised that the leaking you’ve had since your first pregnancy isn’t something you actually have to accept.
There isn’t an expiry date on seeking help.
The longer symptoms have been present, however, the more important it can be to have an appropriate assessment rather than repeatedly trying random exercises from social media.
When Should You Seek Further Help?
Please don’t wait for a Mummy MOT® if you have symptoms that need medical assessment.
Seek appropriate medical advice for things such as:
Significant or worsening pelvic pain
New neurological symptoms
Loss of bladder or bowel control that is sudden or unexplained
Significant bleeding
Fever or signs of infection
A new or rapidly worsening vaginal bulge
Difficulty passing urine
Severe pain following childbirth or surgery
A Mummy MOT® is a postnatal assessment and rehabilitation service, not a replacement for medical diagnosis or urgent care.
Your Pelvic Floor Doesn’t Have to Be Something You Just Put Up With
Leaking, pelvic heaviness and pelvic pain are common after pregnancy and childbirth.
But you don’t have to simply accept them as the price of having children.
A Mummy MOT® can be a useful starting point for understanding what’s changed, what may be contributing to your symptoms and what kind of support would be most appropriate.
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, our approach is straightforward: listen properly, assess appropriately, treat within our scope and refer when another professional is better placed to help.
Whether you’re six weeks postpartum, six months postpartum or several years beyond your last pregnancy, you deserve to understand what’s happening in your body.
If you’re experiencing pelvic-floor symptoms or you’re unsure whether your recovery is progressing as it should, get in touch with Family Osteopathy Hammersmith to discuss whether a Mummy MOT® is right for you.
