You have to unlearn this blowing behavior immediately
The pelvic floor: so important, but still so unspoken! With The Pelvic Floor Book, pelvic floor specialist Hedwig Neels wants to put an end to this and break the taboo surrounding pelvic floor problems. In the book you will find everything you want to know as a woman about your pelvic floor. To prevent and remedy complaints. Because there is still a lot of ignorance. Like the myths below for example.
It seems that some myths are passed down from generation to generation among women. Innocent tips and hints that your mother used to give can unconsciously cause incorrect bladder behavior.
Example 1: Peeing as a precaution
Just in case. Do you have the habit of always taking a quick pee before you leave the house and always peeing first everywhere you arrive? When that habit becomes a routine, you rarely listen to your bladder. It can interfere with your normal bladder function and sensation. Maybe you’re also putting too much pressure on that quickly just-in-case-pee to press out? Try to avoid that; a healthy adult bladder can easily hold 500 ml. As your bladder gradually fills up, the urge to urinate may mount. So do not immediately give in to those first feelings, but learn to understand the signals from your bladder. Only when you feel that the urge is getting stronger and you probably have 350 to 500 ml in your bladder before, is it best to urinate. Keeping track of exactly what you’ve drunk and eaten (fruits and vegetables, for example, also contain a lot of fluids, which may help you to have a full bladder again sooner) can help you understand your body. In a pee diary you can keep track of how much you drink and pee and how strong your urge to pee was.
Example 2: Public toilets are dirty
It is better not to sit on those glasses, because then you may come into contact with dirty bacteria and you will get a bladder infection. Are you also someone who always hovers over the toilet, preferably with your pants safely high, to avoid contact with that dirty ground? Well, that habit can actually cause more problems. Due to the muscle tension that you build up to assume that awkward position, floating above the toilet, you are less able to release and relax your pelvic floor muscles. This is probably why you do not empty your bladder sufficiently. The small amount of urine that remains is a breeding ground for bacteria and can cause a bladder infection. So it is better to always sit well supported on the glasses, lower your clothing sufficiently, relax your abdomen and pelvic floor, and empty your urine quietly.
Example 3: Strong pee jet
Pee well, a strong stream of urine is the sign that you are urinating a lot. Do you keep pressing on your bladder to empty your bladder with a strong stream of urine? You better not do that either. If you sit comfortably and comfortably on the glasses and release your pelvic floor muscles, your brain will unconsciously direct your bladder to empty itself. So let your bladder do what it is for. It is a muscle that will squeeze quietly and in a controlled manner.
Example 4: Training with a urine stop
Pelvic floor muscles are important, you train them best with the urine stop. If you can pee in small streams, you know it’s in the right place underneath. New! Urine cessation is not a good pelvic floor muscle exercise at all. At the urine stop, first let your pee flow and then squeeze your pelvic floor muscles again to hold your pee proud. If you can do that, you know that your pelvic floor muscles are contracting properly. But if you do that several times in a row, you disrupt the balance between your bladder and pelvic floor. Your bladder muscle is a smooth muscle, a muscle that is subconsciously controlled by your brain. We can’t really control that muscle. Compare it with your heart muscle: that too is a muscle that you cannot just stop or shut down.
More information
The above myths come from The Pelvic Floor Book by Hedwig Neels. In this book, Neels – physiotherapist with a specialization in the pelvic floor – provides some important basic principles and preventive guidelines for a healthy pelvic floor. With this book she wants to remove the uncertainty that many women still feel about this subject. She explains how you can avoid and solve pelvic floor problems and how you can best deal with permanent changes or complaints. She is also the driving force behind www.thepelvicfloor.be with which she wants to break the taboo surrounding pelvic floor problems.
