PREGNANT and post-natal women in Herefordshire and Worcestershire are being urged to sign up for a new workout programme to help improve their pelvic floor health.
The ‘Squeeze, Lift Hold’ campaign has been launched by the two counties’ Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS).
A website features facts, tips and advice to help women recognise the signs of incontinence, as well as behaviours to follow to help strengthen their pelvic floor muscles.
More than one in three women experience unintentional (involuntary) loss of urine (urinary incontinence) in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, while about one in three leak urine in the first three months after giving birth.
But the team at LMNS want women to know it does not have to be this way.
Rhiannon Eling, Maternity Voices Partnership representative, said: “Incontinence during or after pregnancy isn’t normal and can have a massive impact on a woman’s quality of life.
“Talking about it isn’t normal either but it should be, which is why we’ve launched the ‘Squeeze, Lift, Hold’ campaign.
“By providing women with easy-to-follow tips and a workout programme of simple exercises taking less than six minutes each day, we hope they can improve their pelvic floor in just a few months, all from the comfort of their own home.”
The workout features simple, quick and effective exercises which can be fitted in around busy routines.
With three stages, it is designed to improve bladder and bowel control, reduce the risk of pelvic organ prolapse, improve recovery from childbirth, preserve and/or increase sexual sensation, as well as maintain spine and pelvis support along with deep abdominal (tummy) and back muscles.
Visit squeezelifthold.co.uk to find out more.
