Identifying Pelvic Floor Concerns with Christina Walsh
-
00:04
Welcome to doula Tips and Tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
00:23
I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.
00:36
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to doula Tips and Tips. I am so excited today to be joined by a special guest. I feel like I've had all winter of no guests and so it's lovely to have a guest on the podcast again.
00:51
Today I have Christina Walsh of Titan Your Tinkler, which you might hear from the name is something about pelvic floors. You know, because my podcast is doula Tips and Tips that I love names like that.
01:07
So that makes me happy. Anyway, Christina, I would love for you to take a minute to share with the listeners who you are and a little bit about your story. Yes. Okay. Well, first of all, I'm going to get there in just a second, but I have to like lay down on my gratitude for what you do in this world.
01:25
Y 'all seriously, my two bursts would not have been anywhere what they were without my doulas. And I, it's what you said on another episode of like, you don't have many contract jobs where you become family, but it is so intimate and so sacred and so vitally important.
01:39
And I'm just so grateful. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to each one of you doing this sacred work. And also, yeah, this is, this is partly, you know, birth is how many women find themselves for the first time experiencing pelvic floor issues.
01:54
And my story is no different. I am a licensed physical therapist. I'm a mom of two living here in New Orleans and like many of us and you probably, I just suspect, we find this calling through our own personal experience.
02:08
So when we get involved in something so intimate as birth work or pelvic floor care, it's very often because we've lived it. And that is the story of my business partner, Jen and I, you know, between the two of us, we have five very different birth stories, birth experiences, and we have different versions of our lived experience of pelvic floor dysfunction and prolapse, her case being much more severe than mine, both in the birth injury department and in her diagnosis of stage two.
02:37
collapse of all three public compartments. However, the counterpoint is my birth stories, which were midwife and doula assisted, non -traumatic, but I happened to have long pushing stages, and I had sunny side up deliveries, and I was blessed to have the natural births I had dreamt of.
02:54
But I was still left with dysfunction afterwards despite all that preparation and all that thoughtfulness that went into all this. It is such a perfect example of the range of birth and I could go on and on.
03:08
It's not just childbirth that can cause this stuff. But that is the most common reason women find themselves seeking support for public floor issues. My partner Jen is an exercise physiologist as well.
03:20
So we come to this from a very nerdy science background, and we found this new protocol to help ourselves because we were searching for help. We did not like what was being offered to us either, surgery, invasive devices, exercises that don't work or that you have to travel too far.
03:39
Point is we needed a better way first, and because we're nerdy science girls and we're why girls, we're going to find another way. Jen, for her, she was referred for surgery, for major pelvic reconstructive surgery.
03:51
She was like, I am not doing that. She's like, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The two of us partnered started going to different courses and honed in on this totally new functional approach to heal this area.
04:06
It works for us and we were like, wait, we've got to prove this to, we've got to get this out in the world. We're going to do research. So our crazy behinds partnered with a professor at a university and took on the crazy hair -brained process of doing three years of research.
04:26
Self -funded just because we were like, we were bent on getting this out into the world to create this change because it meant so much to us and we did the research study, we got it published. multiple years in, we did not have any idea what the future held for us.
04:42
We were just trying to make our splash through research and data. And then the women in our study came back to us and said, please make a video of this. My life has been changed and I have seven women who need this and they don't live here.
04:55
And we listened. We have to do this. We can't wait for the slow cog wheels of the modern medicine system to catch up to this. We've got to get this out there now. And so we created it. We hired a videographer.
05:07
We dialed in the protocol. We filmed it and it is an online program accessible to everyone now. That is why we do what we do. We have tons of teaching also though on YouTube and Instagram because more than anything, we have decided we are committing our lives to putting our stories out there so that every woman can have hope in healing and restoring function and recovery.
05:29
It does not, your story does not have to end with, oh crap, this is my life now. my body feels broken. I thought I was made to do this, which is where you end up. It is deeply emotional. So methods of hope and healing is the point.
05:43
Yes, I love that. There's two things that I especially love about that so much. One is that I am an evidence -based girl through and through. Like I am like, do you have any research behind that? Is this data driven?
05:58
You know? And to a fault sometimes I will admit, right? But also, I think that that matters when we're talking about people committing time and energy and effort into doing something, knowing that it's not going to bring them harm, but is going to assist and help in the system, right?
06:17
The other thing is that one of my biggest pet peeves is the jokes about moms like sneezing and peeing, you know, or like coughing and crossing their legs. And I'm like, I used to make those jokes, but that is not how we have to live our lives, ladies.
06:31
Like, come on, you know. It doesn't have to be like that. And I think that it has ended up a joke because of how rampantly common it is. And because, you know, many women by the time they get to us have either been so ashamed that they didn't know where to turn and they find us through a podcast or online because, you know, we've got videos teaching things you're scared to Google.
06:52
I mean, on you, we talk about, we pull back the curtain on everything and the ways this impacts your life. But so many women by the time they find us, maybe they did get the courage to talk to their doctor or their provider.
07:04
And, you know, contrary to what we might believe, your physician often is not trained in this. If you went to your OBGYN or even your midwife, they are trained to get mama and baby safely through pregnancy and delivery.
07:18
Thank goodness. And we need that expertise. They are not trained in specific examination of prolapse and that sorts of things. That's where women often go. But so these well -meaning physicians are often accidentally dismissing and showing us They don't know what to tell them.
07:38
This isn't their expertise. Very often women are told, that's normal. What do you expect? You're getting older. You had a few kids. Or like that happens to Jen's own doctor. My partner's own doctor told her, mine's worse than yours.
07:50
Like that was it. So yeah, if you have the idea that there's a better answer for you out there, you are right. Don't let what you've heard somewhere, whether it's a physician or a friend, who tries to tell you just to accept this life.
08:06
If you've decided you don't want to accept it, don't. There are options. Oh man, we could get on that soapbox about so many things. So many things. But also like as you're talking, I'm like, yeah, we group it into the category of normal.
08:23
Why? Because the provider does not know what to do with it. And see so many people that has it, that it's just like, a symptom of having had a pregnancy rather than looking at it as like your body can function.
08:37
And I don't mean to say that in a way that's like gaslighting folks that have lingering issues after pregnancy, right? Like there are some significant, significant postpartum issues that people deal with, right?
08:50
And sometimes it takes a very long time to get back to a good, healthy, comfortable, pain -free place. And also we normalize it in scenarios that would not be complicated to heal, you know? Yes. That you hit the nail on the head right there because the approach that we've dialed in is not, it's not Kegel -based.
09:13
There are no Kegels in what we teach because they don't work. You know, the thing Jen, I love her analogy. She's like, would you take, would you go to your personal trainer and be like, I need more upper body strength for this job.
09:24
I'm going to have to be lifting heavy boxes from a floor to a high shelf. If your personal trainer told you then to hold your arm at a 90 degree angle and squeeze and relax and squeeze and relax your bicep, do you think that would get you stronger in lifting the boxes from the floor to the ceiling?
09:42
No, we need functional training for our public floor. Again, I believe that everybody in healing professions gets into them for the right reasons, but they don't know what they don't know. And that's why we're on a war path to get this out there, that there is a better way.
09:57
There is a functional way. Somebody of the women who come to us after they've gotten great results with us come back and say, you know, I just, I found you because I intuitively knew that there was a, there had to be a way to strengthen these muscles.
10:12
And they were right. And they found us that way. It's the women who refuse to accept just what they're pitched, you know, as the standard. No, there is a better way. And that's exactly why we're out to spread the good news.
10:27
I love that. So if you're listening, you can already tell why I asked Christina to be on the podcast because clearly we are aligned in so many ways. One of the things that we are going to dive into today is as a doula, when you're seeing your clients, how can you be a person that is pointing them towards information rather than a person who's just saying, this is normal and either gaslighting them or giving them kegels, right?
10:56
Which neither one know the answer. So what would you love doulas to know in terms of like, what are the earliest things they can look for to know that a client would benefit from this? I will say I'm firmly on the side of like, we all should have some pelvic floor PT, right?
11:13
Like that's, I'm like your pelvic floor held up a baby for nine months, like give that whole area some love, you know, but I would love more detailed information than that for people out of a great point, many women come to us and they've been under the misimpression that if you had a C -section you can't end up with pelvic floor issues.
11:34
Which as you just so eloquently put the way I always say it is, no matter how that baby came out, your pelvic floor held a bowling ball for nothing. So yeah, you think it's been through a little stress and your body's stretched to accommodate that in magical, wonderful ways, but that has often a lasting impact.
11:54
So first of all, Doolah, is by being present for your clients in the way that you do, helping them feel safe. You are already lowering their risk of having pelvic floor problems and prolapse later. You are assisting them and having a less intervene upon birth, especially if that's what they want.
12:16
And just being that safe presence for them is already lowering their risk. So again, thank you. What you can do next though is you can know some statistical risk factors. You know, because you witness that burn, you can know things that like just to help you understand and graduate like when they tell you, I might be having this, I might be having that, you can have some data behind that as to like, well, you did have to end up having a forceps or a vacuum assisted delivery.
12:48
So you are at a statistically greater risk for developing prolapse. Things like that, I think, can be delivered in a way that is not scary, but that is an empowering piece of information for someone who needs to know that to validate their journey.
13:02
Pushing for greater than two hours is another statistical risk factor for developing prolapse at some point. That is my story. You know, there are birth positions that decrease risk. Certainly, and I know all of you know that already.
13:20
So those things, but some sometimes circumstances dictate other things to occur for various reasons as you also know very well. But it can be part of your analysis of like, how do I know if they might be more likely to need referral to this sorts of resources so.
13:36
Side line squatting hands and knees of course those things are lower risk positions to birth for as when it comes to injury of tearing or prolapse. You know, greater association greater risk of tearing with certain things like weight gain of greater than 40 pounds.
13:54
Again, prolonged second stage of labor use of oils or lubricants has been shown to be associated with increased tearing by some research that I've I've found. So research is all open to. Discernment and you in the way you read it, but perennial massage has also been shown to have increased risk of tearing and fear.
14:16
So again, by being present for them in safety, you are decreasing that risk things that are associated with a decreased risk of perennial tearing. I include the delivery positions that we talked about in that manual support of the perineum, which I know would not be your bag, but something that you could ask the client, does that sound like it would be supportive or the midwife or OB can offer that manual pressure or support of the perineum during delivery?
14:42
Now, okay, after baby comes. So those are all things that you can keep in the back of your mind because you witnessed that birth. Okay, this, this woman might be at a greater risk for some of these things later because of what happened.
14:55
Now, if and when she reports to you, so this is, you're most likely to encounter this woman early in the postpartum, which, you know, we can say that maybe a little bit of leaking or some amount of pressure could be, could be in the realm of normal in early postpartum.
15:14
So, but you can also provide them education on the fact that after six weeks, 12 weeks, if you are still dealing with pressure or heaviness, urine leaks, or any reason, laughing, coughing, seizing, jumping, or that got to go type of leak.
15:29
If you are getting up in the middle of the night to pee, if you are still having pain either during or after intercourse, at, you know, 12 weeks or more postpartum, none of that, if you're having back in hip pain that you didn't have before, none of those things should be considered normal at that point.
15:48
And those are thresholds where yes, let's go seek some help. And while I love to encourage early intervention, I also don't want women to feel in that very overwhelming early postpartum year, I would say, speaking from my experience, that there's a rush.
16:03
So we have helped women 37 years post their last birth to regain function. So if mom is overwhelmed and has enough on her plate, give her our YouTube channel. We have so much teaching there and it is incredibly empowering and validating.
16:21
And it lets you know there's hope now to heal if your threshold is okay, I know I've I'm leaking pee at 12 weeks and I'm not living like this. I'm doing something about it now. Some women, it's a sudden bulge or that pressure that maybe they didn't have it at 12 weeks, but they have it four months later and they're, that's a panicked, awful feeling and women are ready to take action now.
16:40
So whether it's then or whether it's years later and you're suddenly like, wait, I don't want to live with this anymore. Any of those times is an appropriate time to seek professional support, whether that be from the Titan or Tingler signature program, or that be from an in -person care provider, or whether it be a combination of both.
17:01
You know, and so we have our really wonderful resource, not only if all of our YouTube teaching where women can go down rabbit holes on their own, but we also have our five minute quiz. We call it our root cause quiz because it takes the questionnaires that we use to guide our research study and it turns them into a quick quiz.
17:18
What it does for women is it, again, it validates their experience. what they're feeling in their own bodies, but it helps them also connect the dots between like all the symptoms that I talked about women often put into separate buckets.
17:29
Well, this is this thing, and this is that other thing. Well, actually, no, they can all be fixed at the same time because they're really sharing the same root cause of like pelvic floor and core dysfunction.
17:38
So it's a it's a sense of hope that you suddenly realize, wait, this is all one problem? Oh my gosh, that's fantastic. And it gives them a score that tells them whether or not they're a great fit for an online program like what we offer, or if they need to seek in person care, depending on the severity of where they are.
17:55
I love that, especially because we have such a limited supply of pelvic floor pts. And so even if you live in an area like DC, where we do have a number of pelvic floor pts, it takes months sometimes to get in with someone.
18:12
And if you're just the stuff that you can start working on ahead of time, or that you can handle with an online option, that's often so much more accessible than waiting two or three months to be seen, you know, or being told Kegels like truly, I can't tell you how much I preach against Kegels and parent like every single child birth class I ever do.
18:33
I'm like, it's not evidence based, neither of them are evidence based unless you've been told that you lack tone in your pelvic floor. And you've been prescribed Kegels before I still say don't do it.
18:44
I still say don't do it. Because what it does is it creates an over tight or hypertonic muscle. Like if you have an exercise background, it doesn't make any sense, you know, if that's your and so the only reason it's been advised and recommended so long, because nobody figured out a better way yet, but now there is one.
19:03
So and again, it's not I'm not throwing other providers out of the bus ever. But that's why they're recommending because they don't know another way. So, you know, the other piece that I would love to share if it's all right next is like really fantastic, easy attainable action steps that you can guide your doula clients on in healing well in a supported way in that immediate postpartum.
19:29
Because first of all, also you're already doing all the right things, guiding them with, you know, the amount of reps that they should ideally be taking. So you're already setting your clients up for success in a way that women weren't, you didn't have access to this a generation ago, or many women even still now.
19:47
But there are some things you can add to your toolbox of guidelines and recommendations that you can give them that really will help their healing in this very tender and freshly injured areas postpartum.
20:01
So so many things. Do you have anything you want to add, Kayleigh, about like, no, no, I love that. That's exactly where I'd like you to go. And doula's, I want you to remember that you can come back to this.
20:14
But also, Christina is going to share some resources at the end, both for your information, also for your clients. Because part of this, I mean, we were joking about this before we hit record, that part of this is about us if we've had babies, right?
20:29
Like I'm still doing pelvic floor work and my youngest is 10, you know, in part because no one told me about it until she was like six, you know, and so it took a long time to even know this was a thing I should do.
20:41
But I think also when we're thinking about the ways that we support our clients, I think that it is a big flex of our like resources to be able to say, I'm not an expert in this, but I have some experts to point you to.
20:56
And so what Christina is going to share is partially you being, I'm like, I would love for a doula to take what you're sharing next and use that with their clients alongside the information about your program so that it's not something that a doula kind of adds on as if they are the ones who can do this on their own.
21:13
Because I think we do kind of, we have so many hats already. It's easy for us to be like, well, I think I could help you fix that thing. And like, no, no, give them some things. And then also the information to get the real experts to help with this.
21:27
So yeah. I know I love the way you said that because by giving them these simple action steps, you are helping them with this. You absolutely are in a meaningful way. And some of this is going to sound so simple, but hearing it from someone who they trust and value, they value everything you say to them.
21:48
When you've been through that vulnerable experience and supported them through birth, I mean, and I'm speaking from experience, my doula could have told me anything and I would have done it. I mean, I trusted her to the moon.
21:59
So maybe this stuff sounds simple, but to hear it from you, it will feel important. And it is important. So number one, tune in and listen to your body in this tender recovery period. And you're probably already advising them of this, but our bodies are brilliant, wise machines.
22:19
And if something doesn't feel intuitively right to you, or if something seems to be getting a little bit, and this is what you can advise them, if something seems to be getting a little worse, it's not your body saying push through that, especially in this recovery, it's your body saying, not right now, not yet, please.
22:39
It's not saying never, you know, because we live in a go, go, go society, it's hard to slow down to the degree we need to to heal well. But by doing that now, you are saving yourself a harder recovery later.
22:53
So tune in and listen, follow the signs of your loquia. If it increases, that's again, your body saying, not yet, please, let's wait a little bit longer, I need some more time. You know, the same thing goes for the bladder symptoms, the pressure symptoms.
23:08
If any of that increases as you're trying to ramp your activity back up, that's the time to tune in, listen to your body and honor its wishes of not yet, please. So by just guiding them and and encouraging them to honor their own bodies that way, you are helping them heal better and more fully now.
23:30
So they're less likely to need something like I can provide later. Another, so that's so simple, right? So simple. Another thing is to focus, I know you're already advising about hydration, especially if you have a breastfeeding mom, incredibly important, and mom's gonna want to drink a lot of water anyway if she's breastfeeding, if she's the only guy was.
23:51
But fiber, don't forget the fiber, because we can hydrate a lot, but if we don't have any of that fiber, guess what, those poops are still gonna get kind of hard and funky, and it is not a gift to our pelvic floor to have to push and strain to have a bowel movement.
24:08
So the softer and smoother and more regular, we can keep those bowel movements, the kinder it is to your pelvic floor and that tender recovery. And along those lines, if you don't have one yet, get that squatty potty.
24:20
So you can put yourself in that ergonomic position for complete and gentle or emptying. I would say two things I'm gonna add to your poop. Yeah, oh, I can talk about this all day. Is one thing that I think we sometimes neglect talking about is how their postpartum poop is going, like asking a client if they've been able to poop and how it is, because as a person who has had three kiddos, that first poop can be terrifying.
24:51
Scary. And it can be really rough, it can be hard. If your body, if you're a little constipated or whatever, there's so many layers of why it can be really hard to do. But it also is a space where, because we're trusted in this vulnerable place, we're one of very few people, even sometimes above their family members that they're willing to do.
25:12
Including their spouse. Yeah, especially about poop. And I will say hot tip on the squatty potty. If there is not a squatty potty around, most people don't have to poop. short step stools are the right height.
25:25
And that can function if you can kind of be a little wide on them. Yeah, yeah. Or just to get the blocks. Yes, yes. And another thing that really works really well is those big Costco size yogurt containers or take out soup containers turned upside down.
25:43
I love it. So it doesn't have to be a formal squatty potty. And look, we have a whole highlight bubble on our Instagram page on postpartum pooping. So I mean, this is a hot topic. And look, there's so many, you're on the squatty potty.
25:58
You've got your fiber, you've got your hydration, but it's still scary. So you wanna breathe out as you push, just like you breathe the baby down. You're gonna breathe the poop down and it's so much more peaceful.
26:09
You're gonna rock side to side to help ease that passage. You can rock in circles. So you can breathe, you can rock. All of those things make it so much more peaceful and gentler and easier on, and all of this is protecting your pelvic floor in this healing.
26:25
So, yeah, so much you can teach women to do right then and there that supports this. Another thing is if they're having specifically, especially groin or inner thigh pain, a Webster certified chiropractor is going to be who you need to check for that, because that groin or inner thigh pain is very commonly a sign of that pubic joint being out of alignment.
26:47
And it's nothing you did wrong. You know, clients of your stool is nothing they did wrong. We do so much spreading, right? This is how we teach women that we work to do so much spreading happens to accommodate that pregnancy, your bones trying to come back together.
26:59
Sometimes it misses the mark a little bit. And now that you're done being pregnant after you have the baby, you're more likely to hold that alignment, but the Webster certified chiropractors are uniquely trained to gently adjust that pubic joint back into alignment.
27:12
And it can be a godsend for any woman dealing with that sharp groin or inner thigh pain postpartum. This is not so easy, right? I mean, not easy to get to a new provider, but, you know, what a what array of light you can be for a woman who's suffering with this and go, Oh, I know, I know what to tell you.
27:29
And we have a teaching on YouTube and Instagram where they can do a self -check. We guide them through a self -check of their pubic joint. So many things are accessible right from home and are meaningful changes that all of your clients can access.
27:43
Another one is one of our favorite freebies is our at home decompression technique. And this is take, I tell my type A moms, this is rest multitasking. You know, yes, I'm asking you to be still, but you are doing so many things for your body while you're lying there.
28:02
This position puts gravity on your side. It doesn't take any props, well, pillows and things. It takes things you already have in your house. What this does is it offloads the pelvic floor. It takes pressure.
28:15
Like Jen and I say, it's like tipping the organs back on the sheath. It takes pressure off the pelvic floor, off your back and hips, and it's just a position you put your body in and lay there for five to 10 minutes.
28:26
You combine it with breath work. You combine it with meditation, with prayer, with listening to your favorite podcast like Kaylee's. And your rest multitasking because you are also giving yourself a nervous system reset at the same time in this position, which if your nervous system is in fight or flight, you can't heal as well.
28:46
So I mean, an upward spiral of healing just by putting yourself in this at home decompression position for five to 10 minutes. I'll give you the link. It's free. So these kind of resources can be a godsend and a game changer in walking that path of healing very early on.
29:05
I love that. I would love for you to talk a little bit about what your what your program is just so that the doula's listening have a sense of what it even. you know, like what would they expect if they were sending it to a client, but also, um, about the, the coupon code that you have because so, I mean, like I said before, so many of us as doulas also need this work.
29:29
Um, and so I, this is one of the programs that I would love to do because I, I love being able to refer clients to things that I personally have done. Yeah. But also I firmly am like, we are not, we do not have to perpetuate the like I laugh and pee society.
29:46
Right. Like this is not what parents were meant to do in their later years. And so, um, I am very firmly in line with all of these recommendations anyway. Perfect. Yeah. And so look at our signature program is just the protocol we taught in our research turned into an online accessible program.
30:05
And so we spent tons of time dialing this thing in to be as efficient and effective as possible because we're busy moms too. I don't have 30 minutes a day for this. So it is a 10 to 15 minute a functional whole body movement series that actually feels good to do.
30:21
I mean, imagine that that you do with your clothes on, your kids can do it with you. All hanging out together. But also part of the golden is that it's not just a therapeutic exercise, functional therapeutic exercise routine.
30:35
It is also a toolbox of relief techniques. So you're guided through first self assessments. Okay. Like where am I? Where am I starting from? How bad is this? What pieces of this do I need to focus on?
30:47
So you're guided through that first, then you're walked through a box, a tool belt, like strap it on because it's, it's power. You don't have to be scared anymore because you have tools that help you feel better now while you're building strength with the exercises.
30:59
That is, that is part of the real gold. Cause it's not just the exercise. Most women are most excited about the exercises, but it is a dance as we're building strength, recovering from an injury. You have to know, you know, look, for instance, we're on a family trip.
31:15
My toddler wanted to be carried on a hike. And I thought, oh, well rested, well fed, we're gonna be totally fine. We weren't totally fine. Who knows why? He needed to be carried for two hours. I wasn't really up for it, but I sure did it.
31:27
And so, but I need to know when that happens to me and you need to know when your clients need to know, I don't have to be frightened because even if this pushes me over the edge a little bit again, I was better, but I have tools and I know exactly what to do when I get home that will make me completely better again in two days.
31:43
So it is like such an emotional journey. Not only are you getting physically better, but you're stripping the fear away from these issues that are so, and I'm speaking from myself here. When you feel this stuff, your body feels broken.
32:00
And I know I'm not the only one who uses that language. So many women come to us with that. And so to take fear out of that, you know, it can, It can repair a marriage because you're no longer having pain with sex.
32:11
It can repair your ability to be the mom you want to be because you can run and play and go and do and your back isn't screaming anymore. It, it truly is miraculous. All the pieces that come together when we give our body just that little nudge, it needs to do what it wanted to do anyway, which is what holistic health always does.
32:31
So that's another way of framing what this is. It is just encouraging your body to go where it wanted to go anyway with the gentlest little nudge. And it is so incredible, the change that can occur from that.
32:47
I love that so much. And I think that this doula is listening. I think this, this is one of many things you should have in your tool belt around pelvic floor health and postpartum recovery, along with a Webster technique, a Webster certified chiropractor.
33:05
That, that's someone who needs to be in your referral list anyway for prenatal work, for postpartum work. And so that's super important regardless. But also I think normalizing the fact that our idea of like bounce back culture and like getting quickly into the things that, yeah, which is we're both like clearly very against.
33:29
But that is something that as doulas, we need to not only not perpetuate it, we also need to actively work against it because that message is everywhere. And the idea of like go for a long walk, go for a quick run, go for it as soon as you can, sets you back so much in healing, especially in the pelvic floor.
33:50
But it's also connected to everything. Everything. I remember I hurt my knee once and my pelvic floor PT was like, what'd you do to your knee? And I was like, how do you know that with your fingers up there?
34:01
Like, well, look, and, and this is, this is a time for you as a dual, if you're a client, is looking for support in this realm, you know your client. So whether or not they need to go see someone in person or whether they would be much more comfortable doing this at home on their own, you know them, right?
34:21
So you can get support either way. These are very different approaches. And so you know your girl. So you can offer her what's available or gently nudge her to the one you think is the best fit for her.
34:36
And so thank goodness there are options. Now one thing you said reminded me of something I didn't say earlier that I really wanted to get to. Super quick and sure this is not long. Make sure your momma's know this is not being talked about enough.
34:49
High impact exercise is not your friend when you are still breastfeeding. The duration of breastfeeding if you choose now you can choose what you want to choose. You do you boo. But if you choose to add high impact exercise while you're still breastfeeding, it does put you at a greater risk for.
35:07
tweaking your knee, throwing your pelvis out of alignment, spraining your ankle and for increased pelvic floor issues because your tissues are still lax because of the unique condition of your body during breastfeeding.
35:21
Not as lax as it was during pregnancy, but I want women to be empowered with that knowledge to make an informed choice of what's right for you, but know that you are still at greater risk of additional injuries if you choose to resume high -impact exercise while still breastfeeding.
35:37
Yeah, I feel like also my knee injury, I should clarify, I'm pretty sure I tripped on the curb. Like, yeah. I was not, sadly, doing a high -impact exercise. That, well, I also do not choose high -impact exercise, but so many women do, and I want to respect that and acknowledge that.
35:59
I just feel like I should clarify in case anyone does blame me of high -impact exercise at any particular point in life. So, Christina, I have all of your information in the show notes, so people can see you on Instagram, connect with you on YouTube, all of that.
36:18
I would love for you to share whatever links you would like for our listeners to specifically look out for in those show notes before we get off for today. Totally, well, I'm definitely gonna make sure you have the quiz link, our website, it's full.
36:32
We have a huge resources page that we just redid on our website that groups all of our resources, be it freebies, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, by Symptom. So there's a pregnancy tab, a postpartum tab, a diastasis recti tab, which also heals with our program, I completely forgot to mention.
36:51
There's a P -leak tab, so you can get that symptom -based direction to resources right on our website, titaniertinkler .com, of course. Make sure you have that at -home decompression technique, both for you and for your clients.
37:07
And yeah, all the, we're all the places, Instagram, YouTube, all the things. And you know, our tagline is silly name, serious results, because what we always promise is that we take what we help women with incredibly seriously, but never ourselves too much.
37:22
So. I love that as a tagline. What a perfect tagline. And lastly, yes, we have a coupon code just for you and your listeners. It is doula 50 D O U L A 50, doula 50. And that's for $50 off our signature program.
37:41
We also have one additional offering that is a proactive healing guide for mom's postpartum to where if they are extremely concerned about developing these issues and want an expert guide on recovering in a way that will not lead them there, we have that proactive healing guide as well.
37:58
So this $50 off would apply to that or to our signature program, which is the treatment, like I'm having issues. I want to get better. That's what that's for. I love this. Well, I am so grateful that you took the time to be on with us, and I am excited to have you on another time for other topics, which is very commonly what I say, because there are so many things we can discuss.
38:22
Thank you so much for taking the time. If you are listening, please take time to look at Titan Your Tinkler. It is a wealth of resources and knowledge. And one of those things that you could honestly send to clients before they are financially or emotionally ready for a program, there are resources on there that will benefit them ahead of that.
38:42
So similar to evidence -based birth, similar to some of the other spinning babies, things that you may be sent to clients as a resource to begin with, this is one of those that you really want to add to your list so that clients have this information, honestly, during pregnancy.
38:58
So they're kind of set up for success. So I love that, especially if they're experiencing issues, because the comments under our YouTube teaching are always, holy moly, I finally feel validated. I'm crying right now because I thought I was alone.
39:12
So just to know with 100% certainty, okay, I'm not alone and there's hope, what a gift. Like before you even take any action. So something simple as that makes a world of difference. Yeah, absolutely.
39:27
Thanks again for being here with us, Christina. Thank you, Kaylee, and all you wonderful doers for the heaven sent work that you do. All right, I'll see you all in the next episode.
Today we are joined by the marvelous Christina Walsh of Tighten Your Tinkler! (what an awesome name right?)
More about Christina:
Published researcher, Physical Therapist, and manual integrative therapist, Christina Walsh has 15+ years of experience in the holistic health space. Together with her Tighten Your Tinkler cofounder (EP + author Jenn Lormand), Christina developed a revolutionary movement-based protocol that allows her to manage her prolapse in a way that lets her forget she even has it.
Jenn and Christina helped hundreds of New Orleans women reduce and eliminate pelvic floor issues before going online in 2019. The Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy featured their research, confirming the effectiveness of their protocol at ending pee leaks, back pain, and painful sex – WITHOUT kegels or trendy internal vaginal devices.
“
CONNECT with Christina
Freebie:
$50 off the Tighten Your Tinkler Signature Program code: DOULA50
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tighten.your.tinkler
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
