The pelvic floor is a hidden muscle, not seen or viewed from the outside, so often it is hard to feel certain that you are correctly connecting to the muscles when you do your exercises.

We know that regular and correctly performed pelvic floor muscle exercises will help maintain your pelvic floor muscle strength, endurance and function during pregnancy. They reduce your chance of incontinence and will also help your pelvic floor muscles to recover well after the birth.
 

Here are 7 ways to Connect to Your Pelvic Floor

1. Feeling your muscles work internally – stop and really focus on the feeling of lifting and relaxing your pelvic floor muscles with the exercises. As you do you will tune more into the feeling of contracting and relaxing them.

2. Feeling the effect of your muscles work with your lower abdominal muscles. If you place your hand just above your pubic bone, you may be able to feel the effect of your lower abdominal muscles working as or after you lift your pelvic floor. This is felt as a small amount of movement under your fingers.

3. Stopping your flow of urine. One of the jobs of your pelvic floor is to stop you from leaking when you have a full bladder or need to go to the toilet. Stopping the flow of urine is a test or check that you are connecting to the muscles, but it is not recommended as an exercise, as it is best to fully empty your bladder when you go to the toilet.

4. Change position – try moving into another position to feel your pelvic floor muscles more, for example from sitting upright to leaning forwards on a chair, or use side lying, where your muscles don’t need to work against the effect of gravity.

5. Imagine you are drawing something up inside. Thinking of lifting diamonds or jewels helps some women to connect to their pelvic floor muscles. Visualising lifting also helps, connecting it to the feeling you have inside as you lift.

6. Feeling the muscles working – externally. If you place your hands on your perineum area, the area between your vaginal wall and back passage, when you lift your pelvic floor you can feel some movement away from your hand, and back towards your hand with the effect of letting go.

7. Feeling your muscles working – internally.  Some women don’t mind feeling inside with a clean finger or two fingers. As you lift your muscles you can feel a closing of the vaginal wall around your finger or fingers. You should also feel some lifting up inside. As you relax, you then feel the firmness around your fingers release.

 
To Connect more to Your Pelvic Floor, enjoy the benefits of the program Preparing Your Pelvic Floor for Birth and Recovery, with audio instructions to help build your confidence and connection to your pelvic floor during and after pregnancy.