Perineal massage during pregnancy
Introduction
Perineal massage during pregnancy is a topic that future mothers, especially if the pregnancy is approaching its end, often wonder about.
What exactly is it? When to start doing it and how to proceed? Which oil to use? If you are asking yourself these questions, in the following lines you can find the answer.
To help you understand something more about a very important topic, I have prepared this content.
Before starting, I'll leave you some useful information:
- To get your sweet pregnancy journey off to a good start, I recommend you take a look at the multidisciplinary prenatal and pelvic floor video course, designed for you by Doctor Maria Chiara Alvisi, the midwife at the Yule Center .
- You can also find us on Instagram with the profile @drsilva.com_official
Perineum: What It Is and Why You Should Massage It During Pregnancy
Let's start from the basics, trying to understand what the perineum is.
To answer this question, it is necessary to take as a reference what was said by Doctor Maria Chiara Alvisi, a midwife since 2013, in the video that you can see here .
Dr. Alvisi specifies that, to better understand what the perineum is, it is necessary to be aware of the fact that the human pelvis is closed in its lower part.
To support it we find a real set of structures, namely the pelvic floor . The perineum , which is its internal part, in women surrounds the vagina, vulva and anus .
Taking care of it during pregnancy and especially in view of childbirth is very important.
In fact, we are talking about an area of the body that, as the puppy grows, is affected by a transformation that is nothing short of miraculous.
Even though she has been prepared by nature for the work that will be done during childbirth, it is still advisable to train her as best as possible. By doing so, you prevent the onset of trauma and problems.
How to take care of your pelvic floor when you're expecting
There is often a tendency, mistakenly, to think that the most significant changes to the above-mentioned area of the body, which is decidedly little known in Western countries and, above all, little respected, occur during childbirth.
Wrong! The pelvic floor is subject to changes from the beginning of pregnancy .
To exercise it in preparation for childbirth, sexual intercourse is an excellent option (obviously in cases where it is not contraindicated for medical reasons).
A precious glue for the couple in a delicate moment such as the approaching of the beginning of the journey of parenthood, sex is a fantastic gymnastics for the perineum of the pregnant woman.
In the video linked above, Doctor Alvisi highlights how sexual intercourse in the last weeks of pregnancy also helps prepare the cervix for the dilation of labor.
To take care of the pelvic floor during pregnancy - let's not forget that, during gestation, this area of the body is highly stressed due to the need to support both the weight of the organs and that of the growing baby - it is first of all essential to reactivate it.
Lie on the ground, on a hard surface and with your legs crossed : this is the starting point for performing the perineum reactivation exercise.
From the above position - be careful, you should sit on a mat or on the floor, avoiding the bed or the sofa - you need to concentrate on your body , so as to listen to the way in which the pelvis rests on the lower corners of the ilium , the so-called ischial tuberosities.
This way it is possible to locate the pelvic floor area.
Once you have found it, still in a sitting position, you have to imagine moving the vagina, contracting and relaxing its muscles.