Should you do kegels to prepare for birth? If you browse any mom forum on social media, or you may have actually been told by your provider, you will come across do kegels to prepare for birth.
The thought is that the pelvic floor needs to be strong to support pregnancy, push your baby out, and a strong pelvic floor will prevent issues from happening in the postpartum period.
But, do kegels help you prepare for birth? Should you do them at all, or avoid them altogether?
First, we need to break down what pelvic floor strength even means, and then we can discuss what we can do to prepare the pelvic floor for birth and if we should do or not do kegels to support optimal function!
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What is pelvic floor strength??
First, it is important to understand that TIGHT does not mean STRONG. Strength is how well we can move a load or force over a distance.
If you consider someone doing a squat, we would consider their strength in the squat to be how much weight they can move to a certain depth and stand back up. We wouldn’t consider their strength to be how much weight they can stand with on their shoulders.
This is the same for our pelvic floor. Our pelvic floor needs to move through a range of motion, and our pelvic floor strength can be defined as how well it moves through this range of motion.
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Our pelvic floor needs to:
- Lengthen or stretch. This gathers energy eccentrically so that we can recoil back with energy and power.
- Relax or find a resting state. This is important for birth!
- Shorten or contract. This would be a pelvic floor activation or kegel.
A kegel, or pelvic floor activation, is only one part of the pelvic floor range of motion. And it would be consider an end range of its range of motion.
Our muscles best operate from a midrange position; this allows them to respond in any direction. If we need to lengthen or gather energy, we can. If we need to shorten it, we can.
If we are stuck at an end range, we are weaker. So, if our pelvic floor is constantly tightening and our only focus is kegel, kegel, kegel, then we are not actually helping our pelvic floor be strong. We are doing the opposite; we are creating weakness in our pelvic floor by forcing it to an end range position!
Should you avoid kegels?
The answer is no! Shortening the pelvic floor is a part of our pelvic floors range of motion! So, we need to be able to find pelvic floor concentric activation.
But, we shouldn’t necessarily sit at a stop light and do 500 kegels.
Rather, we can incorporate our pelvic floor activation or kegel type movement with our overall movement. Or we can coordinate our movement to breath.
The BETTER way to do Kegels to Support Pelvic Floor Function and Preparation for Birth
Coordinating our breath to movement is a better way to support overall pelvic floor function and a preparation for birth! While coordinating our breath to movement, we are supporting better stabilization of our spine and pelvis, while also properly activating muscles to support our movement patterns.
When coordinating breath to movement, there are a few things to consider:
- Inhales are the eccentric portion of the movement. We want to inhale to increase pressure in the abdominal cavity to stabilize the spine.
- Typically, we inhale prior to or with the portion of the movement that moves WITH gravity. Think, lowering in the squat.
- Exhales are the concentric portion of the movement. We want to exhale to increase muscular activation to counter the increased pressure due to exertion.
- Typically, we exhale during the portion of the movement that moves AGAINST gravity. Think, standing up from a squat.
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In summary, we want to kegel or have a pelvic floor activation when we are under exertion!
When you are moving AGAINST gravity or resistance, we want to think lift up and in with the pelvic floor to activate it against exertion.
Watch the youtube video below for more of a breakdown and how to incorporate the kegel into your workouts in a way that supports overall pelvic floor function. AKA a strong pelvic floor!
But what about preparing for birth??
Kegels, or shortening the pelvic floor, is usually not a necessary portion of the pelvic floor range of motion during birth. We want the pelvic floor to MOVE out of the way.
The pelvic floor is the bottom of your baby’s path through the pelvis, so we want it to be able to stretch and release to allow baby to navigate through.
When we inhale, the pelvic floor moves down and stretches. Then when we exhale, we have two options depending on the demand!
We can either:
- Exhale to release and relax OR
- Exhale to contract or shorten.
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Watch the video below to learn more about diaphragmatic breathing and how we can use breath to support function AND relaxation preparation for birth!
Inhale to Lengthen... Exhale to Relax!
We can use breath to find pelvic floor relaxation!
Find a supportive position, such as a supine, semi-reclined, or sidelying.
Focus on inhale to feel the pelvic floor lengthen and move downward to stretch.
Then exhale to release or let go.
We can try this with hip shifting or changing the tension of the pelvic floor, or even adjusting the upper body position (which influences the pelvic position and thus the pelvic floor tension).
Learn more mobility techniques in our in our pelvic floor prep for birth course!
Watch the video below for an example of how we can use breath to relax the pelvic floor and how a hip shift can adjust pelvic floor tension for a better release!
Focus on Overall Pelvic Floor Movement!
When we are preparing for birth and trying to optimize our pelvic floor function, we want to focus on the FULL range of motion, not just an end range.
So, Kegels are necessary to support overall function BUT they are only a portion of the overall, and very necessary, range of motion!
We want to lengthen and STRETCH the pelvic floor so that we can eccentrically, and energetically, load the pelvic floor so it can recoil and generate power in response to the demand.
Then we want to be able to BOTH relax and release the pelvic floor AND contract or shorten the pelvic floor.