It all started, as all inventions do, at a time of need. Plato said it best, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In the middle of Covid back in March 2020 I found myself unable to see my patients. All our appointments in the public hospital that I work in as a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist were converted to phone consults. I felt at a loss. How can I help these women, these mothers to be and new mothers when I cannot see them?
During this period, I started creating educational guides and sharing them with my patients. Guess what? People got better. People felt better. I could still help my patients. Over the years I forgot that one of the main benefits Pelvic Floor Physio provided was not seeing patients in person, but simply the invaluable education that I have gathered over a 4 year undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy, a 2 year Master’s Degree in Women’s Health and Continence and 10 years supporting women with their pelvic floor health, pregnancy, delivery and recovery.
I started looking for resources to recommend and share with my patients to support my advice and rough guides. To my surprise I could not find anything. I was unable to find any reliable, trusted resources for women to learn about their pelvic floor, stay active safely during pregnancy, heal their pelvic pain, have pain free sex… the list goes on.
From that point on, I decided to make it my mission to make pelvic floor health, education and pelvic floor strength and fitness as common place as the gym. There is such a focus on external appearances, the best type of exercise for weight loss, getting your “baby body back”. But, how about internal strength and fitness, how about exercising to feel good, how about nourishing and treating our bodies with care after delivery? From this thought came the Vagina Gym signature pelvic floor program!
When I told people about this name, some sniggered, some blushed, some thought saying the word “vagina” was too “aggressive”. Therein lies the problem. Our sensibilities and the community’s sensibilities have denied women access to this basic information because speaking about our *whisper* vaginas is “uncouth”. Women are disempowered to learn about their bodies simply because even uttering the word vagina is looked down on. What this in-turn contributes to is a lack of education about our own bodies. The reality is, pelvic floor dysfunction is real and is more common place than back pain. 1 in 3 women will experience incontinence after having a baby. 50% of women have a lifetime incidence of prolapse. Yet, despite these shocking realities, we are still not allowed to talk about our vaginas?! Vagina is not a bad word. It is only bad because of the historical context of denying women’s sexuality and shaming them for being sexual. Let’s change that.
Let’s reclaim the word vagina. Let’s celebrate our bodies.
I don’t want patients to be too embarrassed to talk about their vaginas, incontinence, childbirth experience, sex with their partners just because society has trained us to do so. Women often only come to see me after years of experiencing symptoms simply because they were too shy to mention it to any other medical professional until the symptoms were impacting their lives too significantly to ignore. Or, they mistakenly accepted their symptoms as “normal” as they were not told of any alternative. God forbid anyone should tell women what is and isn’t normal about their own bodies!
We have been denied this information for too long. The societal context of the word vagina has given me more reason to create and launch the Vagina Gym into the world! I want to make pelvic floor health, education, and fitness as commonplace, as accepted, as normalised as the gym! I want you to be informed, empowered and confident in knowing what your body and you are capable of. So many pelvic floor issues can be prevented with simple lifestyle advice and education. I want to help you! Tell your Mum, tell your sister, tell your friends. You deserve to be informed and in control of your pelvic health. So come and join the Vagina Gym Revolution today!
Muirna’s professional advice and guidance has been invaluable to me as I progress through my second pregnancy. My pelvic floor is stronger now than it was during my previous pregnancy!
Thank you so much Aisling! We love hearing from our community. Please reach out if you need anything 🙂