I’ve been on quite the journey with my body in the last three and half years. At the time I fell pregnant, I was the fittest I’d ever been. I did weight training, daily yoga, danced four times a week, did horse riding (and stable work) twice a week, walked at least 70km a week and had physical job. I was strong, I was healthy, I felt truly myself.
Once I gave birth, it all went downhill. I’ve been walking a lot, but struggled with yoga or exercise despite trying to start few times. I did my pelvic exercises, but it made no difference to my incontinence. Exercise made me anxious as much as coughing or sneezing. I felt tense and tired. I limited when and how much water I drunk to avoid needing toilet while out, yet made sure I only travelled to places where I knew there was a toilet.
In the spring of 2020, I also started to have severe chronic diarrhoea that the doctors to this date were not able to find a cause nor solution for. So in June, I found myself permanently exhausted, weak, achey, feeling unwell and struggling to focus, while not being able to cough without stopping and crossing my legs. I wore period pants every day of the month (life savers). Until I met Naomi that is.
Naomi, works at Moon where I am hosted on their website. And Naomi is simply a miracle worker to me.
During our first session after a in depth chat, she examined me inside and out, concluding I was too tense and that instead of pelvic floor exercises I needed to do something to relax the muscles. She massaged my abdomen and asked me to breathe into my pelvis, which to my surprise I was not able to do. My diaphragm was totally stuck, no wonder I had discomfort in my liver and gall bladder, which by the way the doctors said I need out to treat my symptoms only to tell me after 1.5yrs of waiting for an operation that I did not need one because it would not fix my symptoms ??♀️.
Anyway, just five days after the session, while I was doing my relaxing exercises daily, my incontinence was gone. I’ve been wearing normal pants for over a week now and staying dry. I can’t tell you the feeling of lightness and freedom this brings (especially in the heat). Doing the exercises inspired me to start doing strengthening exercises again. Just at home, using body weight and adding some yoga and I had not missed a day yet. I am already starting to feel the benefits.
Naomi also asked me to run a fluid (in and out) diary for few days. I did that and realised I had overestimated how much water I was drinking. I was actually struggling to get 1.5l in, so I got a water monitoring app and I am up to 2.7l a day now without fail. I feel so much more alert and energetic now! I no longer feel like I need to pee five mins after I’ve been. I can sneeze without crossing my legs, I can exercise confidently, it just feels so good. I did not realise what an effect was the incontinence having on me. Life changing and miraculous. I am finally starting to feel like myself again. I am on it, I am organised and I am productive. It feels damn good. And best of all, I am a better, calmer mother to Oli and that makes it even sweeter.
Naomi also recommended CBD oil for the digestive issues, so I’ll report on that once I finished my first course.
During our second session, after a check in and another examination, Naomi advised me to start working on pelvic floor exercises, slowly and with emphases on relaxation of the muscles still. It is going well. I am maintaining and improving my well being and there is more pleasure to be had too ?.
Life is good and I feel 90% recovered with end goal clearly insight.
I wish I knew of Naomi earlier and went to see her few months post partum, saving myself years of discomfort, pain and inconvenience. If you can’t make the trip to the Moon ?(the one in Tufnell Park, London), then I do recommend you find someone of similar abilities near you. We don’t have to live with this, no matter what the world around us tries to tell us. Incontinence after birth is not normal, albeit it is common and it can be improved and helped in most cases. Lets stop suffering in silence ?
You can find Naomi here: