Pelvic Floor Therapy in Redlands
Leaking, pressure, pain with sitting or with intimacy. These problems are common, they are treatable, and a pelvic floor certified doctor of physical therapy is on staff here.
What is pelvic floor therapy in Redlands?
You know where every bathroom is on your usual drive. You cross your legs before you sneeze, you have quietly stopped jumping on anything, or you have stopped mentioning the pain because the last person you told said it was normal after having a baby. It is common. Common and normal are not the same thing, and none of it is something you have to live around. The pelvic floor is a sling of muscle across the base of the pelvis. It supports the bladder, bowel, and uterus, controls the openings, works with your deep abdominals and your diaphragm to manage pressure inside the abdomen, and helps steady the spine and hips. Like any other muscle group it can be weak, it can be too tight to relax, and it can be poorly coordinated with everything around it. Those three problems cause very different symptoms and need very different treatment, which is why the exercises a friend was given may have helped her and made you worse.
Pelvic floor physical therapy is orthopedic care applied to that group of muscles. The assessment covers the hips, the low back, the abdominal wall, your breathing, and how you handle pressure when you lift, cough, or run, because the pelvic floor rarely fails on its own. Treatment ranges from manual therapy and down-training for muscles that cannot let go, to strength and timing work for muscles that cannot hold, alongside bladder and bowel habit retraining and a graded return to the exercise you want back. Care here is delivered by a doctor of physical therapy certified in pelvic floor physical therapy, with more than two years of practice in it, in a private room behind a closed door. Most people arrive because of pelvic pain, pregnancy and postpartum recovery, or bladder and bowel dysfunction.
Who it's for.
Pelvic floor therapy is for anyone whose symptoms sit below the belt line and have been getting managed rather than treated. Three of the most common reasons people book.
Leaking, urgency, or a feeling of pressure
You leak when you cough, laugh, run, or lift, you are going to the bathroom just in case, or there is a heaviness low in the pelvis by the end of a long day. Treatment sorts out whether the muscle needs strength, needs to learn to release, or needs better timing with your breath and abdominals. What we measure is whether you can do the thing you have been avoiding without planning around it.
Pregnancy, and the months after delivery
You are pregnant and want to keep training safely, or you are well past your six week check and still feel a gap in the abdominal wall, tenderness in a scar, or pressure when you pick up your child. Care covers pressure management, scar mobility after a vaginal or cesarean delivery, and a graded return to lifting and running. Being cleared at six weeks is a starting line, not a finish line.
Pain with sitting, intimacy, or bowel movements
Pain in the pelvis, tailbone, or groin that imaging has not explained often comes from muscles that have been guarding for a long time. Manual therapy, down-training, and gradual exposure teach those muscles that they can let go. Nothing in the plan happens without your consent, and you set the pace of every step of it.
What to expect in a session.
The first visit is about an hour, one on one with a doctor of physical therapy, in a private room. You decide what happens in it.
A conversation before anything else
Most of the first visit is history: your symptoms and when they started, your bladder and bowel patterns, birth or surgical history, what makes things better or worse, and what you actually want to get back to. Your therapist explains every assessment option before offering it, including what it involves and what it would tell us. You can ask questions, decline any part of it, and stop at any point without it derailing your care.
Assessment of the whole system, not just the pelvis
The examination usually starts outside the pelvis: posture, breathing, hip and low back strength, the abdominal wall, and how you manage pressure when you lift, bear down, or cough. An internal pelvic floor exam is the most direct way to assess tone, strength, and coordination, and it is offered with a full explanation and your explicit consent. It is never required to start care, and there are external ways to assess and treat when you would rather not.
Your plan, and the work between visits
You leave the first visit with our findings explained in plain language and a short home program, which early on is often breathing and position work rather than strengthening. Most plans run 2 to 3 visits a week for 4 to 6 weeks, and your measures get retested at each visit so progress is tracked rather than assumed. A bladder or symptom diary is sometimes part of it, since what happens across your day drives a lot of the result.
An internal examination is one option, not a requirement. It is always explained first, always requires your consent, can be declined or stopped at any moment, and is not appropriate for everyone. Tell your therapist if you are pregnant, recently postpartum or post surgery, have an active infection, or are having unexplained bleeding, since each of those changes what is appropriate at that visit. New or unexplained pelvic bleeding, fever, or pain that wakes you at night should be checked by your physician first.
I highly recommend this physical therapy office! Dr. Haley is incredibly knowledgeable, caring, and professional.
Where to go next.
Pelvic Pain
Pain in the pelvis, tailbone, or groin that imaging has not explained, and what usually drives it.
Pre and Post Partum
Staying strong through pregnancy, and rebuilding after delivery once the six week check is behind you.
Bladder and Bowel Dysfunction
Leaking, urgency, and incomplete emptying, and how muscle timing and habits change all three.
Ready when you are.
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