Pregnancy Care

Just like other types of physical therapy, we assess and treat issues with muscles, nerves, connective tissue, and joints. In the specialty of pelvic health, we just do this to help you with concerns in your pelvic region (generally from your abdomen to your thighs) that can cause pain or issues with bladder, bowel, and sexual function. We still take a head to toe approach so that we can identify root cause issues, but can also more directly assess and treat your pelvic floor which is a group of muscles at the base of your pelvis.

Nope! We love staying on top of things to make sure you are well equipped with the knowledge and tools to stay comfortable and symptom free. We will give you the tools to rock your pregnancy and birth and hope that you stay symptom free through all of the changes!

Nope! Washington is a direct-access state for physical therapy services so you can see us without jumping through the hoops of seeing a physician first. Our therapists are well trained in screening for issues that would warrant a follow up with a physician and will make sure you are in the right place too. Some insurance providers do require a referral, so if you are worried about reimbursement for our services, you can call to check with them.

We do offer internal pelvic floor exams and often find it valuable to to get specific information about how your pelvic floor muscles are functioning. However, if for any reason at all you’d prefer not to, we have plenty of tools to still be able to get you results with a purely external approach. In pregnancy, we avoid doing internal work in the first trimester or if you have been directed to be on pelvic rest due to a high-risk pregnancy.

Your initial evaluation starts even before you walk in the door the first time. We send comprehensive paperwork for you to complete prior to your appointment so that your therapist can begin to get a picture of what you may be needing and plan a tailored evaluation. Then, on your first visit, we like to hear your story and chat about anything that is too hard to capture in the paperwork alone. From there, we complete an external and/or internal examination (internal work is never mandatory) to continue gathering information and work with you to build a plan of care to make sure you are comfortable and ready for what’s ahead!

Your treatment is always individualized to your specific needs as we do not believe in a cookie-cutter approach! Often, treatment will include a combination of manual therapy, education, and/or movement strategies that will target your specific concern. Each of our sessions is about an hour long, and within that time we check in to see how you are doing or if there is anything specific you want to discuss, do the actual interventions that we have planned for that day, and then make sure you are clear in what to be doing between appointments and where you are in your overall plan of care.

It is vastly different! First of all, depending on the state of your pelvic floor, kegels have the potential to make things worse. Especially in the context of preparing your body for birth, we need to make sure there is a good balance between strength and flexibility. Secondly, even if we determine you need to improve your pelvic floor strength, we want to make sure your strength is actually functional for your life. Finally, we feel strongly that we have to zoom out from just the pelvic floor to make sure other areas aren’t driving your problem. Our bodies work all together, so we can’t expect isolating one part is going to get you your best results!

Ultimately, you can wear whatever you feel most comfortable in, but sometimes it can be helpful to wear something you can move around in if exercise is a part of our plan together or we need to access certain parts of your body. We always have options available if you aren’t able to come in specific clothing and we decide it would be helpful to have you change.

Of course! If your partner wants to better understand what you are going through or be able to better help you outside of the clinic, they are more than welcome. In fact, it can be helpful to teach teach them some techniques they can use to support you in labor or birth. Other children are always welcome too. You may be able to better focus and relax during your appointment if you come solo, but we don't want that to be a barrier to getting physical therapy care!

This depends on you and your unique needs and goals! If you are having symptoms, we often recommend starting at about a 1X/week frequency until things get back under control. If you are completely symptom free in pregnancy, we generally recommend scheduling monthly in the early stages and then increasing visits a bit closer to your due date.

It shouldn’t be! We stay in regular communication about how you are feeling with certain assessments or treatments an will let you know exactly what to expect. The majority of things we do should not be painful, and we can always modify or change course as needed.