Peace's Story

03/24/21 • 18 min

Helen is joined by Peace Bailey, a mother of two who lives in Spain and blogs about moving there from the UK. She shares posts on Instagram about motherhood, race and faith. But she's also chosen to speak out about nighttime urinary incontinence, or bed wetting, which she experienced after childbirth.

'I don't even know if I managed to go back to sleep because I was embarrassed. I couldn't even go in the shower because it was 3 or 4 in the morning. So I had to crawl back into bed trying to figure out what just happened? How is this happening to me? I'm 31 years old and I'm wetting the bed. What is this?'

Helen and Peace discuss the stigma around pelvic floor dysfunction, how hard it is to access good information, and how mums owe it to themselves to get help.

Peace is @baileysinspain on Instagram

You can find Helen @whymumsdontjump on Instagram and Twitter or at www.whymumsdontjump.com

Helen and Peace discuss the stigma around pelvic floor dysfunction, how hard it is to access good information, and how mums owe it to themselves to get help.

Peace is @baileysinspain on Instagram

You can find Helen @whymumsdontjump on Instagram and Twitter or at www.whymumsdontjump.com

Previous Episode

Between The Sheets: Sex & Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Sex with pelvic floor problems. We're going there! Intimacy after childbirth can be difficult at the best of times. How do you even begin to navigate that if you then have incontinence or prolapse or pelvic pain? Helen and the pelvic health physiotherapist Jilly Bond discuss postnatal sex and the issues women with pelvic floor dysfunction can face, both physically and mentally:

'All of these issues are so fixable. So remediable. I struggle to find in my mind anyone that we haven't been able to make progress with at least, if not really got them back to normal intimacy or intimacy that's fulfilling for them through treatment. It's like having a bad back. We can get things moving.'

Jilly and Helen talk about the process of getting back to where you'd like to be and how you can access the help you need to get there.

Jilly Bond is a pelvic health physiotherapist based in Wales, with a specialist interest in pelvic pain. She's on maternity leave until Summer 2021. She is @jillybondphysio on Instagram and @jilly_bond on Twitter.

NHS information about sex therapy, including finding a psychosexual counsellor or therapist can be found here

The charity, Relate, can also provide relationship support

For a list of pelvic physios near to you, check out the Squeezy Directory here

For more about Jamie McCartney's Great Wall of Vagina go here

And to get involved with the UK Government's consultation on the gender health gap go here

You can find Helen @whymumsdontjump on Instagram and Twitter or at www.whymumsdontjump.com

Next Episode

Having Another Baby After Prolapse

Having another baby when you have pelvic organ prolapse is a big one. There are just so many unknowns. Will pregnancy make your prolapse worse? Would it be better to have a caesarian? Can you do anything to protect yourself? Helen speaks to the pelvic health physio Clare Bourne who opens up about her experience of prolapse:

'Even if you know the research, even if you know everything could be ok at some point in the future, in that moment nothing feels fine. It's like you're given this death sentence of "this is your life now".'

Clare has gone on to have a second child and tells Helen about her experience of birth, healing and doing it all again. They talk about how to approach pregnancy the next time around, the importance of staying active and about re-writing the narrative around prolapse:

'When you come down to it, yes there are changes to those walls, yes there are changes to where those pelvic organs are for some people. However that doesn't mean we're going to live like this forever. And it's that conversation that I think is sometimes missing.'

Clare is @clarebournephysio on Instagram

Holistic Core Restore is the pelvic-floor-safe fitness programme mentioned in this episode.

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You can find Helen on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or at www.whymumsdontjump.com