UC'ers and Pelvic floor exercises?

[Quickening]

I'm wondering if any of you UC'ers do pelvic floor exercises in pregnancy or afterwards?

Do you think they are necessary? Why?

I'm really skeptical about if they are necessary because obviously animals and other women in non-civilised cultures don't do them.

I don't believe that birth damages the pelvic floor. I think it is the mismanagement of birth, that causes the damage, and so thus the concept of the exercises came into place. The exercises were needed to fix the damage done to the pelvic floor by managed births, or to help and strengthen the floor to withstand that damage.

I think our bodies are designed to bounce back after truly natural, unhindered births (as designed by nature), and that there is no need to focus on exercising one part of our bodies when we should be fit overall through the physical activitiy that we should be doing daily - and this includes sex which is a physical activity and definitely uses those muscles down there!

[lunar forest]

I don't really have anything to say, but I wanted to see the responses.

Well, I didn't really do them, at least, I didn't do much of them or for very long.

[sprinkle pocket]

i think that some people live such sedentary lifestyles compared to *in nature* that any exercise would be good, pelvic or otherwise. so i voted that they're could sometimes be helpful. i do agree about following nature's example though. i tried doing them a bit and it just didn't feel right/neccesary. many of my days are spent in manual labor on our fledgling homestead, so i would think my pelvic floor gets included in the work and that seems like enough for me.

[Evergreen]

I also voted sometimes.

I am not too sure by what is meant by 'pelvic floor exercises' though, so maybe i should have just stayed out of this one :LOL

Anyway, I am assuming kegels and the like. I don't think it is totally nesc. after the birth as much as before. I think that they help with control during pushing. Also my husband enjoys them

The PP was pretty right on about our sedentary lifestyles. I think that i need to remember to be more focused on the overall picture of my body's health, however, and pay as much attention to the other muscles in my body as to my pelvic floor. Obvioulsy, I don't get much exercise.

[CluckyInAZ]

I use to have some urinary incontinence problems when I was a kid. After doing kegels I don't have that problem anymore. I keep doing them because I don't want to deal with that again. I also enjoy "flexing" during intimate relations with my husband, so having a strong pelvic floor is fun for that reason.

I have never given birth yet, so I don't know how important it would be for that purpose or for post partum issues.