Today, I finally decided to do my first workout since giving birth to the baby. I had already had my six-week postpartum checkup on Monday, and my doctor had cleared me for exercise. I was actually feeling up to it even before that but decided to hold off on it anyway… partly due to laziness, and partly due to just not being in the mood between feeds and pumps.

Well, I suppose I was a bit aggressive, as I started with a one-mile jog on the treadmill, followed by about 20 minutes of core and leg exercises. When I began the jog, I felt pretty comfortable and light on my feet. But as it progressed, I started feeling like someone had put weights on my pelvic floor region, and it felt quite heavy. I went for about ten minutes and stopped to stretch, then proceeded to do core and butt exercises, which felt pretty comfortable and normal. But it’s been hours since that workout, and my pelvic region still feels heavy. When I sneeze now, it feels similar to the discomfort I felt in my pelvic region shortly after giving birth. I guess my clearance for exercise really didn’t factor in pelvic floor health, huh?

Pelvic floor and its importance and care are really ignored by the entire mainstream medical community here, and it’s so sad and pathetic, especially given it is the norm in postpartum care in the EU. I will need to continue doing kegels and find other pelvic floor exercises to do in order to strengthen myself down there, but obviously with no help from my doctor. I guess running and jogging will need to be on pause until my pelvic floor strengthens, whenever that may be, and I’ll need to do low impact cardio like elliptical and walking until then.