Perinatal Pelvic Floor Therapy

The number of OT’s providing perinatal care is on the rise.

Which is exciting…and necessary.

There remain so many gaps in the care of new and expecting moms, among which is treating incontinence.

As we’ll see in our featured journal article,  a staggering percentage of women experience incontinence postnatally, despite the known effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle training as a treatment. The article specifically explores the cost effectiveness of different models of pelvic floor therapy.

The main takeaway?

It is more efficient to offer services to prevent incontinence during pregnancy than to provide treatment services to manage incontinence postnatally—and that group-based treatment can be a cost-effective way to do it.

After we break down the article, we’re excited to explore all of this further with pelvic floor occupational therapist, Kyrsten Spurrier, owner of the Perinatal Pelvis. This episode will be hosted by Carlin Reaume of Supported Mama.

Supplemental Pelvic Floor Therapy Materials

• Find a Pelvic Floor Therapist Near Me

• Pregnancy- and obstetric-related risk factors for urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, or pelvic organ prolapse later in life

• OTs for Pelvic Health – Facebook Group

• OT Pioneers – Course

1. You will be able to identify three clinically effective models of care to address urinary incontinence.

2. You will be able to recognize the most cost-effective model of service provision for pelvic floor muscle training.

• Intro

• Breakdown and analysis of journal article

  • Intro to Perinatal Pelvic Floor Therapy

  • OT Potential Podcast Intro

  • Urinary and Fecal Incontinence Postpartum

  • Treatment Options

  • Intent of this research

  • Research Methods

  • Research Results

  • Discussion

• Discussion on practical implications for OTs

  1. Intro to Kyrsten

  2. The Perinatal Pelvis

  3. Impressions of this Article

  4. Holistic Treatment Approach

  5. Group-based Offerings

  6. Memorable Client Story

  7. Biggest Lesson Learned

  8. What Does Success Mean

  9. Supports for OTs to Start in Pelvic Floor Therapy

  10. Ideal Vision for OT Perinatal Care

Primary

• Group-based pelvic floor muscle training for all women during pregnancy is more cost-effective than postnatal training for women with urinary incontinence: Cost-effectiveness analysis of a systematic review

Additional

• Pelvic floor muscle training for preventing and treating urinary and faecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women

• Prenatal high-low impact exercise program supported by pelvic floor muscle education and training decreases the life impact of postnatal urinary incontinence: A quasiexperimental trial

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no financial stake in this topic.

Speaker interests: Kyrsten Spurrier owns The Perinatal Pelvis, a pelvic health practice that provides the services discussed in this course.

Carlin Reaume, who hosted this episode, owns Supported Mama, a pelvic floor therapy practice.