Can I Only Work With Pregnant People? 12 Options For OTs in Pelvic Health

Get my 9 page OTs Map to the World of Pelvic Health.Meet me on the OTs for Pelvic Health Facebook Group!Check Out More OT Pelvic Health Content here.Find me on IG! @functionalpelvis-- Transcript  --The wide world of pelvic health -- if this is a new specialty for you, then this episode may be illuminating  because I remember when I first learned about Pelvic Health, the field seemed quite focused and specific.  Many of the OTs I speak with  assume that to work in PH, you mainly work with pregnant or expecting people. I Have to admit that most of my stories and points of reference are also around pre and postnatal ppl. The FP, my company, was the first pp in Manhattan owned by an OT and the pre and postnatal community was my sole focus. So naturally it was my point of ref for everything .   I get a lot of questions from OTs about whether that’s the only population you can  work with in this field, so that's what I want to focus on today. This episode  is Meant to arouse your curiosity.. And Inspire you to think outside the box.  You can implement Fundamental pelvic health techniques in a variety of communities and settings. It’s not an all or nothing approach. After all, we are OTs, and we are only limited by our ability to problem solve with our clients. And we can problem solve with every single one of them.This is by no means will this be an exhaustive list but I will do my best to present a wide array. If there is something I have left out, please reach out to me via email or via social media and I will gladly add your additions to a future episode!There are a few different ways we can look at the subspecialties of PF.  The first is from the communities we can serve. The ones we will be reviewing today are “ people going through puberty, prenatal, postnatal, perimenopause, men, pediatrics, oncology, elderly, men's health, LGBTQIA+ athletes, ostomy care. Basically if you have a pelvis, we can support you! Let’s get into the details of this now.The first was those of us working with clients  in a period of life where there are in transitions: this would include puberty and pre puberty clients, there's the pre and postnatal communities and my heart is absolutely here with this vastly underserved population. Likewise, there’s perimenopause and menopausal people. Actually, all of these are underserved individuals who could use our support.  These are periods in our life when our Hormones are in such flux and that has an influence on our pelvic floor function. For example, both with lactating people and with perimenopausal people, estrogen is traditionally in decline, and this affects our PF’s ability to be as buoyant, responsive and supple. During the menopause years specifically, These tissue changes and their symptoms are often referred to as genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM), and some tell-tale signs include pain with sex, vaginal dryness, and urinary incontinence! (Side-note: some providers may use the term vaginal atrophy instead of GSM). A very similar albeit temporary process happens to people who are lactating. In terms of supporting pre and postnatal people, we can offer birthing rehearsals that help prepare the birthing person for optimal delivery such as optimizing the uterus and ab wall to help push the baby out vs what many people think which is that the vagina pushes the baby out. Quite the opposite, the vagina actually relaxes and gets out of the way for optimal delivery.  Postpartum care can help with the ADLS of being a new parent and all that goes with that. Many OTs specialize in the m&____________________________________________________________________________________________Pelvic OTPs United - Lindsey's off-line interactive community for $39 a month! Inside Pelvic OTPs United you'll find:​Weekly group mentoring calls with Lindsey. She's doing this exclusively inside this community. These aren't your boring old Zoom calls where she is a talking head. We interact, we coach, we learn from each other.​Highly curated forums. The worst is when you post a question on FB just to have it drowned out with 10 other questions that follow it. So, she's got dedicated forums on different populations, different diagnosis, different topics (including business). Hop it, post your specific question, and get the expert advice you need.More info here. Lindsey would love support you in this quiet corner off social media!