Pelvic Floor 101: What Every Woman Should Know Before & After Birth

The pelvic floor might be the hardest-working part of your body that nobody ever explained to you — until now. This week, MamaDoc sits down with Bijal Patel, DPT, a certified pelvic floor therapist, to pull back the curtain on the muscles, breath, and pressure system quietly holding you together from the inside — and what happens to all of it during pregnancy and after childbirth. Together they cover what the pelvic floor and core actually do, how pregnancy and birth change them, and the postpartum stuff nobody warns you about: diastasis recti, rib flare, posture shifts, and how C-section and perineal scars affect the whole system. Then they take on the questions every woman is quietly Googling — Should everyone be doing Kegels? Is leaking after a baby "normal"? Is pain with sex something you just have to live with? When should you actually see a pelvic health PT? And can this work help you prepare for birth, not just recover from it? Whether you're pregnant, newly postpartum, or years out and still wondering why something feels off, this one's for you. Because "common" and "normal" are not the same thing — and there's a whole specialty devoted to helping. Stay healthy, stay suspicious. Bijal is also launching virtual pelvic health education classes for pregnant and postpartum women — details in the episode or on her website www.pelvique.com.