Pelvic organ prolapse after birth

Dear Gloei

You are a woman and human being first, before being a moderator, I'm sure you have a job spec as a moderator and you are serving it perfectly fine.

I have found your post non-offensive and perfectly honest from a woman and mum, you have achieved something from your post which you intended to do which was to inform as many women as possible about "your experience and your investigation." It is your personal journey and only yours to own and communicate as you wish.

Whether the condition promotes or does not promote vaginal birth is completely for others to decide on their own experience when they go through it, not everyone has perfectly planned natural or caesarean deliveries. If your medical professional gave you the reason as vaginal birth lead mostly to the prolapse, own it with pride!! Cause all our bodies are different and will react differently to our birthing options.

I will follow your campaign to make women aware of this conditions, as I have learnt a lot since reading your initial post and because you made me aware I have now made some of my friends and family aware to spread the word about the condition so others know it is out there. It will still be for each individual to do their own research and make their own assessments, but it is not for them to judge your experience!!

Dear Gloei,

I just wanted to add my thanks to the ladies' above and offer you my support. I knew (in principal) about POP as my aunt suffers from it after a very traumatic vaginal birth. I however, never knew the details or even the name of the condition.

I am so so sorry that you have to go through this and commend you for starting to raise awareness about it, on this forum. Completely agree with you that the facts and risks should be widely available in order for women to make informed decisions and ready themselves for the risks of birth, whatever their choice of birth preference.

My own experience with my first, I found there to be very very little accurate and unbiased facts available for expectant mom's to know the risks of childbirth and weigh up pro's and cons of childbirth options. Generally this is a very personal and emotional choice and most info available is from advocates of one choice or another, and the information given is usually quite biased, as can be expected in such a personal situation. However I think it would serve all women to have much more objective info available to them. Only then we can prepare and make informed decisions about ourselves, our bodies and our babies.

Hi Gloie

I hear you... may I ask how much your children weighed at birth?

My cousin is a gynae and we had a good long chat about it last night... she sees it more often in women who have carried bigger size babies (in her experience)... she herself had average sized babies (3.4 and 3.2 kgs respectively) and she is now suffering from mild prolapse... and she had them both via C-section...

She also says, as I deduced below, that genetics play a major part... as do the hormone oestrogen...

So all I am saying that yes for your personal situation it might be the natural... but for most it is a combination of the factors, and just unfortunately plain rotten luck!

All the best with your journey through this... My cousin has done numerous ops to fix moderate prolapses... hope that this can be an option for you too?

Hi Antz,

I appreciate your comments. This is an open forum and people can respectfully agree and disagree. You are most welcome to do so.

My job as a moderator here on moomie is to moderate spam (mainly) and move around threads if needed, otherwise I am just a regular mom here on Moomie like everyone else.

I have researched Pelvic organ prolapse in literature the past 3 months and have also consulted with a top specialist (urogynecologist) in the field of Pelvic floor disorders and 2 Physios in the same field and both contributed the vaginal birth as main reason to my current situation. So when I say that I believe it was a vaginal birth that mainly caused my POP it is what was explained to me by other medical professional experts and that this not my own "hunch" or conclusion I have come up with although it makes sense to me that it is indeed the case. The urogynecologist is very pro-natural and he said the POP could most likely have been prevented by having a c-section. I totally agree with you, the vaginal delivery was certainly not the only factor.

It is a very controversial subject whether if vaginal birth causes pelvic floor disorders or not. You will find information of studies on the internet that states vaginal birth does not increase your chances of POP and then you will find information that states the opposite. I doubt that you and I as layman will be able to get to the truth of this however I find it interesting out of all the hundreds of personal stories of POP I have read I have only come across about 2 stories of ladies who developed POP after a c-section. Virtually every single story I have read online (and I have read A LOT) was after vaginal child birth. The other interesting thing (that my doctor confirmed) was for every complicated vaginal delivery with complications with POP development there is also a woman who delivered easily with no complications who developed POP (like me). I guess I am trying to say that I personally believe my POP could have been prevented if I had a c-section. But I cannot say with absolute certainty that vaginal birth causes POP or that it is a main contributing factor, but in my opinion and of the experts I have consulted it does. Many will disagree and each person must make up their own mind about this.

I am pretty confident that the information about so many women suffering from POP is indeed correct. It seems due the sensitive embarrassing nature of the condition many women don't even speak to their GP's about it and live with the discomfort in silence. In the words of the popular Dr. Oz:

Pelvic prolapse may be the last taboo subject in gynecology. Although many people find this topic too shameful to discuss, almost 50% of women will experience some form of prolapse in their lifetime. Dr. Oz opens up a frank discussion about this painful subject.

I think I would have been able to deal with my current situation much better if I was informed and I could say that I was aware what I was getting into. I believe very important information was not supplied to me by my caregivers. I simply would like women who is considering natural childbirth (which I think is a wonderful opportunity to have) to be aware of POP and what they could do to reduce their chance of having POP. Unfortunately preventing POP is not entirely possible as what causes it is still not entirely clear. So all of this is very complex...Perhaps awareness is a start.

Perhaps the discussion can further elaborate on when you are considering vaginal birth how should you prepare for it to reduce your chances of having POP or getting screened to see if you are at high risk?
Hopefully this thread can get that discussion going so that other women doesn't find out about POP the way I had to - I can tell you it is one of the toughest times of my life. There is very little support especially from the medical world, I even feel disappointed in the care I received regarding the POP from my midwives. It really seems like this shameful taboo where women must just accept their fate and make the best of the quality of life they have left and be grateful for their beautiful baby.

However I wish there was more information available in South Africa about the importance of pelvic floor health as part of your yearly Gynea check up. It is wonderful that countries like France and other European countries offer free Pelvic floor rehabilitation to moms who had vaginal birth and c-sections. Somehow I didn't do my Kegels regularly after my first c-section because I thought I was not at risk. Pelvic floor health should be teached at High school level in my opinion as part of one of the "practical life" subjects or whatever they are called nowadays.

I find natural birth the most logical way to birth a baby (my personal opinion again). I had the most amazing birth experience and there was certainly a lot of benefits to the vaginal birth. I was absolutely terrified of giving birth naturally (initially) and it pains me to have ended my beautiful journey at such a sad place and to have heard from my caregiver that a c-section could have prevented this (true or not).

I hope we can all have the opportunity to share what our research has turned up and bounce it off from one another in a constructive way.

Hi Gloei

I deeply sympathise with your condition - I have been following your posts quite closely, and having had 2 natural births myself it is something that I am deeply interested in.

but I do feel the need to speak out against your post...

As moderator I don't think you should place the blame mainly on the fact that you had a vaginal birth... there are various other factors that could contribute to your condition, such as oestrogen levels before and after pregnancy, a family history of the condition, certain exercises that you yourself say you did that might be an even bigger contributing factor... previous surgeries around that area (which could include a C-section)... who knows what main factor, or even a combination of the factors could have led to you developing the condition...

if so may people suffer from it why don't the doctors use it as the biggest scare tool to advocate the C-section that they all prefer...

I just think this is a dangerous (for lack of better word) post in a country that already has the highest C-section rate in the world...

@Gloei - Thanks for clearing that up. It truly does leave me in shock that something like this can happen... Weldone on creating awareness!

Thank you Zaza, Lillyr and Chanti for your kind supportive words and prayers.

Chanti, no, it didn't have anything to do as far as I know with the VBAC. It is due the fact mainly that I had a vaginal birth. I had a relatively easy (certainly intense) uncomplicated, no pain meds birth with a first degree tear (pretty common and not serious). I have never felt so good in my life about something I wanted to achieve (the VBAC) especially with no interventions and it was such a downer to have discovered the POP.

PS: I enjoy reading the other pregnant ladies "mothers by months" threads too!