Women’s Health Individual appointment:  A one hour appointment tailored to your needs.  Suitable for a pregnancy assessment for advice on exercise or for preparation for birth, a postnatal assessment encompassing all that is included in the “Mummy MOT”, a pelvic floor assessment for your own knowledge and understanding and to connect with your pelvic floor, a pelvic floor appointment to address urinary/faecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, vagissmus or dyspareunia.

Pessary appointment:  A 30 minute appointment for your initial pessary fitting and/or for review or change of the pessary that you are self managing.

Individual Pilates appointment: A one hour appointment to provide you with a tailored Pilates assessment and program.  Ideal for people who want to get a grasp of Pilates before joining a class or who are recovering from an injury/illness.

The Perinatal package:  A pre and post pregnancy package designed to encompass all of your physiotherapy, pelvic floor and rehabilitation needs.  This package enables you to commit to looking after yourself in preparation for and in recovery from the very special event that is having a baby.  This package, which can be used over a 18 month period, includes:

The International Urogynecological Association have lovely information leaflets on almost every topic you could want – from constipation to maternal pelvic floor trauma to surgical procedures.  A nice way to get to know a little about a lot of topics.  These information leaflets can be downloaded here

Needless to say if you are pregnant you have already received some literature on this massive topic from your healthcare provider.  The HSE My Child literature is available in hard copy or online with a specific book on pregnancy.  The International Forum for Wellbeing in Pregnancy also have information on almost all topics you could want to know about!  These are available here.

If you want to know more about exercise in pregnancy there are numerous information pieces available, as a general overview check out IFWIP Advice.

Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP) and pregnancy low back pain are estimated to occur in 56-72% of the pregnant population.  For us to recognise PGP and aim to support our patients/partners/friends/family members who have it we have to know somethings about it, which you can find more information about here.

Giving birth can be a traumatic experience.  It is important that we as women do not suffer in silence.  There are supports and services available so if you feel you’d like some extra support talk to your PHN, GP or Women’s Health Physiotherapist.  See below for the link to the UK birth trauma association website.  Scroll down on the home page to watch five very brave women share their individual stories.

Birth Trauma Association

This Australian website explains pelvic floor activation and gives examples of “pelvic floor friendly” exercises and much more.

Much of what we learn about sex is through society and through the media.  And let’s be honest, as females we are often hard done by!  For an understanding of the principles of sexual well being as well as factors that affect desire and enjoyment I highly recommend Emily Nagoski’s book “Come As You Are.”  I also recommend “Becoming Cliterate” by Dr Laurie Mintz.

Domestic abuse takes many shapes and forms.  From the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic both the incidence of and the awareness of domestic abuse in Ireland has increased.  It is predominantly perpetrated by males onto females.  Look out for your friends and your neighbours.  Women in abusive relationships need a lot of support.  The SafeIreland website is the national website which provides information about domestic violence and contains links to local support telephone services for women.