What contributes to prolapse?
Today I wanted to discuss the factors that can contribute to prolapse.
The obvious factors are: childbirth, biology, ageing, weak pelvic floor muscles.
And yes, those are factors. But there's another big piece of the puzzle…
Posture and Pressure.
Specifically, the position of your ribcage relative to your pelvis- and how that affects intra-abdominal pressure.
Here's what happens:
When someone stands with their ribs flared forward (think: chest thrust out, lower back arched), it affects how their diaphragm functions. The diaphragm and pelvic floor need to work together as a coordinated pressure system. When postural alignment is off, this system doesn't function optimally-and over time, chronic poor pressure management can contribute to pelvic floor symptoms including prolapse, incontinence, that feeling of 'heaviness and lower back pain.
The good news?
Posture can be retrained. And whilst kegels don’t address that hypopressives does.
The postures we teach deliberately stack the ribcage over the pelvis, lengthen the spine, and activate the deep postural muscles. We're not just "standing up straight." We're teaching the body how to hold itself in a way that balances pressure and prevents chronic pressure on the pelvic floor.
Done daily this posture awareness has the ability to make lasting changes to how someone carries their body.
That's why women with prolapse see improvement. Because we're removing the chronic pressure that might have been making things worse.
When I first started teaching movement I would guide clients into a 'neutral posture' but that wasn't helping them to feel centred- that was telling them what to do!
Now i treat neutral differently- I guide women into their centre by showing them a range of different movements.
I have combined this approach with hypopressives to improve proprioception and posture.
Want to learn how to teach this?
In the Hypopressives Teacher Training, you'll learn:
The biomechanics of intra-abdominal pressure
How to assess and guide postural patterns.
How to adapt postures for different body types and histories
📆 Teacher Training Level…..