Source Pelvic Health

These women are changing women’s sexual health care in amazing ways. I spent the weekend with them in Phoenix AZ for the ISSWSH 2025 Fall Course (International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health). I learned so much, met incredible people, and took some peaceful walks in the desert. 🏜️ 💗

I recently joined my friends at a breath-work retreat in heart of Encinitas. It was a unique opportunity to dive more deeply into my breath practice and really appreciate the healing power of the breath.

Pain, anxiety, stress, and poor posture cause breath holding, shallow breathing, and other mal -adaptive breathing patterns. Because of the intimate relationship between the respiratory diaphragm and the pelvic floor, poor breathing affects the pelvic floor muscles, the viscera inside the pelvis, the low back, abdominal muscles, and even hips - they are all connected (this deserves its own post to be described in further detail).

My main takeaway from the retreat is that we all need to breathe more intentionally and deeply.

If you’re having pelvic floor challenges or low back pain, diaphragmatic breathing or breathing into the low abdomen can help in the following ways:

🫁 reduce tension throughout the muscles and fascia of the pelvis, abdomen, and low back by creating a gentle stretch internally

🫁 increase strength and coordination of deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscle activation (when intentional muscle training is paired with breath)

🫁down regulate the nervous system to create a deep sense of relaxation - this modulates the body’s pain response and decreases pain perception

🫁Promote bowel regularity by stimulating peristalsis of the intestines.

Breathing is an essential part of pelvic floor health and it’s a major component of my practice.

Thank you for such a transformative experience 🙏🏼

My patient texted this to me after giving birth to her first baby. I posted it with her permission because it’s such a powerful testament to efficacy of evidence- based, holistic pregnancy care. By “holistic” I mean taking the needs of the whole mother into consideration - her physical, emotional, and energetic body- to fully prepare her for the transition to birth. It also means listening closely and attentively to her goals and birth preferences and helping her prepare for them without judgment. By “evidence based care”, I mean using current best practices to prepare mothers for labor and delivery as well as treat any aches and pains that may arise throughout the pregnancy.
Setting an expecting mother up with education, confidence, and the physical training and preparedness for labor and delivery minimizes risk and increases the probability of a great outcome, like this mama in the quote. It also makes the transition into the postpartum period smoother and brings greater ease.
Going into the postpartum period with a birth injury certainly isn’t insurmountable (especially with good pelvic health physical therapy), although it does add challenge and increases the risk of post partum mood disorders (PMDD).
I saw my patient quoted above yesterday. She is three weeks post postpartum and doing amazing. I also advocate for early postpartum visits, because there is so much to address even before the famous 6 week check up - more on this in a later post!