Pelvic Floor

Given what I read here in January about four-minute appointments, I'd like to walk in with a list. What did you wish you'd asked, or what got brushed off that you had to chase later?

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and eastern Oregon just got a lot less empty — new doulas, two IBCLCs and a pelvic floor PT who covers a genuinely absurd radius. If you're out there, have a look. And if you know someone still missing, you know where to find me.

Baby is one, I'm cleared, I have no core to speak of and haven't run since 2024. Do I just... go? Or is there a sensible on-ramp that isn't 'couch to 5k' for someone who used to run 10ks?

I can fit two fingers in above my belly button, less below. I've read that two is fine and also that two is a problem, depending on the website. Is there an actual answer here or is everyone guessing?

I mentioned this here in about two sentences back in January and then let it go. I'm 10 weeks pp now, it's had time to marinate, and I want to write the whole thing down properly. Second baby, vaginal birth, second degree tear.

The appointment was four minutes. I timed it, because I'd gotten a newborn into a car seat and driven 40 minutes for it. She looked at the tear, said it healed nicely, asked what I was doing for birth control, asked if I was feeling sad, and cleared me for everything. Exercise, sex, all of it. Nobody put a hand on my abdomen. Nobody asked about leaking. Nobody looked at my pelvic floor at all, which I'd assumed was the entire point.

So I said, out loud, in the room: I have a gap above my belly button I can fit two fingers into, and I leak if I sneeze hard. And she said that's very normal after two babies, and that it usually resolves on its own, and did I have any other questions.

Very normal. That's the whole answer. I got the same sentence for both things.

Here's what's actually bothering me, and I've been chewing on it for two months. "Cleared" doesn't mean what I thought it meant. I thought it meant somebody checked and I'm fine. It means the incision is closed and she's not liable if I go run a 5K. Those are completely different sentences and only one of them was said out loud.

And it was the LAST appointment. That's the part that gets me. There is no next one. Whatever shows up at four months, at eight months, when I try to run again, there's no visit for it. The system had one scheduled touchpoint with my body after it did the single hardest thing it will ever do, and it spent four minutes on it and closed the file.

My LO gets seen at 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months. Somebody weighs her and plots her on a chart and asks how she's doing. I get four minutes and a pamphlet about IUDs.

I'm not even asking for advice really. I want to know if this was everyone's experience or if I got a bad one. Because if it's everyone's, then it's not a bad doctor, it's just how this works, and that's a much worse thing to find out.

Had my six week appointment, was told I'm cleared for all normal activity, and the whole thing took four minutes. Nobody looked at my abs, nobody asked about leaking. I can feel a gap above my belly button. Am I supposed to just... start running? What did your six week check actually cover?

Pelvic floor therapy is the single most requested thing in our inbox and the hardest to find once you're outside a metro. If you see a PT you love, or you are one, drop a name and a city below. I'll reach out and get them listed so the next person searching doesn't come up empty.