50. Pelvic Floors and Innate Wisdom with Sarah Smith

Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by a very special guest, Sarah Smith, who’s a pelvic floor rehab specialist. Sarah and I share some pretty similar philosophies and practices—we’ve both done intermittent fasting, we both cold plunge, and we both mouth-tape—and I wanted to have her on the show because of her expertise and unorthodox views. We start things off with Sarah talking about her work and explaining the various kinds of pelvic floor issues women can experience, including prolapses. Sarah herself had a pelvic floor prolapse in 2015 and was prescribed kegels as part of her recovery, which she found not only didn’t help but actually made her feel worse. Instead, Sarah uses breathwork to strengthen the core, and she explains how this helps your body manage pressure and align itself as a support system, ensuring that no one part of the body, pelvic floor included, is doing all of the work. Next, Sarah shares some of the breath practices she utilizes in her work that help people get out of constant fight or flight mode (which is hugely important for parents trying to co-regulate with their kids). We also talk about our shared love of infrared sauna therapy, and Sarah shares the impact that using the sauna has had on her health, including dramatically improving her gut health. The Finer Details of This Episode: Oftentimes, the people who realize they need help are postpartum women (whether they’re new mothers or had their kids decades ago) struggling with pelvic floor issues as a result of the changes and sacrifices they’ve gone through after becoming mothers. Sarah says the best way to strengthen the core, including the pelvic floor, is through breathwork. Inhaling creates pressure in the body, which meets resistance from your muscles and creates stability in the body and causes your pelvic floor to relax; exhaling engages your deep core muscles and again creates stability. Sarah thinks kegels create problems for many reasons, number one being that a lot of people are already walking around with tension in their pelvic floors, and kegels make that worse—in fact, they can create inflammation and tension in the body. Signs that you may need some pelvic floor help include chronic low back pain, chronic constipation not caused by diet, tailbone pain, and discomfort in sex (see above!). It seems that we’ve all come to accept a level of sickness in our lives, from sinus problems to hypoglycemia to not sleeping at night. Sarah says that part of the reason for this is some people find themselves in the trap of finding their identity in an illness and locking themselves into that story. Sarah advocates unfollowing social media accounts that make you feel like you’re not doing enough. Seeing those accounts can stress you out and put you in fight or flight mode, so removing them, even just until you can handle seeing them better, is the healthy choice. We’re less connected than we used to be, which means moms are trying to figure out parenting all by themselves. Personally, I think the boomers fucked it up for us because they forced us to reject them as part of our community, but we’re starting to get back to our roots and ancestral wisdom. Links: Jamie’s Homepage - www.jamieglowacki.com Oh Crap! Potty Training – https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Potty-Training-Everything-Parenting-ebook/dp/B00V3L8YSU Oh Crap! I Have A Toddler - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Oh-Crap!-I-Have-a-Toddler/Jamie-Glowacki/Oh-Crap-Parenting/9781982109738 Jamie’s Patreon Page: www.patreon.com/join/jamieglowacki? Jamie’s Instagram Page: @jamie.glowacki   Sarah’s Homepage: https://www.sarahsmithstrength.com/ Sarah’s Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sarahsmithstrength/ Sarah’s Instagram: http://instagram.com/sarahsmithstrength/ Dirty Strength Radio podcast: https://sarahsmithstrength.com/podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices