7 Secrets that every woman needs to know!
- Written by Candice Meisels
Heba Shaheed is a women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist. She specialises in pregnancy, birth, motherhood, pelvic pain and endometriosis. Heba is the co-founder of The Pelvic Expert, which provides online exercise, nutrition and pelvic floor physiotherapy programs.
Heba shares her 7 secrets that every woman needs to know.
1. Prolapse doesn't just affect the elderly. It usually happens at a mum's first birth but she isn't aware of it. Pelvic floor physiotherapy helps and saves women ever needing surgery. With all the media about the harmful effects of mesh surgery for prolapse, women need to be aware of low risk, low cost alternatives, and they need to know as soon as they give birth, not 10 or 20 years too late.
2. Losing the mummy tummy is about more than just weight loss. It's about healing abdominal separation or diastasis rectus abdominis with pelvic floor and core exercises, nourishing with collagen-rich foods, and managing your sleep and stress levels for optimal hormonal health.
3. Leaking in pregnancy or after birth is common not normal. And it can be fixed with physiotherapy and exercise in 84% of women. You don't have to live with it, and you don't need always need surgery.
4. Back pain and pelvic pain in pregnancy is common affecting more than 50% of women, but it is not normal, and it can be cured with exercise and physiotherapy.
5. In a poll I conducted with over 800 women, over 80% of women wanted to know about their individual risks of pelvic floor problems after birth, and only 2% didn't want to know. But we don't give women the full picture of the risks of childbirth, because we think it's going to make them afraid. But women have the right to autonomy, so that they are prepared for life after birth.
6. Vaginismus and painful sex occurs in about 20% of women, and the issue is tight pelvic floor muscles. Psychology and sex therapy can help to an extent, but the real cure is physiotherapy. Women with painful sex need to have their pelvic floor muscles released, stretched and relaxed. Kegels make painful sex worse.
7. Endometriosis affects as many people as diabetes, but we are so behind on the treatment of endometriosis because period pain is taboo. Women are suffering from debilitating pain that affects them physically, emotionally and socially. I personally know what it's like to have this pain strip you of living a good healthy life. Endometriosis needs a holistic approach of surgery, nutrition, exercise, physiotherapy and self-care.
Heba Shaheed is a women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist. She specialises in pregnancy, birth, motherhood, pelvic pain and endometriosis.
Heba is a finalist in the AusMumpreneur Awards.
Heba says: "I am so honoured to be an Ausmumpreneur Awards Finalist in the Making A Difference (Business) category and in the Social Impact category. This is just the beginning for The Pelvic Expert in inspiring change in women's health, pelvic health and maternal health on a global scale, and in empowering women to live life fearlessly."
About Heba:
Heba is the co-founder of The Pelvic Expert, which provides online exercise, nutrition and pelvic floor physiotherapy programs.
Heba has over 7 years experience in pelvic floor and women's health and supports women with pain, abdominal separation ("mummy tummy"), incontinence, prolapse, birth injuries, endometriosis, vaginismus, sexual pain, pelvic pain and more.
Heba is passionate about endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain due to her own 15 year history. By the time she was 22 she had agonising chronic pelvic pain on a daily basis, and with the help of pelvic floor physiotherapy and nutrition, she is now mostly pain-free. She hopes to inspire and empower other women to overcome their pain too.
Heba started her business during her pregnancy and has recently become a new mum, which has fuelled her passion for postpartum health and wellness. She aims to make a difference in the lives of women in Australia and globally.
http://www.thepelvicexpert.
