Dawn Tucker uses her body for daily work as a trapeze coach and aerial artist. The mother of two is active, happy and living her best life.

However, shortly after the birth of her first son in 2021, Dawn suffered the unthinkable: a rectal prolapse also known as “rectocele,” which is when the rectum bulges forward into the vaginal wall and opening.

“It was very scary and weird,” Dawn recalls. “I literally thought my uterus was falling out.”

Dawn recounts that while she didn’t experience pain, it was extremely awkward and embarrassing at first.

“I had no idea [what was happening to me],” Dawn remembers. “No one had prepared me for this as a possibility of something that could happen. It felt like walking around with a tennis ball in between my legs.”

She knew she needed help, which is when she reached out to Banner Physical Therapist Amy Flory, who specializes in pelvic health physical therapy through Banner’s CoreVia Pelvic Health program.

“As soon as I connected with Amy, she made me realize this was all pretty common [for postpartum moms],” Dawn says. “Working with Amy gave me the confidence to go right back to the studio to practice [aerial for my trapeze coaching] pretty quickly.”

According to Amy, pelvic floor dysfunctions occur in 20-30% of the post-partum population.

“Over the course of [a] year, about 20% of my total caseload are post-partum patients, both during and following the ‘4th trimester’ and [consist of] 50% of my pelvic floor-related caseload,” Amy said.

Amy says she’s seeing less reluctance now for patients to report their pelvic floor dysfunction and seek out care.

“When I started in this specialty nearly 30 years ago, it took women on average nine years to report symptoms to their health care providers,” Amy said. “Care is still overall quite delayed for women with these problems, but there are so many more resources available now for new moms, and less stigma in publications and online forums.”

Dawn’s words of wisdom for other moms who may be experiencing a prolapse or another pelvic floor dysfunction is to not be embarrassed.

“Educate yourself on your pelvic floor health during pregnancy,” Dawn says. “See a pelvic floor physical therapist as soon as you can and get all the pelvic floor information you can. Don’t be embarrassed.”

How to know if Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is Needed:

Pelvic floor physical therapy may be able to help if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms including:

• Urinary or bowel urgency or leakage
• Pelvic heaviness or bulging
• Straining to empty bowels or bladder
• Urinary frequency
• Tailbone or sitting bone pain,
• Pain with vaginal penetration (such as needed for annual exams or sexual intercourse)

“It’s never too late for pelvic health PT,” says Amy. “As with any musculoskeletal condition, it is always better to address sooner than later, to minimize compensations that can occur that lead to additional problems, such as back pain.  While it will take more time and effort to correct an issue later in life, however, it still can be accomplished with the right guidance and attention.”

Banner Physical Therapy offers 60 convenient locations throughout Arizona. The centers provide a wide range of services to patients, including physical therapy, hand/occupational therapy, pelvic health, cancer rehabilitation, pediatric therapy, sports medicine and work injury prevention and management. For more information, visit selectmedical.com/outpatient