The benefits of Women’s Internal Pelvic Release Work

By Kirby Edwards

Internal pelvic release work and education can be helpful for women with chronic pelvic pain including nerve pain, urinary incontinence and womb related issues. Osteopathy can also be helpful for women pre, during and post pregnancy. Internal release/Intra-vaginal is a great way to ‘prepare the passage’ and optimize the tissues. 

One of the principles of Osteopathy is that structure governs function. To me, this means that when we optimize the structure of something it will function optimally and vice versa. By working intra-vaginally, we can have a different approach to the pelvis and trust the body's innate wisdom and ability to heal and achieve balance as best as it can.

I was lucky enough to train in Internal Pelvic Release work with Jenny Blyth and Andrea Lopez. Their internal pelvic release work mentorship was designed with Fiona Halligan. Their collective knowledge and experience working with the pelvis and women (both internally and externally) is phenomenal. By combining my osteopathic background and the knowledge and skills acquired with Jenny and Andrea, it has allowed me to build a solid foundation from which to help you to get to know your pelvis and explore this sacred work with you.

---

What can Internal Pelvic Release Work support with?

​ Educate and Empower!

• Through education, empowerment and exploration together you can

connect with your pelvis and womb and get to know yourself. 

•  It really doesn’t matter what kind of pelvis you have, it’s yours, it’s

important that you understand it. We want you to know your own body,
but especially pelvis, inside and out so well that you know when to go
and seek assistance. 

•  Self-care will often be taught - how much you invest in yourself is up to you,

but we will often remind you that you are worth it.

Pregnancy Preparation - Prepare the Passage 
Working together to prepare the passage for birth. The intention is to prepare and soften the tissues of the pelvis through the vagina, so that the pushing phase (second stage) of labour can proceed with as much ease as possible. This work can help to minimize trauma for mum and bub and help optimize the birth canal for a safe passage. 

• You will be taught self-care, and your partner will be taught - it’s a bit easier for them to access things at this stage! 
• After 36 weeks is when we can do the “preparing the passage” work together. The tissue is assessed, and confident light touch is used to release the tissues to prepare the passage for bub and mum. The cervix is avoided.
• If bub arrived earthside via the sunroof (c-section) then we may still do some internal work (depending on the situation i.e.. still labored etc.). Any of our osteopaths can help you out with some scar work to help decrease the chance of adhesions to keep that fascia sliding and gliding.

​
Postpartum 
Treading gently after the birth we can check the pelvis and ensure she is healing up as well as she can. Situation pending but your body is often doing a kick arse job recalibrating and healing, so we generally won’t do anything internal until after 6 weeks.

Education for partners 
We can do education for partners in the consultation. Some things to help internally, externally or just a time to ask questions. I use a lot of information from Jenny Blyth’s book - The down to earth birth book - in that book there is some info for the partners.
https://birthwork.com/product/the-down-to-earth-birth-book/  

---

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction 

• Internal pelvic release work can give us a different angle of access the bladder and rectum through the vagina.
• Urinary incontinence/issues (the bladder sits just above your pubic bone), constipation, pelvic organ prolapse and painful intercourse/orgasms, vaginal dryness.
• Internal pelvic release work can give us access to the pelvis and organs (Bladder, bowel and womb) from a different angle encouraging changes and optimise the function. 

---

Chronic Low Back and Pelvic Pain

• Including coccyx pain (coccydynia), nerve pain (pudendal neuralgia), congestion or unexplained pelvic discomfort.
• Sometimes we have had a few falls or births and the coccyx has not quite recovered as well as we would like. This discomfort can linger and sometimes cause nerve pain. 
• Internal pelvic release work through the vagina can give us a different angle to access the coccyx and allow the wisdom of the pelvis to guide us. 

Pelvic Health related conditions

• Endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, menstrual problems, vulvodynia, vaginismus.
• These conditions are often very complex and need to be addressed from many angles and preferable in a multi model approach. 
• Often there is a component of pelvic congestion from non-optimal womb placement associated with these conditions. 
• These conditions all affect women very uniquely and there is sometimes a cross over between them. As a result, there is no one approach.
• Internal pelvic release work can help to optimize the structure and function of this area, encouraging the body to do what it knows how to do. 
• Due to the location and interconnectedness of the abdominal viscera and pelvic organs, internal pelvic release can help to change any issues associated. 

---

Trauma, Scar tissue and Nervous System Dysregulation

• Trauma to the pelvis internally and externally
• Scar tissue can form from previous injuries, adhesions or surgeries and this can change the way the fascia slides and glides. 
• Nervous systems are often dysregulated or stuck in ’fight or flight’ when there is a dysfunctional pelvic floor. There are anatomical and fascial connections to the nervous system and the rest of the body that come and go from the pelvis. As a result, releasing tension in the pelvic floor has been known to impact various other parts of the body, even as far away as the jaw! 

If you are new to our clinic, we recommend booking an initial osteopathic consultation with Kirby to explore the suitability of this treatment for your unique circumstances. If you are curious to know more about the modality and how it came to be, check out the resources listed below. 

Resources
 
Jenny Blyths “Down to Earth Birth Book”
https://birthwork.com/product/the-down-to-earth-birth-book/ 
 
Andrea Lopez - Secrets of the honey tree and Mama Medicina
https://secretsfromthehoneytree.com/
https://mamamedicina.com.au/
 
Information on pelvic prolapse and self-care. 
https://www.wholewoman.com/
 
Spinning Babies
https://www.spinningbabies.com/