Anyone heard of a Uterine Prolapse?

Yeah, me neither until it happened to me :( Just a little over a week postpartem and I'm still having a hard time talking about it, but I think I'm ready, and that I need to. Apparently, a prolapse is a pretty common occurnce in women, whether it's uterine, or rectoceole or another one I don't remember the name of right now. But how come we never hear of it? And have no idea what it is!?! I don't have the answer to that question, but I know finding information about it is still pretty hard. I searched the internet and almost every website I looked at had the same information and it wasn't enough and didn't really tell me anything!

Well, onto the gory details. I didn't include this in Danielle's birth information because 1) I wasn't really aware of what was going on and 2) I wasn't really ready to talk about it. So, about 6:30 that morning when I used the bathroom, I found something I wasn't expecting! And that was my uterus hanging out of me. That's right, my uterus. I had Dennis get a nurse who then went and got my CNM. Well, she had me lay down and just pushed it back in. I thought it was a uterine inversion (like what you read about in the what to expect book) and figured that's what she was referring to when she said uterine prolapse.

Not so, it turns out a uterine prolapse is something different, and more of a permanant problem. (Don't worry, it's not life threatening or anything). Here's the definition from the Mayo clinic website: "Uterine prolapse means your uterus has descended from its position in the pelvis farther down into your vagina. Normally, your uterus is held in place by the muscles and ligaments that make up your pelvic floor. Uterine prolapse occurs when pelvic floor muscles and ligaments stretch and weaken, providing inadequate support for the uterus. The uterus then descends into the vaginal canal. "

I had assumed it was a one time thing and when the CNM and the OB talked about doing lots of kegels and possibly seeing a physiotherapist who deals with pelvic floor issues, I figured it was to help strengthen those muscles so it didn't happen again. It was a few days later I began to understand it wasn't a one time occurance. (no, my uterus is not falling out anymore but my cervix hangs a lot lower in the vaginal canal than it is suppose to).

I have found a support board through msn groups that I have a feeling I'll be frequenting quite often so that I'll be able to talk to other women who can relate. When I was searching the internet I ofcourse found horror stories of people dealing with it and then other stories of just normal people dealing with it in their lives. The horror stories scared me of course. People talking about being in so much pain from their prolapses that they couldn't stand to cook dinner, let alone play with their kids. That's what scared me the most. I'm so young and my kids are so young. What would it mean to not be able to play with them? That's one of the things I was looking forward to the most about having Danielle, was that I'd be able to play actively with Charity again and I didn't want that to happen. I read of some women not being able to have successful pregnancies, or of pregnancies making their prolapses worse. And I worried more about what this could mean for me? Not to mention, how many times you can ask yourself, why me? Why did this happen to me? Of all the risk factors, the only one I had was a tilted (aka tipped, retroverted) uterus, and I found out, men in my family have hernias which can signal a genetic problem that causes weak connective tissue. Oh yeah, but that's right, I said a tilted uterus is a risk factor. While not everyone who develops a prolapse has a tilted uterus, it's a lot more common among those who do than those who don't so if you have a titled uterus ladies, lots and lots of kegels!

Right now, I still don't have those answers but I'm ok with that for now. We'll cross those bridges when and if we get to them. It's possible that since I did just have Danielle, that if I take it easy over the next 12 weeks, it could improve some on it's own. At this point I've had it for a little over a week and it doesn't seem to be causing any serious issues, so we'll see where we go from here.

But seriously, why aren't women told about this? It's estimated that about 50% of women will have a prolapse at some point in their life but because a lot of women may be embarrassed about it and not want to talk to their doctor about it that many go undiagnosed. How sad is that? That some women may struggle with this a lot of their lives never knowing or understanding what is going on :(

Oh, but when I talked to my twin on the phone the other day, she was repeating a lot of what I said back to me to make sure she understood what I was saying and her husband (who grew up on a farm with lots of cattle, knew what I was talking about because they'd seen it in the cattle... How unfair is it that people have more knowledge of problems with cows than women!?!) Ok, done with my mini rants now :) lol... wow, I can actually find something to laugh about it...