Kim Vopni - Your Pelvic Floor: A Practical Guide to Solving Your Most Intimate Problems

This edition published in the UK and Ireland 2021 by

Watkins, an imprint of Watkins Media Limited

Unit 11, Shepperton House

89-93 Shepperton Road

London

N1 3DF

Design and typography copyright Watkins Media Limited 2021

Text Copyright Kim Vopni 2021

Kim Vopni has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Designed and typeset by Lapiz

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ Books Ltd.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78678-486-5 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-78678-487-2 (eBook)

www.watkinspublishing.com

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kim Vopni is a self-professed pelvic health evangelist and is known as The Vagina Coach. She is a certified fitness professional who became passionate about sharing information on pelvic health after the birth of her first child.

She is a published author, a passionate speaker and womens health educator, as well as a mom to two boys.

Kim is the founder of Pelvienne Wellness Inc a company offering pelvic health programmes, products and coaching for women in pregnancy, motherhood and menopause. She also cofounded, grew, and sold a company called Bellies Inc where she created the Ab System a revolutionary birth prep and recovery system for pregnant women. Kim also certifies other fitness and movement professionals to work with women who have core and pelvic floor challenges through her Core Confidence Specialist Certification.

You can find her online at www.vaginacoach.com and on social media @vaginacoach.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Anya Hayes and Watkins Publishing thank you first of all for choosing me and secondly for all of the behind the scenes work that went in to making this book a reality.

To my mom for always answering my questions about your births and body and for telling me the straight facts. Your story and your openness was a huge catalyst for where I am today. You are also the best proofreader I know!

To my dad for moving me (our family) around the world, which has helped me become adaptable, accustomed to change and a lover of travel.

To Tecsana, the makers of the EPI-NO, for creating the amazing product that ultimately started me on this journey.

To my kids for making me a mother.

To Julia Di Paolo and Samantha Montpetit-Huynh for the laughs, the tears and the learning from Bellies Inc.

To my teachers, Diane Lee, Katy Bowman, Julie Wiebe, Jenny Burrell, Michelle Lyons, Antony Lo, Kaisa Tuominen, Tamara Rial and Dr Bruce Crawford for teaching me and giving me the tools to help and inspire others to care about their pelvic health.

To all the pelvic health physios who have supported my work and collaborated with me.

To Myra Robson, co-founder of Pelvicroar and co-creator of the NHS-approved pelvic floor app, Squeezy, for advising on physiotherapy content of the book.

And finally, to my husband, who has talked me off the entrepreneur cliff many times and has been my biggest fan and supporter through it all.

FOREWORD

Every once in a while you meet someone who impresses you with their passion and expertise. It bubbles over not just in joy and enthusiasm but in their absolute commitment to the subject they love. You know when you meet them, even if that subject matter is delicate.

That someone is Kim Vopni, author of Your Pelvic Floor. She harnesses all the skills and knowledge she has acquired in her specialist subject to help us change our lives for the better.

Kim cares about your pelvic floor health. Where Kobe Bryant may have focused on the ball and the net, Kim Vopni, the self-titled Vagina Coach, has focused on that particular part of the female anatomy that is quite possibly the central point of femaleness.

You would think that all those who come equipped with a vagina and a vulva would know how to look after these most intimate parts of the female machinery. That anyone who menstruates knows something about vaginal health, but this knowledge may be the sum total of their vaginal understanding. There is a vast open space of not knowing that can be filled by Kims knowledge and practical expertise.

Ive had the opportunity to participate in Kims workshops and online programmes. Weve also had multiple conversations about wellness, particularly womens health. In one workshop, I learned the Blueberry Visualization technique which youll find in the book and which, Im happy to say, has seriously upped my pelvic-floor strengthening game. I also discovered, through Kims acute eye, that I had a diastasis recti and that I needed to learn how to better engage my abdominal core muscles in order to avoid further troubles.

When Kim does a guest appearance for my Eat Clean, Clean Living and Tosca Reno audiences, engagement is high, questions fly and women fall in love with her, just as I did. Women want to know how to stop the dribbling, pad wearing frustrations of weak pelvic floor health.

What Kim teaches in Your Pelvic Floor can be considered the ultimate users manual to your vagina. Youd be surprised, for example, how visualizing a blueberry as I learned to do can help tweak your pelvic floor power. Dont worry! Youll find out.

Your Pelvic Floor demystifies pelvic floor health in a supportive and practical way that gives women of every age hope for a healthy relationship with their womanhood.

Tosca Reno

Tosca Reno is the New York Times best-selling author of Your Best Body Now and the Eat-Clean Diet series. She is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and a leading health and wellness advocate.

INTRODUCTION

How many times have you been to the dentist in your life? Chances are it is at least once, probably twice, a year from the time you were a child. You have been taught the importance of oral health, you brush your teeth twice a day, floss regularly and you have a check-up with your dentist even if you dont have any issues, correct?

The same should be happening with your pelvic health. So, how many times have you been to a pelvic health physiotherapist? Chances are, youve picked up this book because you are either under the guidance of a pelvic health physio, or youre reading up because youre experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction whether thats incontinence, pelvic pain or prolapse and youre trying to find healing tools. Youve come to the right place. This book will be your guide through the problems we can face as owners of a vagina, and signpost areas to help you find the treatment programme that will be right for you.

The pelvic floor is a part of the body that deserves preventive health care, and education starting at around the time of menstruation. Function and pelvic health management strategies should be taught, along with education on the menstrual cycle. It is also important to inform vulva and vagina owners about proactive health care, and teach about things that can interfere with optimal function. Just like dentists teach that sugary foods and lack of brushing and flossing can lead to tooth decay and cavities, female health educators can introduce the concept that daily habits such as posture and the way you go to the toilet (yes, you read that right!), and life events such as childbirth can lead to challenges with your pelvic floor muscles.