Margo's first internship in school was in pelvic floor therapy where she began to develop her passion for women's health. Pelvic floor therapy should not be a luxury service but rather a required one for all women! Margo's theory for treating pelvic health is to treat the whole person, not just the pelvis! She considers multiple body systems including musculoskeletal, neurological, endocrine, reproductive, circulatory, digestive, urinary, lymphatic, and more. Diagnoses Margo treats include urinary and fecal incontinence, urinary urgency, constipation, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic pain, abdominal pain, coccydynia, sexual dysfunction, and more.
My Story
My name is Margo, and I am an orthopedic and pelvic floor physical therapist practicing in Southern California.
In June of 2021 I gave birth to my first child, a boy. My pregnancy was a dream, and my delivery was exactly as I had hoped. Within hours after my son was born, I knew something was wrong. By the third week postpartum I had noticed a heaviness feeling.
I was lucky enough to see my providers early in my postpartum journey and received a diagnosis. My world came crashing down. Even though I knew about pelvic organ prolapse from my work, I couldn’t believe it had happened to me. I leaned on Google to try to find success stories and hope. Sadly, the stories and larger research papers I found did not apply to people like me. Most of the well researched treatment strategies were focused on perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. I had a hard time believing I was the only one in my situation.
I truly felt like my life was over. I would never travel again, I would never exercise again, I would never be intimate, walk the dogs, chase my son as he grows up, etc. etc. etc.
I joined all the Facebook support groups and read all the blogs and forums. I found very little positivity and no guidance on treatment for prolapse in the early postpartum phase. I then did one more search on Facebook for prolapse groups and found a very small group of less than 20 women who were also experiencing prolapse and all were less than a year postpartum. Halleluiah! I finally felt heard, seen, understood, supported, and lifted up. I learned that I was in fact not the only one in my situation. I spent hours chatting with these moms and helping provide information to help them through their recovery. Using my education to help others made me feel better when I was experiencing the lowest time of my life.
I have established this membership community for you to connect with others who are experiencing prolapse. In the community you can join chats with moms who have children the same age as your own. There are focus groups on pessary support, surgery, and more.
Also available with your membership is access to a gallery of real photos of prolapse. These photos have been added by other members for educational purposes and to demonstrate a variety of vulvas and prolapses. My hope for this community is that you feel welcome and supported.
I am sad you are here. But I am glad you are here.
Nicole’s Story
Nicole Cready is a POP mom of 2 beautiful girls. She lives in Alabama but War Eagle! … its an Auburn University thing.
My first baby was a scheduled c-section at 36 weeks and my second was a VBAC at 39+6 weeks. I purple pushed for two straight hours every contraction. I was not educated on proper pushing or breathing and had NO clue prolapse existed. I thought the worst that could happen was tearing. I was told I only had a first degree tear, however, I am certain a muscle tear was missed at the opening and needs to be fixed at some point.
I was on cloud 9 when I had a successful VBAC. I did not know it was important to rest early on, so I was picking up my oldest toddler fairly quickly and doing all the normal things. At 4 weeks postpartum I felt the dreaded bulges cleaning myself in the shower. I immediately began resting and noticed a reduction in the size bulges.
When I first discovered them, they were definitely grade 2s. Once I got in with my doctor, I was diagnosed as grade 1 everything by my OB, a Urogyn and a PFPT. Urethrocele being the worst/most noticeable. I did a year of PT and have worked hard on my hypertonic pelvic floor which I still have to manage to this day. My symptoms are almost non-existent now with just an occasional flare up.
This has been the biggest mental, physical and emotional hurdle I have ever experienced and I still have to work on my mental health at times.
I am currently doing POP Principles and working hard to get my body stronger. My husband and I would love 1 more baby at some point. This community has been everything I needed and more to help me through this journey. Feel free to reach out if you need to talk, need a friend, or or have any questions. I am an Admin on the P4Moms Membership Community and can always be reached at nicole@p4moms.com
Member Feedback
“Being blindsided by prolapse was detrimental to my physical and mental health. I slipped into postpartum depression very fast once I found my prolapses at 4 weeks postpartum. I scrounged google and social media looking for support groups and young moms experiencing the same thing to feel less alone. No one personally close to me had any idea what a prolapse was. I connected with a few women on here who were early postpartum too and it instantly helped to feel less alone. I’ve developed life-long friendships from this diagnosis and without my community of friends...I never would have gotten out of my depression. Life is so much better today.” - Nicole
“I have not related to anyone more since having a baby. I literally felt so so alone and embarrassed, angry, jealous of all my friends who just continue on. I could go on for hours about how helpful your content is. Thank you for sharing and helping us prolapse mamas with feeling normal and less alone.” - Anonymous Instagram Follower
“Thank you for sharing your journey and for sharing others’ stories. I don’t know anyone in my personal life with a prolapse so it’s nice to see acutal people with the same thing versus just reading about the stats.” - Caraline