yt:channel:JmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA JmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2012-04-09T18:21:10+00:00 yt:video:TRLRGckf4TY TRLRGckf4TY UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-24T13:59:41+00:00 2025-07-31T10:46:17+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Postpartum Depression & Anxiety, Signs and symptoms Postpartum or any, perinatal mood or anxiety disorder can absolutely look different on every patient. You might see an increase in some obsessive thoughts, paranoid thoughts. Women may say to me, I'm always worried something bad is gonna happen to me, and I'm gonna leave my baby without a mama. Or I'm always worried something's gonna happen to my baby. So feelings of inadequacy, feelings of hopelessness, very common. Women will often say to me, I feel like I'm hearing things. I feel like I'm hearing my baby cry, and my baby's, in another room and not crying. What's wrong with me? I am not me. The things that I always look for are, you know, is there a disturbed appetite, either increased or decreased? Disturbed sleep, either increased or decreased? What's their concentration like? Usually it's pretty poor. And so we can do the behavioral therapy and then we can do medication intervention. yt:video:bAGzkcIK0kQ bAGzkcIK0kQ UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:41:06+00:00 2026-01-23T17:27:29+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - A Multidisciplinary Approach In our office, we have two surgeons, pelvic floor physical therapists, nurses, and myself who are able to give our patients a multi physical therapist is to make sure we're all on the same page, we all know what the goal is for the patient and where they're at so that we can adjust treatment as needed and all know what each other is doing. So treatment as needed and all know what each other is doing so that we're not repetitive and we're not backsliding. We all know where we're going, to try and achieve whatever the goal is for the patient. yt:video:pAieWbBkrq0 pAieWbBkrq0 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:39:26+00:00 2025-06-10T02:12:54+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Quality of Life Treatment 1 I tell all of our patients everything we do in our office is quality of life driven. So simple, something that some patients would just brush off. If it's bothering someone, it matters. Our treatment is tailored to what their quality of life goal is. So we have treatment options for that spectrum of symptoms. We have a very welcoming environment. yt:video:_O-ddb2GfG0 _O-ddb2GfG0 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:37:36+00:00 2026-01-15T18:56:54+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Overactive Bladder Syndrome One common problem that women come to our office to seek help with is overactive bladder syndrome and urgency urinary incontinence. Overactive bladder is urinary frequency, urgency, nighttime urination, and incontinence or leakage of urine that happens with those things. The diagnosis can be made mostly patient about their symptoms, sometimes with the help of a public examination or some advanced bladder testing that we do in the office. But most of the information we can get just by having a conversation. yt:video:j9_2ET5m_wM j9_2ET5m_wM UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:36:23+00:00 2025-06-10T10:10:24+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Stress Urinary Incontinence One of the more common problems that women come to see us for is stress urinary incontinence. And this is leakage of urine that happens with physical activity, coughing, sneezing, laughing, jumping, exercise, and can be a real detriment to our quality of life. The treatment options for this range from non surgical options like pelvic floor muscle strengthening, either with a home based program or under the guidance of our pelvic floor physical therapists, as well as vaginal inserts, some of which are available over the counter and some of which we can help fit them for here in the clinic. And then there are procedural options such as urethral bulking injections, which is very minimally invasive, and then an outpatient surgical procedure called a midurethral sling. yt:video:gz0ERytGCL0 gz0ERytGCL0 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:34:32+00:00 2025-07-23T05:02:56+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Surgical and Nonsurgical Procedures We really do offer, comprehensive nonsurgical and surgical treatment options. Nonsurgical in the sense that we're able to treat prolapse and stress incontinence and fecal incontinence non surgically by our physicians, but we also have ingrained, pelvic floor physical therapists that work in our office. And I think that really makes us unique. Our practice also has the full scope of surgical capabilities. yt:video:LDqbduiU6K0 LDqbduiU6K0 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-04-14T18:32:26+00:00 2025-07-21T12:41:38+00:00 Deaconess The Women's Hospital - Dr. Allen Mehr, DO I take care of women with, complex pelvic floor disorders. So prolapse, urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, really things that patients are really embarrassed to talk about. I try to make myself accessible both in office and I even provide telemedicine opportunities for patients that wanna see me virtually. So my philosophy in terms of taking care of patients via telemedicine or in person doesn't really change. These disorders really impact quality of life for patients. yt:video:WqScN3FgQn4 WqScN3FgQn4 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:27:00+00:00 2025-06-12T13:54:47+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Meet Amy, Pelvic Floor Therapist Hi. I'm Amy McClurkin. I am a pelvic floor physical therapist that works at urogynecology and pelvic rehab at the women's hospital. And I've been a therapist for thirty eight years. Most of us who wind up in the field of physical therapy end up there because we've had an experience with physical therapy in our past. I had issues as a female athlete, when I was younger, and that's really kind of what spurred me into the female athlete role. So during the treatment of the female athlete, you discover that there are some things that you just cannot improve, and that kind of led my interest into additional education on the pelvic floor. You know, with pregnancy and then in the postpartum stage, there are significant changes that occur in the female body. You know, most people don't realize that every single one of their internal core muscles are compromised during the course of a normal pregnancy. And if you're not taught how to activate those, how to return to normal function with those muscles, chances are you'll have an impaired level of function after you deliver. The majority of women who accomplish their goals are very excited. They're very grateful. They feel like they have a new lease on life in many cases. They're able to get back to having, a day to day routine that seems normal to them again. Much more reflective of what it used to be before they came into the clinic. yt:video:5Jiw2Etd3_4 5Jiw2Etd3_4 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:25:46+00:00 2025-06-09T10:59:38+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Meet Erika, Pelvic Floor Therapist My name is Erica McCombs. I'm a physical therapist at the Urogynecology and Pelvic Rehabilitation Clinic. I've been a physical therapist for over twenty years and currently focus in pelvic floor therapy, addressing a variety of pelvic floor dysfunctions that can present during pregnancy, after pregnancy, and even later on in life. We deal with some very sensitive topics at the Pelvic Floor Clinic and some sensitive subjects. As women, we can relate to each other, and hopefully, I can give them a sense of this is a common situation, but that there are ways to treat it. My most rewarding aspect is having patients come to me and say that their marriage is better because maybe now they can engage in intercourse that they previously can play with their kids without worrying about jumping, running, and having leakage. They can go through their day and not always be having pain or dysfunction. Patients sometimes think that that was not going to be achievable, and so then having them be excited about things that they can now accomplish is exciting for me. yt:video:pWGgyAisILc pWGgyAisILc UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:24:35+00:00 2025-06-08T15:53:17+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Meet Kim, Pelvic Floor Therapist I'm Kim Snyder. I'm a physical therapist for the Urogynecology and Pelvic Rehab Clinic here at the Women's Hospital. I've been a physical therapist for almost twenty five years. Twenty five years of that have been in pelvic health, and, the last fifteen years also have been a doula. What drew me to pelvic health is when I was a new grad. I just finished physical therapy school. I was working in a hospital in outpatient services and started working with pregnant women. And they started asking me a lot of questions, questions that I felt as a therapist we should know. And I started going to continuing education and found out that there is this whole world that we're missing below the belt. So I started on my path, it was back in nineteen ninety, and, have been going at it ever since. The most rewarding part of being a public health therapist is seeing someone who has pain and, isn't getting answers for their pain or really struggling with intercourse, intimacy, even just doing daily tasks or childcare, and being able to take that person through their rehab journey and be able to see them thrive, not just through intimacy, but also just in everyday life, and be able to get back to their life with less worry about what's happening below. yt:video:7_bNem4_7Fg 7_bNem4_7Fg UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:23:18+00:00 2025-06-12T00:06:28+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Pelvic Floor Therapy, Before Delivery So as a woman who is in her pregnancy, sometimes there are things that will happen such as pain, back pain, and many pregnant women will state, well, it's just a price of being pregnant. This is something normal. Some pains are normal, but that pain down in the backside of the pelvis or the fact that they're having some pubic pain or that they're having leakage, those things, even though they may be common, it is definitely not normal. We're going to teach them how to engage their musculature properly. We're gonna teach them proper stretches so that they have greater mobility. When you improve the function, of the muscles that are associated with the pelvic floor as well as the additional core muscles, we're also going to help improve their efficiency with labor and delivery. One of the things that can happen in the course of a normal vaginal delivery is the muscles of the pelvic floor can actually stretch three times their normal length in the course of that delivery. So obviously, one of the things that we want to help improve is how to recover that muscle function. There are things that we can do in therapy, with education and exercise and even manual techniques that can really help that woman, overcome those pains. They're also gonna be educated on how to take care of their body postpartum so that they don't need the physical therapy afterwards because once the baby comes, there's not a lot of time to taking care of ourselves like that. yt:video:wjsRN_Ba5A4 wjsRN_Ba5A4 UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:16:15+00:00 2025-06-05T13:38:57+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Pelvic Floor Therapy, After Delivery If there are symptoms postpartum, such as pain or leakage, there are things that we can do at that time to help, especially for women who didn't have those struggles during pregnancy or even that immediate postpartum period. Sometimes those things come very quickly. Sometimes we see them a year later. Sometimes we see them not until menopause. Regardless of when those symptoms occur, the sooner that we attack the problem, the easier really it is to treat. We may not need to meet multiple times a week, usually once a week for thirty minutes, establishing a home program that the patient can do at home. Usually a home program for a patient consists of about fifteen to twenty minutes of exercises with minimal equipment, if any equipment needed. We usually try and instruct exercises that can be done at home, on the floor, in bed, throughout the day. So who has time to take care of their body when they have a newborn, right? The exercises that we do for simply strengthening the pelvic floor are pretty simple. They don't take much time, just a couple of minutes. It doesn't require a gym membership or even putting on a pair of sweats. Does require consistency though. But you're doing things consistently with the baby, so we try to tie that in with baby care. yt:video:_rQZ9K3Spvk _rQZ9K3Spvk UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:14:34+00:00 2025-06-08T12:20:18+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Pelvic Floor Therapy, Your First Visit Usually, when gals come in for their first appointment, it's gonna be an hour length appointment. That's the initial evaluation. The biggest chunk of that evaluation is just taking in the information from the patient. What are their complaints? What are their goals? What do they hope to see improve? Following that, we go into a hands on assessment of muscle imbalances, looking at what muscles are tight or restricted in their hips and pelvis and abdominal muscles, looking for strength and ability to engage so that they can have support during their daily activities. Based on those findings, discuss with a patient what that plan of care looks like, how many times do we plan to meet, how long are those sessions going to be. You are sent home with specific things to do. Sometimes it's strengthening exercise, sometimes it's simply breathing. We oftentimes don't understand or respect the connection between the diaphragm, which is your breathing muscle, and the pelvic floor. The breath work is so important for, relaxation and normalizing tone in your pelvic floor. And having a great normal toned toned floor, to start those strengthening exercises is certainly a goal. Once they have the evaluation completed, they look at you and they say, that really wasn't that bad. And then they're thankful because they're learning what they can do to improve their body functions that they came in to complain about. yt:video:pVhF_eMb7NI pVhF_eMb7NI UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:13:08+00:00 2025-06-13T07:24:30+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Pelvic Floor Therapy, Pain with Intercourse One big thing that we see postpartum is pain with intercourse. So you finish your six week checkup or your eight week checkup and you've been released to resume intercourse. Oftentimes, we'll find that when a woman tries to attempt intercourse, there's some pain, which some discomfort can be expected for that first time or two, but after that it should get better. But many women will find themselves in a situation where not only is it not getting better, but it's in fact getting worse. And many of those women can get to the point where they can't have penetration at all. So there are treatments that are relatively simple that can walk a woman through getting their pelvic floor back in shape to have intercourse pain free. It really doesn't require a lot of physical therapy visits. One would think you would be in therapy for twelve, fifteen, maybe even twenty sessions. We may only see that patient three or four visits over a ninety day period. There's some homework that you have to do at home, but there isn't a huge investment of time in the clinic. Even with pain with intercourse, we teach the women how to do self stretching. We teach and empower them, to heal their pelvic floors and to return it to some normalcy. yt:video:MGF9K7V8Aqw MGF9K7V8Aqw UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA Deaconess Health https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmEkeFVWQ_2vtHNonYzVxA 2025-03-17T16:09:01+00:00 2025-06-05T15:11:34+00:00 The Women's Hospital - Pelvic Health, a Continuum of Care Many women are told that urinary incontinence is basically a price you pay for having children, and that it couldn't be any further from the truth. There are so many things that we can do during pregnancy, postpartum, even later in life. Sometimes the leakage doesn't come until women are going through menopause. The unique thing about our environment is we are taking both young women that aren't even pregnant yet and seeing them through their pelvic health. We're also seeing those women who are pregnant and taking them through their pregnancy journeys with their pelvic health and then those postpartum women. Those are big changes in a woman's life, especially when it comes to their pelvic floor. And we can make such an impact that really helps with the quality of your life. Not having to worry about rushing to a restroom every thirty minutes or not having to worry about having an extra change of clothes in the car, or not having to worry about, oh my gosh, is my pad gonna hold this? To be able to empower them to not need that pad, they are completely thrilled. When they come to us, they, many of the women are like, I wasn't sure what I was getting into and I was a little reluctant to come. But once they got here, even on that first visit, many women will say, Oh my gosh, you have given me so much information in this one visit. Why did I wait?