Appointments
Pelvic health during and after pregnancy
Your appointment will be with a pelvic health physiotherapist or midwife, and may be:
We'll confirm your appointment by telephone before booking.
How to get an appointment
Your midwife, your obstetrician, your GP or another health professional can refer you for an appointment.
Changing or cancelling your appointment
Please contact us if you need to rearrange your appointment or cannot attend. If you do not attend and do not let us know, we may discharge you from our care.
Phone: 020 7188 4191
Email: [email protected]
During your appointment
You should allow 1 hour for your appointment with a specialist pelvic health midwife and/or physiotherapist.
If your appointment is face to face, please arrive 15 minutes before your appointment.
If your appointment is by phone, we'll aim to call you at the appointment time but may call up to 30 minutes before or after. Please have your phone close to you during this time.
Talking about your history and symptoms
We'll talk in detail about any pelvic floor problems you have, your past medical history and any other information we need to help you to manage your pelvic health condition.
Some of the questions might feel personal but this helps us to have insight into your problems and the support you need. We also give you the opportunity to ask any questions.
We'll give you advice and a pelvic floor exercise programme. Depending on your symptoms we may discharge you back to your GP or we may arrange another appointment.
Having an internal examination
We might offer you an internal (vaginal) pelvic floor muscle examination. You do not have to have this but it can help your pelvic health physiotherapist or midwife to:
- create a management plan that's right for you
- make sure you understand how to activate your pelvic floor muscles correctly
- check if your perineum (the area between your anus and vulva) has healed correctly following the birth of your baby
Your pelvic health physiotherapist or midwife will discuss the examination in detail with you during your appointment and a chaperone can be arranged if you would like one.
To patients who may have experienced trauma in the past and are having a pelvic floor muscle examination, please know that your comfort, dignity, and emotional wellbeing are of utmost importance to us, and our perinatal pelvic health team is here to provide compassionate care and support throughout this process.
Video group clinics
Video group consultations are a way to bring together women and birthing people for support with pelvic health conditions. Our groups help you to better manage your health and share experiences and learning.
The 1-hour session will include:
- a 20 minute presentation from a pelvic health professional
- a 40 minute question and answer session
After the virtual session, we recommend you use the advice and exercises from the session in your daily lifestyle.
If you feel you need more advice with the physiotherapist or midwife, please speak with them at the end of the session.
You may not want to share any personal details about yourself or your condition in the group session. The healthcare professional will understand that. You can also keep your camera turned off.
If you have any concerns or would rather not attend a group session, please let us know in advance.
After your appointment
After your appointment we will:
- send a letter to you and your GP with details of what we talked about
- provide you with a plan to manage your treatment at home
We might also:
- organise a follow-up appointment with our service
- organise a referral to another doctor or health specialist
- discharge back to your GP for any further care
We can also connect you to a digital platform that will help you to monitor your pelvic floor exercise programme progress. This also enables us to monitor your activity and progress, as part of your pelvic health management programme.
