There are some days I would like to give up work and just read (study) Facebook. I know that sounds crazy- especially in view of the hard time I would give my kids when they were at school about Facebook, MSN (yes I’m that old- they are that old…). But believe it or not Facebook is an amazing place to learn and update – but the trouble is there aren’t enough hours in the day to actually read it all and then actually treat any patients with the knowledge scoured from the trillion- yes trillion I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!!! – articles that pour across our Women’s Health Physiotherapy Facebook group plus other Facebook groups, other research groups etc etc.
But reality says two things:
1.The patients actually do need treating
2.Donald Trump doesn’t pay my bills
Sometimes when I am on Facebook reading things I feel like everyone is at war- hence the title.
Let’s take the state of woman hood which everybody is an expert- and loves to pronounce said expertise straight to the face of that person-the pregnant woman who subsequently has the baby.
Oh you look like you’re glowing- are you pregnant?
How lovely- but you are nauseous? Try ginger…marigold tea….sleeping on this magic magnetty memory foam overlay… Oh are you vomiting…oh you’re too skinny/eating for 2..3..4- you’ll get gestational diabetes
When are you due? Oh you’re having a Caesar.. oh that’s so terrible for the baby- I read they’ll get asthma for sure….. oh you have a birth plan/ YOU DON’T HAVE A BIRTH PLAN- OMG.
What are the names? Oh I hate the name Sylvester…oh you’re naming your baby Sylvester…really? You think?
You’re breast feeding in public (yuk, yuk, yuk) Oh YOU’RE NOT BREAST FEEDING (FAIL in shouty letters)
How is your baby sleeping?….my baby slept through from 3 weeks! Oh you’re feeding 8 feeds a day and the baby sleeps for 20 seconds during the day and for 20 minutes here and there at night.
So there it is- the ‘who is the best mothering mother’ war!
There’s the constant battle about the famous or now infamous ‘core’. The core muscles are being debated left right and centre. Articles abound about the value or not of turning muscles on or of tightening them, relaxing them; of using them individually, moving them as a group; sitting with good posture, or the irrelevance of posture – ‘your best posture is your next posture’…… (To all my patients I do want you to stay friends with your transversus and the pelvic floor)
In fact if I didn’t have my wonderful patients to ground me, I (or anyone starting out in the Women’s Health area of physiotherapy) might go off and join the circus as a clown.
But what is the point of this ramblings that just came upon me tonight? Going to the beach might be more valuable than over-reading on the internet? Maybe…
No, no we are on it as a profession!
We have amazing WH Physios who are researching, educating, empathizing, understanding, clarifying, challenging and reinforcing the fundamentals.
Which are – keep moving, keep dancing, keep breathing calmly, keep communicating with each other and your therapist, relaxing, sleeping, chatting, laughing, smiling… that we WH Physios are thinking of your body as a whole- we are marveling at your amazing brain and nervous system and thanks to the wonderful work such as that of Lorimer Moseley and Dave Butler who wrote Explain Pain– we are better at understanding what is happening when things go a bit haywire and you develop chronic pain.
Now all this started due to Michelle Bridges letting us know (boasting?) about her running at 3 weeks after the birth of her baby. Personally I’m amazed there is this much chatter about it. You’d think she must be challenged by it, because you are vulnerable when you have a new baby. But she is a very public figure and let’s face it- she’s just back at the office and people are yet again talking about Michelle Bridges.
But this time the conversation is about Michelle Bridge’s pelvic floor – and that’s got to be a good thing for all the rest of the women, who might just think about theirs.