You know how they say that sometimes you open your mouth and your mother comes out? No? Yes?
That doesn’t happen to me so much; my mum and I aren’t particularly alike and I’d need far more intelligent stuff to drop pearl-like and wisdom-y for me to sound much like her. 😉 However, there are often times these days when I remind myself very much of my mum, the mum I remember when I was a little girl.
She’s going to kill me for this.
It’s when I sneeze.
You know the special mum sneeze? The one where they bend over , cross their legs and twizzle on the spot as they sneeze? The one where (tell me it isn’t just me?) they straighten up with a look of pure delight on their face and you think, “My, my, she REALLY enjoyed that sneeze!”
The sneeze dance is not, as you only discover once you’ve popped out a baby or two, a form of choreography designed to entertain the children, nor is sneezing in fact quite as blissful as all that – though in fairness, several sleepless years in and you take your kicks where you can get them 😉 – but an essential form of hygiene maintenance. Because sneezing is VERY bad for your bladder, post baby. Legs crossed, bend over, twizzle to redirect the sneeze because frankly worrying about finding a tissue is WAAAAY down on your priority list – it’s all about holding on to the wee you didn’t know you needed until that tickle came a-calling.
See the look of fear? She didn’t do her pelvic floor exercises either.
And yes, one of my best friends would tell you it is all about the pelvic floor exercises, but I think we all know the only people who do those are the ones who spend their days stitching up bladders for women who can’t remember where they left that particular muscle sling.
In fairness, I’ve never really been great at the whole bladder control thing; a bed-wetter till at least 12, I have an utterly horrific memory of wetting myself from nerves on the side of a stage age 17, in front of the best looking boy in the year. I’m pretty sure I didn’t manage to conceal the disaster. And in my role as gym mum, gym coach and occasional performer of cartwheels (my sole gymnastic move!) I can assure you a bit of bladder weakness is pretty common, from small girl, through teenage girl and right through to grown up. (And my goodness, gym coaches are grateful if it is only wee… (bars are at nose height and involve a lot of farts!)
There are plenty of ways to combat the problem though and there is no shame in a bit of panty protection, however old you are. Lights by Tena are offering a free sample pack of their newest pads; details available at the end of the video and on the website. So if you are one of the 1 in 2 women in the UK who experience light bladder weakness, you can rest assured there is nothing to blush about. We are nearly all doing it too! 😉
In association with Lights by Tena.
