Pregnancy and childbirth place tremendous stress on the body, especially the core and pelvic floor muscles. While many women focus on rebuilding abdominal strength postpartum, pelvic floor health is just as important for long-term recovery, stability, and overall well-being.

Your pelvic floor supports the bladder, bowel, uterus, and spine while also helping with core stability and bladder control. Learning how these muscles function and how to strengthen them after pregnancy can help support recovery and reduce common postpartum issues like leaking urine, pelvic pressure, and core weakness.

Why Pelvic Floor Health Matters After Pregnancy

The pelvic floor is a thin layer of muscles that stretches from the pubic bone to the tailbone. These muscles support the bladder, intestines, uterus, and other pelvic organs while also playing an important role in bladder control, bowel function, posture, and core stability.

Pregnancy and childbirth can weaken or strain the pelvic floor over time. Some women may notice leaking urine when laughing, sneezing, or exercising, while others may experience pelvic pressure, heaviness, or core instability postpartum.

Although these symptoms are common after pregnancy, they should not automatically be considered “normal.” Strengthening and supporting the pelvic floor can help improve recovery, stability, and long-term pelvic health after childbirth. Some women may also benefit from working with a pelvic floor physical therapist postpartum.

Related: Pelvic Floor Therapy After Pregnancy

What Every Mom Should Know About Their Pelvic Floor

Pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery can all affect the strength and function of the pelvic floor. Understanding how these muscles work and how to support them can help improve recovery, stability, and long-term core health.

1. Pregnancy Places Stress on the Pelvic Floor

During pregnancy, your abdominal wall slowly expands over 9 months. But that’s not the only thing that stretches.

When it comes time to deliver, your pelvic floor muscles also stretch significantly during childbirth. Unlike the gradual changes that happen throughout pregnancy, the pelvic floor experiences significant strain during labor and delivery.

In many cases, pelvic muscles do not automatically rebound after childbirth. To prepare for delivery and help you recover faster, you need to strengthen them through kegel exercises, which consist of repeated contraction of your pelvic floor muscles, and other exercises like squats and bridges that engage your core and pelvic floor.

2. Pelvic Floor Muscles Can Be Strengthened

Pelvic floor muscles are no different than any other muscle in your body. When your pelvic floor muscles are well-conditioned, they have greater flexibility than they would if they were weak. Muscle weakness and atrophy decrease your pelvic floor flexibility just as any other muscle. Without proper support and conditioning, pelvic floor symptoms may become more noticeable over time.

It’s important for all pregnant or postpartum women to be consistent with strengthening through a program designed to prevent weakness and protect these important muscles. In addition to Kegel exercises, women should engage in strengthening exercises that involve full-body movements to retrain these areas.

Related: Postpartum Workout Basics: What You Should Know

3. Kegel Exercises May Support Postpartum Recovery

The good news is that the pelvic floor can often improve with proper exercises and support. Kegel exercises alone are generally not enough and should be combined with other exercises designed to strengthen the core and attached muscles. Kegel exercises are contraction exercises that can help increase blood flow to the pelvic floor and help speed healing after childbirth.

The proper starting position for Kegel exercises is any comfortable position that isolates your pelvic floor muscles from the inner thighs and buttocks.

It’s best to avoid doing kegel exercises while crossing your thighs or standing, as this also engages the large muscles of the hips and thighs and does not isolate the pelvic floor. Try doing your kegel exercises while sitting, lying on your side, or lying on your back with your knees bent.

How to perform kegel exercises:

• Squeeze the anal sphincter (not your butt cheeks) as tightly as possible, then squeeze the vaginal sphincter
• Gradually increase the intensity of the contraction
• Hold the contraction for five to six seconds
• Fully relax the muscles afterward
• Rest and repeat 10 times

For optimal recovery after childbirth, experts recommend performing 5 sets throughout the day. Coordinating breathing with pelvic floor exercises may also help improve core engagement and stability.

Related: Kegel Exercises: How to Do Them and Why It’s Important

4. Your Pelvic Floor and Core Work Together

As you perform your Kegels, you may notice your deep abdominal muscles contract simultaneously with your pelvic muscles. This is because they are so closely connected.

During kegel exercises, you may notice your belly button move, your waist narrow, or your abdominal muscles tense. Your deep abdominal muscles (transverse abdominis), pelvic floor muscles, and deep spinal muscles all work together to provide internal support and stability for your torso. That’s why core-conditioning programs that strengthen the pelvic floor simultaneously with the deep abdominals are powerful core-stabilization techniques.

If at any point through your workout you notice signs of core or pelvic weakness, stop and modify exercises if you notice:

• Straining in the abdomen or pelvic floor
• Leaking urine during exercise
• Pelvic or lower back pain
• Core instability
• Abdominal bulging or “coning”

Core weakness after pregnancy may also occur alongside diastasis recti, a separation of the abdominal muscles common postpartum. Returning to exercise gradually after pregnancy can help reduce strain on healing core and pelvic floor muscles.

Pelvic floor health is an important part of postpartum recovery and long-term core strength. While symptoms like leaking urine or pelvic pressure are common after pregnancy, they should not be ignored. With proper exercises, support, and recovery strategies, many women can improve pelvic floor function and feel stronger and more supported in their daily movement and activities.