My Birth Story :: Hannah T.
The moment I saw two lines on a pregnancy test, I screamed for my husband, but no sound came out of my mouth. I was recovering from the flu and my voice still sounded like shards of glass were caught in my throat.
“You need to see this,” I croaked out, holding the pregnancy test up for my confused husband to see.
He stared blankly for a minute. “Is that positive?!”
I nodded. We looked at each other like aliens had just landed on Earth, because for us that’s what it felt like. Honestly, I think an alien invasion would have surprised us less than a pregnancy.
Three months before the two little lines appeared, we had our final appointment with my fertility doctor. I was six months post-surgery to remove severe endometriosis, and my doctor was giving us the bad news: it was time to pursue IVF. But my egg count was so low that I was considered a terrible candidate for IVF. It was the end of a long and difficult infertility journey. We were heartbroken.
About six months prior to my surgery, I had started going to pelvic floor physical therapy. It was by far the most helpful thing on a long list of therapies I had tried to treat my pelvic pain and infertility. I will never forget my first session when my pelvic floor physical therapist, Amy, was able to get my uterus to drop down into the place where it was supposed to be. I had seen so many doctors and specialists at this point, but I had no idea that my uterus was shoved up too high in my body. From that moment on, MOJO Pelvic Health became my place of deep healing.
For me, pelvic health worked better than therapy. I had spent years working through my issues mentally, but I never understood that my body was still holding on to all the trauma I thought I had processed. Week after week, Amy led the charge into my issues like a general going to war, unafraid of what might come up. Week after week my pelvis began to release, my body began to come out of fight or flight, and my pain became more manageable.
Amy helped me prepare my body for pelvic surgery and the long post-surgical recovery process. She encouraged me not to give up on the possibility of a successful pregnancy, even when fertility specialists told me it was not possible. Amy was also the first person I told outside of my family after my miracle pregnancy was confirmed.
It was a given that I would do MOJO’s birth prep program after the profound effect pelvic floor physical therapy had already had on my life and fertility. After all the difficulty I went through trying to get pregnant, I was fortunate to have a very smooth pregnancy and delivery. I emailed Amy around 37 weeks and told her that I needed to move up my final birth prep appointment because I was pretty sure this baby was coming any day, and I was right. At my routine 38-week appointment, my pelvis was so open that I was already dilated to six and not yet in labor, so I was sent to the hospital immediately to have my water broken. After only seven hours of unmedicated labor, our girl was here.
I know that pelvic floor physical therapy contributed to my ability to have the smooth, epidural-free labor and birth that I had hoped for, but I also feel that it played a large role in my ability to get pregnant in the first place. I wish that this therapy was more accessible to everyone, and that people in all stages of pelvic pain, surgery, infertility, pregnancy, and postpartum knew that pelvic floor physical therapy is helpful and available.
My pelvic floor physical therapy sessions are not quite as serene these days. This week, my five-month-old daughter was lying on a blanket on the floor surrounded by toys that seemed to keep her interest for about thirty seconds as Amy informed me that the mild pelvic pain issues I’d been having seemed to originate not from endometriosis, but from picking my growing daughter up with poor posture. As Amy performed my internal exam, I listened to my daughter shrieking at the top of her lungs and said a silent prayer that women’s healthcare is more accessible, holistic, and comprehensive for her and her generation than it was for us. I truly believe that MOJO is leading the way.
Hannah Monk Truehart is a freelance violinist and a Suzuki music education specialist. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Memphis. She lives in Cordova with her husband, Carrington, and her daughter, Sylvie. In her free time, she loves to read, write stories, and practice yoga.
MOJO Pelvic Health is a local, women-owned and operated team made up of Memphis’ Premier Pelvic Health Physical and Occupational Therapists. The co-founders are both pelvic health physical therapists who have been working to elevate and improve care during pregnancy and postpartum for over a decade in Memphis and have developed a mentoring and training program to educate, empower, and enable more therapists to specialize in this field. They have expanded to multiple locations and partner with some of our top OB GYN groups to make this care more accessible.
Learn more about this incredible team of women at mojoph.com or through their social media @mojopelvichealth.
If you are pregnant, you can learn more about their online Birth Prep Program at the following link. This is open to anyone and everyone, regardless of location mojo-flo.com/birth-prep
