Pelvic Floor Health & the Gentle Work of Taking Care of Yourself This Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day has a way of putting women in a specific role: caregiver, organizer, emotional center of the family. It’s a day meant to celebrate that, but it can also quietly reinforce a pattern many women live in year-round: taking care of everyone else while putting themselves somewhere further down the list.
Pelvic floor health sits right in the middle of that pattern. It’s often ignored, misunderstood, or pushed aside until something feels off; leaking, discomfort, back pain, a sense of disconnect in the body. And even then, many women - many people- normalize it or work around it instead of addressing it directly. But the pelvic floor is not a small or isolated system. It is foundational.
Our pelvic floor supports our organs, responds to breath, works with our deep core and hips, and plays a role in how we move, stabilize, and feel in our body every day!
Taking care of our pelvic floor isn’t extra. It’s not indulgent. It’s basic maintenance for a body that does a lot.
What’s often missing in our awareness or education isn’t effort, (heaven knows we try to do everything) it’s clarity. Many of us have been told to “do Kegels” without understanding what that actually means or whether it’s even appropriate for our bodies. In reality, the pelvic floor needs both the ability to contract and the ability to release. Too much or constant tension can be just as limiting or create further weakness.
Without awareness and coordination, more effort doesn’t necessarily lead to better function.
This is where intentional movement matters. Slowing down enough to feel how your breath, core, and pelvic floor work together changes the awareness. It shifts the focus from fixing symptoms to understanding patterns. And that understanding is what allows real change; less strain, better support, more ease in daily movement.
There’s also something bigger here, especially around a holiday like Mother’s Day. When women take time to care for their own bodies, we are not stepping away from our roles; we are modeling something essential. We are showing our families that our health matters. That our time has value, and that our love and care doesn’t only flow outward. That self-care and self-love message tells our family that we are valuable and capable of receiving goodness.
That’s not a message most of us were directly taught. It’s one we have to choose, one self-care moment at a time.
Caring for yourself and your pelvic floor; learning about it, paying attention to it, strengthening and softening where needed is a small but meaningful way to do that. It’s practical. It’s physical. And it has a direct impact on how you feel in your body and your longevity; if you feel good in your body, you are going to be a happier person, and be kinder and more joyful with the people you love and care for!
This Mother’s Day, the goal doesn’t need to be more. It can be clearer: More awareness. More connection. More respect for the body you live in and rely on every day. Gentle and loving care. For you. By you, because you deserve to mother and care for yourself.
This is not a luxury. It’s a baseline.
