Meet Miral Patel: An Introduction to Pelvic Floor Therapy at TYM

The Team, at Toronto Yoga Mamas, couldn't be more excited to welcome Miral Patel, Pelvic Health Physiotherapist - to the Toronto Yoga Mamas Leslieville's (growing) wellness team!

​Miral brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and skill, to our wellness team and we know that pelvic health therapy is an incredibly worthwhile offering for our clientele. 

We want you to get to know Miral, so here are a few insights from our recent Q & A with her. 


(1) Tell us about your path towards your career, starting out, in Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy 

To be honest, I had no interest in actually being a pelvic floor practitioner when I first started as a Physiotherapist.  The idea of probing someone vaginally or rectally didn't appeal to me.  In my first full-time job as a physiotherapist I was really encouraged/forced to pursue training in pelvic floor health.  I was still quite reluctant and began by just participating in some online webinars and a few info sessions.  During these info sessions the biggest thing that caught my attention were the stats.  The stats for the number of women that actually suffer from some type of pelvic floor dysfunction.  I had no idea how common it was and that physio could actually help.  It wasn't until at least 2 years after that that I worked up the courage to begin my training.  It only took one weekend of training to actually understand the importance of pelvic floor physiotherapy and how much of an impact it could have on someone's life.  Since then I've continued my training and I've also been able to see first hand the benefits pelvic floor physiotherapy with my patients. 

(2) Pelvic Floor Therapy is usually a topic that is discussed postnatally, but I know that you recommend it prenatally - can you tell us why? 
 
Seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist post-natally is great, but seeing a pelvic floor physio pre-natally is even better!  There is so much we can do together to help prepare the pelvic floor for labour and delivery and also to prevent trauma or damage.  When someone comes in pre-natally we can strengthen the pelvic floor earlier on so that you can avoid common issues like leaking or back pain during pregnancy. Closer to the actual delivery date we shift our focus to things like perineal massage/stretching, optimal positions for labour and delivery, practicing how to push effectively and more!  There are so many things you can do before hand to prepare and even prevent some of the trauma that can come with childbirth.  

(3) When do women start to typically see you prenatally? 

I can start seeing women as early as 12 weeks into the pregnancy.  It's usually easier to train and strengthen the pelvic floor when there isn't as much weight (baby) sitting on it.  It also give you ample time to strengthen before we shift the focus to stretching of the pelvic floor.  If you come in at 12 weeks it doesn't mean I'd see you weekly all the way through until the end of your pregnancy.  It just means you'd have an early start and then we'd take a break until you reached somewhere around 30 weeks.  

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