Female Health South Africa

10/09/2023

11/08/2023

08/06/2022

Bedwetting in childhood is very common, affecting 1 in 15 seven year olds and 1 in 75 teenagers.

Our factsheet on night time wetting (link in comments) explains the reasons why children wet the bed and what actions you can take to help your child overcome this distressing condition.

A good bedtime routine can help and is a good place to start:

- As well as working on getting the drinking right in the daytime – plenty of it, evenly spread out, and thinking about what they drink – work on a good bedtime drinking routine. STOP drinks one hour before bedtime, every night, and no more after that till morning.

- Practise a good bedtime toileting routine: schedule a relaxed toilet sit as part of preparing for bed, and pop back to the toilet just before sleep if it’s more than ½ an hour later.

- Have a trial without nappies. Even if nappies are always wet, try removing them for at least a week, otherwise your child will never feel wet when they wee. It may be just the trigger they need to wake up.

- Protect the bed. Take the stress out of bedwetting by investing in a waterproof mattress cover, and waterproof duvet and pillow protectors if your child is really wet. Use an absorbent sheet to contain the wee too. Visit ERIC’s online shop for a wide range of bedding protection.

- Prepare your child for sleep. Unwind with a book or listen to music with the lights turned low. NO screens – so no TV, iPad, computer games in the hour before sleep, or the brain will get the wrong message!

- Help your child to practise taking themselves to the toilet if they wake. Think about a gentle night light or a torch so it’s not too dark. Should they go to the bathroom or use a potty/bucket/bottle in their bedroom? Bunk beds? Make sure it is the bottom bunk. Practise pulling pyjamas up and down, and changing them if they get wet.

- Avoid lifting – in other words waking your child to take them to the toilet – if you want to work on stopping bedwetting. It might keep the bed dry, but it encourages the child to wee during sleep as they don’t really wake up.

- Reward each step along the way – getting the drinking right, doing a bedtime wee, using the toilet at night.

13/02/2021

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1713782555475263&id=143695039150697

FIBER FEBRUARY and delicious recipe!

Just as bones make up the skeletons of animals, fiber is the skeleton of plants. Fiber is only found in plants which is why consuming a plant-rich diet is so important. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body cannot digest and is important for digestive health and weight maintenance as well as lowering risk of diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.

There are 2 main types of fiber - SOLUBLE and INSOLUBLE

Today is Soluble Fiber Day -

Soluble fiber dissolves in water and acts like a sponge. When eaten it creates a sticky bolus [a small gel-like mass] that helps lower blood glucose and cholesterol levels.

Soluble Sources: oats, oat bran, beans, lentils, chia seed, flax meal, nuts and seeds, barley, citrus fruits, apples, strawberries, blueberries, pears, and sweet potatoes

These Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cups are an easy and delicious way to get some soluble fiber rich oats into your day

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE OATMEAL CUPS (From Joanne Houde - Sports Mom Extraordinary )

INGREDIENTS
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 cup milk (dairy or non dairy)
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups old fashioned oats (sometimes I decrease oats by 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup whey protein powder)
• 1/8-1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 tbl baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS
• Heat oven to 375
• Mash bananas in mixing bowl , add remaining ingredients. Stir well
• Line muffin pan with muffin cups. Fill each with batter (heaping)
• Bake for 20-25 minute or until top is brown
• I like to sprinkle a little cinnamon on top for flavor

Celiac friends - use gluten free oats

30/01/2021

https://www.facebook.com/141169118941/posts/10160353412248942/

📣 In our newest blog post, we deep dive into 5 ways to relax your pelvic floor.

🌬 Diaphragmatic Breathing
The importance of breathing and its relationship to the pelvic floor cannot be stated enough. The pelvic floor muscles are directly influenced and impacted by how we breathe.

🧒 Child’s Pose
As you imagine the sitz bones separating on every inhale, you may begin to develop a sensation of the a**s bulging or expanding. This can be a signal that your pelvic floor muscles are relaxing.

👶 Happy Baby
This pose helps stretch the inner thighs, hamstrings, and groin. It also helps release the hips and back.

🙏 Yogi Squat
It is excellent for overall mobility of the lower extremity joints as well as the back and the pelvic floor. If this pose is available to you, dropping into it a few times through the work day can help keep tightness from building up throughout the day.

😌 Sphinx Pose
When dealing with pelvic floor tightness, it is important to release the abdominals. Trying a gentle abdomen stretch with spinal extension, such as sphinx pose, can be beneficial in finding full release.

Comment “💛” below if you’d like us to send you the link to the blog post!

27/01/2021

Have you ever wondered why the "P" fruits are often recommended to help with constipation? It's because many P fruits contain Sorbitol, a natural osmotic laxative.

Osmotic laxatives help by drawing water into the stool, making it soft and easier to pass. Other osmotic laxatives go by the name of Miralax, Natural Calm, Milk of Mag and Lactulose.

Now the effect of fruit sorbitol can't be compared to the effectiveness of the laxatives mentioned, but for more common, "simple" constipation, these fruits are worth a try. They can also help in conjunction with the laxatives to help keep stools soft. Maybe your child won't require quite as much of the laxative to achieve nice, mushy, soft serve ice cream p**p.

Try these as whole fruit, frozen, in a smoothie, as juice (warm pear juice first thing in the morning is especially helpful), dried, mixed into yogurt or cereal, use dates as the base for many different treats. The list goes on.

Have you tried these natural laxatives with your child? Did they work?

18/11/2020

https://mysexualhealth.co.za/breathing-and-the-pelvic-floor/

Not interested in breathing and your pelvic floor? Well, what if I told you that the pelvic floor is the engine behind your or**sm?

03/11/2020

https://www.google.com/amp/s/jessicarealept.com/2018/12/03/how-to-p**p/amp/

3 years ago, I wrote a post on dyssynergic defecation that over time has become the most viewed post I have ever written. Y’all, people are struggling with p**ping. Bowel health is something …

16/10/2020

HIV AND LOWER URINARY TRACT DYSFUNCTION. I
S THERE AN ASSOCIATION?

These women as they age will present with urogynaecological conditions like the rest of the aging population, but is there a difference? This prospect raises two questions:

Does HIV influence urogynaecological presentations, specifically lower urinary tract dysfunction?

Lower urinary tract Dysfunction (LUTD) is a broad term referring to dysfunction of the bladder and urethra.
It looks at deviation from the norm of either filling, storage, or voiding phases of micturition.

Subclasses looked at are:

Voiding Dysfunction
Incontinence (Stress, Urge, Continuous)
Overactive bladder
Interstitial Cystitis

There is limited evidence in the literature evaluating LUTD in women living with HIV.

With women living longer, they are more likely to present with LUTD where UTI will predominate.

Atypical organisms must be looked for if infections are suspected and there is no growth on cultures.

The presence of infections may also lead to atypical presentations or exacerbate the previously diagnosed urogynaecological conditions.

03/10/2020

Please feel free to contact us for an appointment at 012 9988717

https://www.facebook.com/310472382702051/posts/1081345008948114/

30/09/2020

https://www.facebook.com/141169118941/posts/10160015634098942/

FYI 👉The majority of women with vulvodynia have tight pelvic floor muscles! Relaxing or ‘dropping’ these muscles can help alleviate pelvic floor tightness, reducing pain ⚡️⠀
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🌬 Inhalation lengthens our pelvic floor muscles, exhalation shortens them. Diaphragmatic breathing is a gentle, effective way to move our pelvic floor muscles without straining them.⠀
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🛁 Heat and sitz baths can be soothing on vulvar tissues. Plus, baths rock. ⠀
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👶 Child’s pose widens the space between our sit bones, helping to lengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Try diaphragmatic breathing in the child’s pose position if you have tight muscles!⠀
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Did you know that the piriformis and obturator internus muscles are part of the pelvic floor? Foam rolling these muscles can help reduce tension in the external portions which will in turn help relax the pelvic floor muscles and help reduce vulvar pain! 🙌