Hope For Your Pelvic Floor - The Whole Body Pelvic Health Conversation

You grab a packet of pads with the weekly shop and barely think about it. But that small, automatic decision is quietly telling you a story about whether you believe your body can change. This episode is the one I’ve been building towards all season. There are four camps women fall into with incontinence pads, and three of them are driven by fear or avoidance, not by choice. I share the client who...

It's Prolapse Awareness Month — and this week, Claire is asking a bigger question: what are we actually making women aware of? In this episode, Claire breaks down the gap between what women are told about prolapse and what's actually supported by the evidence. From the "just do Kegels" advice that can make symptoms worse, to the research bias that has left women waiting decades f...

Prolapse is one of those words that can stop a woman in her tracks. And yet — when we actually sit with it, slow down, and listen to what it's telling us — it becomes one of the most powerful teachers we'll ever have. In this episode, Claire shares what prolapse has taught her: about the body, about pressure, about rest, about asking for help, and about what it really means to support your...

What if the research everyone cites about pelvic floor health… isn’t actually helping you? In this episode, Claire takes an honest, unflinching look at the science behind pelvic floor exercise recommendations — and why the numbers don’t always tell the full story. Claire breaks down the Poppy trial, explores the difference between statistical significance and clinical significance, and reveals why...

What if the reason your pelvic floor exercises aren't sticking isn't lack of willpower — it's that you've been given the wrong framework entirely? In this episode, Claire shares a perspective that surprised even her. Recorded from a clifftop cottage on the northeast coast of Scotland, she opens up about something she's been quietly wrestling with — and how a book called The Hap...

You know whole body pelvic health makes sense. So why does the Kegel question keep coming back? In this episode, Claire Sparrow goes into one of the most common and persistent questions she receives from women who are already doing the work. They feel it. They understand it. And they still want to know: do I still need to do my pelvic floor exercises? Claire talks about why that question is not a...

You have been told to squeeze it, lift it, hold it. What if that is the very thing keeping your pelvic floor stuck? In this episode I am making the case for something that feels completely counter-intuitive: to reconnect your pelvic floor, you have to let it go first. I take you through a simple exercise you can do right now that will show you exactly why lengthening before contracting gives you m...

Women whisper this question to me at the end of class, hand over mouth, when nobody else is listening. It is time we just talked about it. In this episode I am covering queefing, vaginal wind, fanny farts, call it what you will. I share my own reformer moment that I would rather have forgotten, break down exactly what is happening in your body (the anatomy is actually reassuring), and explain why...

Claire is back after an extended break and opens Season 5 by doing what she always does: telling you the truth. She reflects on why she stepped away, what it took to come back, and why that process is exactly the same one many women face with their pelvic health practice. She also reads out the viral post that reached nearly 30,000 women in a matter of weeks, the one about Kegels, incontinence typ...

It can feel like the cruellest setback. You’ve been doing the work. You’ve felt the shift. The symptoms have quietened, your confidence has grown, and for the first time in a long time… you’ve felt like yourself again. And then something creeps back in. A familiar sensation. A symptom you thought had gone. That voice on your shoulder getting louder again. And suddenly it feels worse than ever. In...

In this reflective episode of Hope for Your Pelvic Floor, Claire shares her personal reflections following International Women’s Day and why it felt different this year. For many years, International Women’s Day had been something to acknowledge on social media or through events. But this year something shifted. It felt deeper — more personal, more powerful, and more connected to the collective ex...

Something small stopped me in my tracks this week. World Book Day came and went without the usual last-minute scramble for costumes and school chaos. My boys are older now and suddenly that stage of life has passed. That moment of quiet reflection got me thinking about the many stages women move through in life — the biological, hormonal and emotional changes that happen while we are still jugglin...

Why Your Pelvic Floor Isn’t Entering the Squeezing Olympics We are often told to “squeeze” our pelvic floor because it’s weak. But weak compared to what? Weak for which task? Weak in isolation — or weak in coordination? After watching the Winter Olympics and seeing the extraordinary specificity of athletic training, I found myself asking a different question: What if we trained our pelvic floor th...

You’ve been told to “just do your pelvic floor exercises.” So you squeeze. You hold. You repeat. And maybe it helps for a while… and then you plateau. Or symptoms shift. Or confidence dips. Or something just doesn’t quite feel right. In this episode of  Hope for Your Pelvic Floor , I’m talking about why repetition alone isn’t enough — and why your pelvic floor needs variety to truly become resilie...

Women are often given completely contradictory advice about their pelvic floor. Don’t lift the kettle. But make sure you lift heavy weights. Leaking is normal. But manage it quietly. Menopause is natural. But something to fix or push through. In this short episode, Claire explores the confusing messages women receive — particularly during menopause and after birth — and why so many end up feeling...

What Snowboarding Taught Me About Pelvic Health What happens when society quietly assumes you’re there to drop off, not join in? In this more personal episode, Claire shares a recent experience that stopped her in her tracks. What began as a simple snowboarding lesson with her son became a powerful reflection on how women, particularly mums and women of a certain age, are so often expected to sit...

We’re told we  must  do weight-bearing exercise for our bones. But what does that actually mean? And what if you have prolapse, incontinence, pain, or simply don’t feel safe doing what you think “weight bearing” is supposed to look like? In this episode of  Hope for Your Pelvic Floor , Claire Sparrow unpacks where the weight-bearing message came from, why it became so confusing, and what the resea...

A pessary can be a lifeline for some women and feel confronting or confusing for others. Yet many women are offered one with very little explanation. In this episode, Claire Sparrow explores one of the most common questions she is asked:  to pessary or not to pessary? Rather than telling you what to do, Claire shares the facts, context, and clinical insight you need to make an informed decision th...

What if the hardest parts of living with pelvic floor symptoms aren’t the diagnosis, but the everyday moments no one talks about? In this episode, Claire shares a deeply personal story about an ordinary task – changing the bed – and how it unexpectedly unlocked memories of fear, vulnerability, and the emotional weight so many women carry when living with prolapse, incontinence, pain, or pelvic flo...

Welcome to the first episode of 2026 and the opening of a new season of  Hope for Your Pelvic Floor . In this short, reflective episode, Claire shares a personal check-in on the podcast itself and how a creeping sense of pressure and perfection started to dull the joy of creating something she loves. What unfolded was a powerful realisation that applies just as much to your pelvic health as it doe...

Season 3 Finale — Hope for Your Pelvic Floor with Claire Sparrow In this powerful season finale, Claire takes you inside the experience that changed everything — a week of deep anatomy study where decades of learning suddenly shifted from  knowledge  into  embodied knowing . For the first time, Claire saw the pelvic floor not as an illustration, a diagram, or a concept… but as a breathtaking, thre...

“Don’t lift that!” and “You need to lift weights!” “Wear a pad,” but also “You must work on bone density.” “Pop in a tampon to run,” yet “Running is essential exercise.” The mixed messages around women’s pelvic health are endless — and they’re keeping too many women stuck managing symptoms instead of healing them. In this episode, I’m calling out the contradictory, symptom-only advice so many wome...

They Say Don’t Lift. I Say Don’t Limit Yourself: The Truth About Pelvic Floor Healing This week, we’re diving into one of the most common — and most limiting — pieces of advice women are given about their bodies: “Don’t lift.” Whether it’s after a prolapse diagnosis, surgery, birth, a tear, a c-section, or simply because you’re “of a certain age,” this message shows up again and again… and the imp...

In this powerful and reassuring episode, Claire Sparrow tackles one of the most common questions she receives—from both women and Pilates teachers alike:  “Is Pilates good for prolapse?” Drawing on her own personal experience with pelvic organ prolapse and 25 years of teaching, Claire sheds light on what really makes Pilates healing—or harmful—for your pelvic floor. She explores the difference bet...

Episode 33 —  If It’s Not a Floor, Why Do You Call It a Pelvic Floor? In this deeply personal and reflective episode, Claire Sparrow explores one of the questions she’s asked most often: If it’s not a floor, why do you still call it a pelvic floor? Claire shares the emotional journey behind naming her bestselling book  Hope for Your Pelvic Floor —from wrestling with professional expectations to re...