There are 3 different types of pelvic organ prolapse. Now first, your pelvic floor is a bowl of muscles that sits in the bottom of your pelvis making up the floor of your body. When we do a Kegel, it's that bowl of muscles that contracts by doing a squeeze and a lift. 

 

In the first picture, we are looking at normal anatomy inside the pelvis - this is looking as though someone was cut in half lengthwise through their belly button and looking at them from the side. You can see the bladder, urethra, uterus, vagina, and rectum, with the coloured pelvic floor creating that bowl, or shelf for your pelvic organs to sit on top of. 

 

A prolapse by definition means “organs falling out of place.” So let's see what that means for a pelvic organ prolapse. 

 

 

First, a cystocele is the term for a bladder prolapse, where the walls of your bladder start to fall into the walls of the vagina canal and down. A cystocele is the most common type of prolapse. A uterine prolapse is where your uterus starts to fall down into the vaginal canal. And lastly a rectocele is where the walls of your rectum start to fall down and into the walls of the vaginal canal. Can you see why we get a feeling of falling out, or bulging with a prolapse? There are different severities of prolapse - In the case of a bladder prolapse, a mild bladder prolapse it just going to fall into the walls of the vaginal canal, in a more moderate prolapse it falls into and down towards the opening of the vagina. A severe bladder prolapse is bulging out beyond the opening of the vagina. 

 

Can you see now why pelvic floor strengthening is important? It's going to strengthen and support the bowl or shelf those muscles sit on. The stronger it is, the shelf is going to be better at holding things in. When it gets weaker, it is not going to be able to provide very good support.