Understanding and Healing Pelvic Prolapse

What If Prolapse Isn’t a Problem?
A three-part reframe on what it is, what’s causing it, and how we begin to heal — all through the lens of well-woman care, redefined.

If you’ve been told you have a prolapse — or you’ve started noticing something that feels different in your pelvic area, like heaviness, pressure, or a change in sensation — chances are, it brought up some questions.

Maybe it was mentioned at a postpartum checkup, or maybe you’ve been wondering if what you’re feeling is normal. Maybe someone told you your organs are “falling,” or that things are “too loose,” or that surgery is your next step.

But I want to offer something different:

What if prolapse isn’t a sign that something’s gone wrong — but simply a shift in how the body is being supported?

What if it’s not a diagnosis to fear — but an invitation to understand what’s actually happening in the tissues?

Because once we understand how these systems work — how the organs move, how the tissues adapt, how pressure is managed — we can start to see prolapse less as a problem to fix, and more as a pattern we can meet with support.

Let’s walk through what prolapse really is, what tends to cause it, and how we begin to shift the conditions that allow healing to happen.

Part One: What Is Prolapse, Really?

When I talk about prolapse, I’m talking about movement. Specifically, the movement of pelvic organs — the bladder, rectum, or uterus — from a more supported position to a less supported one.

That’s it. That’s all we’re saying.

And to even have that conversation, we have to start with this:
These organs are designed to move.

They’re not fixed in place. They’re not supposed to be static. They are, by nature, organs of motility. The bladder fills and empties. The rectum contracts and releases. The uterus shifts throughout the cycle, expands in pregnancy, contracts in labor, and responds even in menopause.

So rather than thinking “high is good, low is bad,” I like to ask:
Are these tissues mobile? Are they supple? Can they move freely?

Because when something gets stuck — when movement becomes limited — that’s when we see dysfunction.

This is also why I don’t diagnose prolapse at six or even twelve weeks postpartum. The uterus should be lower. The levator hiatus — this natural, horseshoe-shaped opening in the pelvic floor — stays open for six to twelve months postpartum.

It’s not a sign of failure. It’s a sign that your body is still healing.

So again — prolapse isn’t your organs falling. It’s your tissues asking for support.

Part Two: What’s Actually Causing It

Yes, birth can play a role. Especially when there’s injury — a deep tear, an episiotomy, a long pushing stage, or a position that didn’t allow for the sacrum to move.

But most of the time, that’s just one piece of a much bigger picture.

Prolapse symptoms usually show up after years of other patterns.
What I call the “prolapse starter kit” includes things like:

• Tucking the tailbone (especially during exercise or posture correction)
• Sucking in the abdomen on every inhale
• Reverse breathing or shallow upper-chest breathing
• Compression garments or tight waistbands
• Constipation or bearing down to poop for years
• Athletic training that never accounted for female biomechanics
• A lack of posterior chain strength — meaning weak glutes, hamstrings, and low back

Then you add a birth — or an injury that wasn’t really supported to heal — and it can tip the system.

But it’s rarely just one thing.
It’s the accumulation over time.

So when someone says, “This happened after my second baby,” I’ll usually say, “Maybe. But let’s look at the patterns that were already there.”

Because most of us have been breathing, standing, sitting, and moving in ways that create downward pressure for a very long time.

And once we understand what’s actually going on, we can start to shift those patterns — not just for symptom relief, but for long-term pelvic health.

Part Three: How We Actually Heal

I don’t usually use language like “fixing” a prolapse. Or “resolving it for good.”
Not because healing isn’t real — but because that’s not how the body works.

And also, because what most people mean when they say “resolved” — that it’s gone and they never have to think about it again — doesn’t match what’s actually happening at the level of the tissues.

The body is always adapting. Always responding to input.
And that means healing isn’t this one-time event.
It’s something we tend to, come back to, build a relationship with.

So when we’re talking about healing prolapse, we’re looking at:

How do we change the patterns that contributed to the symptoms in the first place?
And how do we support the tissues consistently enough for that change to stick?

That comes from what we do most of the time — how we breathe, how we stand, how we move — not just the handful of exercises we fit in here and there.

And from that place, there are three keys I always come back to:

Key One: Untuck Your Tailbone

This is the foundation.

The female pelvis is not meant to be upright like the male pelvis. That’s just what we’ve been taught — because male anatomy has been the default in every medical textbook for the last 400 years.

But when we’re in that upright, tucked posture, we’re essentially creating a slide for our pelvic organs to follow. No bones underneath to support them. No traction between the pubic bone and tailbone. Just down-and-out pressure.

When we reorient the pelvis into what I call an “adjusted female neutral” — where the sits bones and sacrum are actually underneath us — the bones can do their job. The pelvic floor can regain tone. The system can start to hold itself again.

Key Two: Breathe with Your Diaphragm

Your pelvic floor is a diaphragm. It moves in rhythm with your breath.

On the inhale, everything widens and descends.
On the exhale, everything lifts.

But most of us are stuck in reverse: we inhale and suck in. We exhale and let go.
We’re creating downward pressure — all day, every day — with every breath we take.

So the second key is to re-pattern the breath.

Inhale: ribs expand.
Exhale: belly draws gently back, ribs move in, pelvic floor lifts.

If you do nothing else but restore this pattern, you’ll already be supporting prolapse resolution — because that’s 20,000 reps a day of healing input, just from your breath.

Key Three: Add Functional Strength

How do we actually functionally untuck our tailbones and breathe more functional? Building strength to make these processes more supportive and more easeful.

Strength isn't the third step; it is the supportive step that makes improving tissue alignment and breath mechanics possible.

We don’t start with heavy squats or core work. That’s often what created the problem in the first place.

We start with glute activation. Posterior chain work. Strengthening the back body while maintaining that untucked tailbone and functional breath.

Eventually, that might include things like split squats, bridging, and hamstring work.
But we do it in a way that supports the pelvic floor, not compresses it.

And it’s how we do the movement — not the shape — that matters most.

Because remember: it’s what we do all day, not what we do for 20 minutes, that shapes our tissues.

Optional Key Four: Arousal

Yes — orgasm is part of this conversation.

Cervical orgasm (and often clitoral as well) initiates what’s called “cervical flight” — the uterus lifts. The cervix moves up. And many women notice: after arousal, their pelvis just feels better. There’s more mobility. More tone. More ease.

Orgasm draws blood to the pelvic floor. It stimulates tissue movement.
It invites the exact kind of undulation we’re trying to restore through every other method.

So yes — breath + arousal can be one of the most powerful healing tools we have.

So… Can Prolapse Be Healed?

Absolutely.

But not in the way we’ve been taught to think about healing.

Not as “it’s gone and I never think about it again.” But as a system that responds to care. A body that adapts to new input. Tissues that, when given the right support, move better, feel better, and function better.

Here’s how I think about it:

Pelvic tissues — like all tissues in the body — are responsive. They adapt to the inputs we give them. They respond to load, to movement, to breath, to blood flow, to support. So instead of asking if prolapse can be "healed" in the clinical sense, I like to ask:

What if this is something you can build a relationship with?

What if the real question is: how supported can these tissues become over time?

Because yes, prolapse symptoms can change. Mobility can return. Strength can build. You can feel better in your body than you did before.

And no, that doesn’t mean you’ll never notice it again. But it does mean you’ll know what to do when you do. You’ll have tools, understanding, and practices that bring you back to center.

For many women, prolapse is the first time we’ve been invited to feel our bodies in this way — to actually notice what’s moving, what’s held, what’s asking for attention.

That’s well-woman care, redefined.