Clinical services · Specialty team
Women’s pelvic health physiotherapy supports women through pregnancy, postnatal recovery, and across all life stages where pelvic floor, bladder, bowel or pelvic pain concerns arise. Treatment draws on internal and external pelvic floor assessment, individualised exercise prescription, education and manual therapy, delivered in a private, respectful setting.
What you'll understand
You'll leave understanding your own pelvic floor
Pelvic health is the area where patients most often arrive having been told very little. A large part of what we do is explanation — what the pelvic floor actually does, what is happening to yours, and why the exercises work.
- What your pelvic floor does
The anatomy, in plain language, and how it relates to your symptoms. - Whether yours is overactive or underactiveThese need opposite treatment, and getting it wrong makes symptoms worse.
- How to contract and release correctlyMost people who have been told to ‘do their pelvic floor exercises’ are doing something different from what was intended.
- What is normal and what is notLeaking, heaviness and pain are common. Common is not the same as something you have to live with.
- How to load safelyReturning to running, lifting and exercise without provoking symptoms.
- What to expect over timeRealistic timeframes for pregnancy, postnatal recovery and longer-standing conditions.
Our model of care
Settle. Build. Sustain.
The same three stages we use across the practice, applied to this service — all of them inside Equip.
Stage 1
Settle
A thorough assessment, symptom relief, and an explanation of what is actually happening. Where pain is the main issue, downtraining and manual therapy come first.
Stage 2
Build
Progressive, individualised pelvic floor and whole-body loading, integrated with the activities you want to get back to.
Stage 3
Sustain
Tapering review as your symptoms and confidence hold, with a programme you can maintain independently.
Equip — what all three are for
Understanding your own anatomy is most of the treatment in pelvic health. We’d rather you left able to explain it than simply handed a set of exercises.
Conditions we treat
What we treat
Pregnancy and postnatal
- Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain and lumbopelvic pain
- Diastasis rectus abdominis (abdominal muscle separation)
- Perineal tears and episiotomy rehabilitation
- Postnatal recovery and safe return to exercise
- Caesarean section scar management
Pelvic floor dysfunction
- Stress, urge and mixed urinary incontinence
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- Faecal incontinence and bowel dysfunction
- Pelvic floor muscle overactivity and underactivity
Pelvic pain
- Endometriosis-related pelvic pain
- Vaginismus
- Vulvodynia
- Dyspareunia (pain with intercourse)
- Persistent pelvic pain of musculoskeletal origin
Other
- Pre- and post-gynaecological surgery, including hysterectomy
- Menopause-related pelvic floor changes
Other clinical areas
- Pre- and post-surgical nutrition, including bariatric surgery support
- Chronic kidney disease (renal-specific dietary management)
- General disordered eating support and a healthy relationship with food
The team
Clinicians in women's pelvic health
Felicity Martin
Physiotherapist
B.Hum.Mov, B.Ed (PDHPE), DPT
Women’s Pelvic HealthVestibular
BlacktownNorwest
Samantha Khanna
Physiotherapist · Research Associate, Pelvic Health
B.Physiotherapy
Women’s Pelvic Health
Women’s pelvic health and continence.
WestmeadResearch
Ainsley Byrne
Physiotherapist
B.Physiotherapy
Women’s Pelvic HealthPaediatric
WestmeadResearch
Where to find us
Available at these clinics
Book with our women's pelvic health team
Book online, or call and ask for this team.