DO YOU PEE MORE THAN 8 TIMES A DAY?

I did…I use to fear leaking after I had my son, so I went, just incase.

I also remember being told as a child to go for a wee before we left the house ‘just in case’.

It seems we are teaching our bladder poor habits by doing this and going so frequently is not the habit of a functioning, healthy bladder.

(This doesn’t take into account a pregnant mother btw)

Training our bladder this way could shrink it and so allowing less and less volume to be stored, therefore making us want to go to the toilet more and more.

The amount of liquid someone holds in their bladder 'as normal' will vary from person to person.

Your women's health physiotherapist would be able to assess this for you.

Also it’s not great to go the other way either and hold it for ages like a camel - this adds ALOT of pressure on the pelvic floor that may already be weak after babies.

So I asked the question to my physio…”What can I do if I don’t want to leak when I’m out, this is how I have been managing things whilst I strengthen my pelvic floor?"

She replied, “Get comfortable wearing adult nappies or pads until we can retrain your bladder function”.

There are so may reasons why someone could be going for a wee more often than is healthy.

Best to get checked to put your mind at ease and to prevent future issues occurring.

It could be as simple as retraining new habits of the bladder and the pelvic floor.

If you’re not sure how often you wee, try keeping a bladder diary for a couple of days.

Keeping track of the number of wee's you’re doing, are they necessary, an urgency, are they habit or are they ‘just incase’.

I’ve since been monitoring my wee’s and I was still in a habit of emptying my bladder ‘just in case’.

And I feel less pressure now to make sure I go for a wee all the time. I just pay attention and notice when I actually need to go compared to 'just in case'.

Everyone is different and like I said, get checked by a professional to help.

I highly recommend Kylie Rankin at Pivotal Physiotherapy and Pilates in North Adelaide. She's very caring, thorough and passionate about women's health.

Imagine feeling free not to have to rush to the loo or scout out toilets just incase.

Lara