Kegel exercises strengthen your pelvic floor muscles and prevent postpartum complications. You can perform these while pregnant to keep your muscles toned and strong.

Kegel exercises are a series of exercises that all work your pelvic floor muscles by tightening and releasing your pubococcygeus muscles. Essentially you are using the muscles you use when you stop and start your urine flow. These exercises are easy to do and the payoffs are great. If your pelvic floor is weakened due to childbirth, you can experience incontinence when laughing or sneezing or more severe complications. This call be avoided if you do your Kegels.

The muscles that support your uterus can weaken after childbirth. This can cause your uterus to dip below your vaginal opening, also called uterine prolapse.

If these muscles can no longer hold your bladder up, it can also dip below your vaginal opening. This is called cystocele.

Incontinence is when urine is released during sneezing or laughing. This is also caused by those same weakened muscles.

Kegel exercises can be performed just about anywhere and are quick and easy to do. They can also enhance your sexual pleasure. Below are some Kegel moves:

• The Elevator - Imagine you are on an elevator. Tighten your pelvic floor muscles all the way up then slowly release them as you go down. Repeat ten times.
• Flickering - Quickly tighten and release your pelvic floor muscles as many times as you can in twenty seconds. If you cannot perform this exercise for twenty seconds, slowly build up daily until you can. Repeat 25 - 30 times throughout the day.
• The Push and Pull - Push your pelvic floor muscles as if you were urinating. Push out hard and then stop. Tighten your pelvic floor muscles as if you were stopping your urine flow. Pull in and stop. Repeat 10 times daily.

You will be shocked at the benefits that Kegel exercises have. By doing Kegels regularly, you can avoid many postpartum complications.