In south east London we are working together with people and local communities to transform and improve pelvic health care. We aim to support those experiencing mild to moderate pelvic health issues during pregnancy or up to a year after giving birth. Pelvic health wellbeing is important throughout life.
We have been listening to women, birthing people and families to understand more about their experience and learn more about what support they need. We wanted to understand what information, education, individualised care and treatment will be helpful to protect during pregnancy and postnatal pelvic health.
The Perinatal Pelvic Health Service
The insight we gained through engagement, which is detailed below, has informed the development of the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service which started as a pilot in 2022 and is now provided on an on-going basis both across south east London and nationally.
The service has seen significant engagement with over 1,000 people attending group rehabilitation / therapy sessions in 2025 and nearly 500 people attending antenatal classes which are attended by pelvic health physiotherapists and midwives. For people whose issues persist postnatally or are not resolved through group sessions, the team also offers clinics-face to face, virtually, and in the community.
The antenatal classes focus on prevention of pelvic health issues and guidance on seeking help after birth. Anyone interested can book a class here, noting that new classes are added on a regular basis.
How you can get involved
- If you have had a baby at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, King's College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), Lewisham University Hospital since June 2022 please complete the below survey:
- If you have received care from the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service (physio or midwife) either through virtual clinics, group therapy or individual appointments at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, King's College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), Lewisham University Hospital since June 2022 please complete the survey below:
Engagement, insight and feedback
The pilot was originally informed by engagement with local women and birthing people via a survey and outreach to community groups which you can read in the section below. We continue to gather feedback via surveys from women who have used the service which shows:
- High levels of satisfaction: The vast majority of women rated their overall pelvic‑health care as “very satisfied”, showing consistently positive experiences.
- Exceptional clinical expertise: Physiotherapists and pelvic health midwives were repeatedly described as knowledgeable, thorough, professional, reassuring, and “going above and beyond”, demonstrating a specialist skillset not available in routine maternity care.
- Transformational improvements in symptoms: Many women reported significant improvements in prolapse symptoms, incontinence, and confidence with exercise following intervention, showing clear therapeutic benefit.
- Early intervention is highly effective: Those seen within 2–4 weeks postpartum expressed particularly strong outcomes and relief — highlighting the value of rapid-access pelvic-health pathways.
- Care that makes women feel heard and supported: A major theme was feeling “listened to”, “not rushed”, “taken seriously” — an important benefit for women dealing with intimate or distressing symptoms.
- Improved knowledge and self‑management: Appointments frequently resulted in increased understanding of pelvic floor exercises, scar massage, birth recovery, return‑to‑exercise planning, and prevention strategies — building long-term self‑efficacy.
- A safe, non‑judgemental environment for sensitive concerns: Many described feeling comfortable discussing issues they would have been embarrassed to raise elsewhere, highlighting the importance of specialist-led, trauma‑informed communication.
- Continuity and personalised care plans: Follow‑up appointments, tailored exercise programmes, and written summaries helped women feel cared for and supported beyond a single contact — improving confidence and outcomes.
- Highly valued accessibility when self‑referral is available: Where women could self‑refer or were contacted directly by pelvic health teams, they described this as empowering, quick, and vital for timely support.
- Strong desire for pelvic‑health care to be universal: Many respondents said the service “should be offered to all women after birth” and described it as essential, life‑changing, and something they wished they’d had earlier — a powerful endorsement for ongoing investment.
Insight which informed the development of the service:
- We invited women and birthing people to share and feedback about their experience via an online survey. See the survey summary report.
- With support from the below community groups we reached women and birthing people from a diverse background (Punjabi, Lithuanian, Polish, Traveller community, Albanian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Portuguese/Spanish, Arabic and Somali, Tamil, Mandarin and Yoruba, Turkish and Bengali) to learn more about their experiences.
- Lewisham Islamic Centre
- Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation IRMO (Lambeth)
- Latin-American Women’s Rights Service LAWRS (Southwark)
- Mindful Mums (Lewisham, Greenwich, Bromley)
- Refugee Resettlement Programme by Refugee Council (Lewisham)
- MASIC
- Strategic Migration Partnership East of England Local Government Association
- Five X more
- We delivered face to face and virtual engagement sessions in different communities to understand better about people experience of perinatal pelvic health
- We delivered two webinars in Spanish language to listen from Spanish speaking communities. We can watch the webinars:
- Why we need to talk about pelvic health?
- Antenatal care in the UK
What people told us helped to design and set up a new pelvic health care services in South East London and below there are few of actions we took.
What we heard
| What we did |
|---|
| |
- If they have the courage to speak up the response received from health care professionals was not sensitive or they were just told the issue was normal.
| - We developed a training package for health professionals (GPs, health visitors, midwives, and doctors) to ensure they learn to identify pelvic floor issues but also use patient’s stories provided by people who have experienced pelvic health issues to highlight the impact on their lives. Over 1600 already trained.
|
- Pelvic health information and resources are not always available in their language.
| - We supported the translation of 11 pelvic health videos in to multiple languages. We also translated our surveys into languages from women who are disproportionally affected by worst pelvic health outcomes because of their ethnicity.
|
- People want to learn how to prevent the issues before it happened and want to know where to seek help.
| - We developed antenatal pelvic health classes for women to understand how to look after their pelvic health issues, how to prevent and self-management issues and how to refer to our specialist clinics. As per March 2024 over 1350 women and birthing people attended these classes.
Find out more about You and your pelvic health classes for women and birthing people in south east London and sign up to attend. |
- There were not services available and/or the waiting list was long.
| - We recruited a specialist physio and specialist midwife who now are able to see women and birthing people from the antenatal period all the way up to 12 months. They can also refer into more specialist services if they require further treatment.
|
Insights and recommendations from our engagement work were used in the development of national Implementation guidance for Perinatal Pelvic Health Services. Our service users engagement approach by involving diverse groups, antenatal pelvic health education classes, collaboration with maternal mental health services and education and training for healthcare professionals there are nationally recognised and showed case for best practise. See - Case study 1: South East London – Engagement with diverse groups
Next steps
We are aiming to continuing improving the South East London perinatal pelvic health service providing the best care to women and birthing people that have experienced pelvic health problems after birth. We will carry on reaching out to those underrepresented communities experiencing poorer outcomes and all other elements that we developed as part of this service.
In south east London we are working together with people and local communities to transform and improve pelvic health care. We aim to support those experiencing mild to moderate pelvic health issues during pregnancy or up to a year after giving birth. Pelvic health wellbeing is important throughout life.
We have been listening to women, birthing people and families to understand more about their experience and learn more about what support they need. We wanted to understand what information, education, individualised care and treatment will be helpful to protect during pregnancy and postnatal pelvic health.
The Perinatal Pelvic Health Service
The insight we gained through engagement, which is detailed below, has informed the development of the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service which started as a pilot in 2022 and is now provided on an on-going basis both across south east London and nationally.
The service has seen significant engagement with over 1,000 people attending group rehabilitation / therapy sessions in 2025 and nearly 500 people attending antenatal classes which are attended by pelvic health physiotherapists and midwives. For people whose issues persist postnatally or are not resolved through group sessions, the team also offers clinics-face to face, virtually, and in the community.
The antenatal classes focus on prevention of pelvic health issues and guidance on seeking help after birth. Anyone interested can book a class here, noting that new classes are added on a regular basis.
How you can get involved
- If you have had a baby at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, King's College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), Lewisham University Hospital since June 2022 please complete the below survey:
- If you have received care from the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service (physio or midwife) either through virtual clinics, group therapy or individual appointments at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, King's College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), Lewisham University Hospital since June 2022 please complete the survey below:
Engagement, insight and feedback
The pilot was originally informed by engagement with local women and birthing people via a survey and outreach to community groups which you can read in the section below. We continue to gather feedback via surveys from women who have used the service which shows:
- High levels of satisfaction: The vast majority of women rated their overall pelvic‑health care as “very satisfied”, showing consistently positive experiences.
- Exceptional clinical expertise: Physiotherapists and pelvic health midwives were repeatedly described as knowledgeable, thorough, professional, reassuring, and “going above and beyond”, demonstrating a specialist skillset not available in routine maternity care.
- Transformational improvements in symptoms: Many women reported significant improvements in prolapse symptoms, incontinence, and confidence with exercise following intervention, showing clear therapeutic benefit.
- Early intervention is highly effective: Those seen within 2–4 weeks postpartum expressed particularly strong outcomes and relief — highlighting the value of rapid-access pelvic-health pathways.
- Care that makes women feel heard and supported: A major theme was feeling “listened to”, “not rushed”, “taken seriously” — an important benefit for women dealing with intimate or distressing symptoms.
- Improved knowledge and self‑management: Appointments frequently resulted in increased understanding of pelvic floor exercises, scar massage, birth recovery, return‑to‑exercise planning, and prevention strategies — building long-term self‑efficacy.
- A safe, non‑judgemental environment for sensitive concerns: Many described feeling comfortable discussing issues they would have been embarrassed to raise elsewhere, highlighting the importance of specialist-led, trauma‑informed communication.
- Continuity and personalised care plans: Follow‑up appointments, tailored exercise programmes, and written summaries helped women feel cared for and supported beyond a single contact — improving confidence and outcomes.
- Highly valued accessibility when self‑referral is available: Where women could self‑refer or were contacted directly by pelvic health teams, they described this as empowering, quick, and vital for timely support.
- Strong desire for pelvic‑health care to be universal: Many respondents said the service “should be offered to all women after birth” and described it as essential, life‑changing, and something they wished they’d had earlier — a powerful endorsement for ongoing investment.
Insight which informed the development of the service:
- We invited women and birthing people to share and feedback about their experience via an online survey. See the survey summary report.
- With support from the below community groups we reached women and birthing people from a diverse background (Punjabi, Lithuanian, Polish, Traveller community, Albanian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Portuguese/Spanish, Arabic and Somali, Tamil, Mandarin and Yoruba, Turkish and Bengali) to learn more about their experiences.
- Lewisham Islamic Centre
- Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation IRMO (Lambeth)
- Latin-American Women’s Rights Service LAWRS (Southwark)
- Mindful Mums (Lewisham, Greenwich, Bromley)
- Refugee Resettlement Programme by Refugee Council (Lewisham)
- MASIC
- Strategic Migration Partnership East of England Local Government Association
- Five X more
- We delivered face to face and virtual engagement sessions in different communities to understand better about people experience of perinatal pelvic health
- We delivered two webinars in Spanish language to listen from Spanish speaking communities. We can watch the webinars:
- Why we need to talk about pelvic health?
- Antenatal care in the UK
What people told us helped to design and set up a new pelvic health care services in South East London and below there are few of actions we took.
What we heard
| What we did |
|---|
| |
- If they have the courage to speak up the response received from health care professionals was not sensitive or they were just told the issue was normal.
| - We developed a training package for health professionals (GPs, health visitors, midwives, and doctors) to ensure they learn to identify pelvic floor issues but also use patient’s stories provided by people who have experienced pelvic health issues to highlight the impact on their lives. Over 1600 already trained.
|
- Pelvic health information and resources are not always available in their language.
| - We supported the translation of 11 pelvic health videos in to multiple languages. We also translated our surveys into languages from women who are disproportionally affected by worst pelvic health outcomes because of their ethnicity.
|
- People want to learn how to prevent the issues before it happened and want to know where to seek help.
| - We developed antenatal pelvic health classes for women to understand how to look after their pelvic health issues, how to prevent and self-management issues and how to refer to our specialist clinics. As per March 2024 over 1350 women and birthing people attended these classes.
Find out more about You and your pelvic health classes for women and birthing people in south east London and sign up to attend. |
- There were not services available and/or the waiting list was long.
| - We recruited a specialist physio and specialist midwife who now are able to see women and birthing people from the antenatal period all the way up to 12 months. They can also refer into more specialist services if they require further treatment.
|
Insights and recommendations from our engagement work were used in the development of national Implementation guidance for Perinatal Pelvic Health Services. Our service users engagement approach by involving diverse groups, antenatal pelvic health education classes, collaboration with maternal mental health services and education and training for healthcare professionals there are nationally recognised and showed case for best practise. See - Case study 1: South East London – Engagement with diverse groups
Next steps
We are aiming to continuing improving the South East London perinatal pelvic health service providing the best care to women and birthing people that have experienced pelvic health problems after birth. We will carry on reaching out to those underrepresented communities experiencing poorer outcomes and all other elements that we developed as part of this service.
