My name is Liz Spinhirne and I am a 40y/o mother of 5. I have been a nurse with Consortia for over a year and have found my true calling. I started suffering from urinary and fecal incontinence at the age of 23 when I had my third child, which whom were all under the age of 3. 3y/o, 11 months, and a brand-new baby. Needless to say, my body had gone through significant trauma in the deliver of my last two children. Both were VBAC’s and labor was long and drug free. 27 hours and 13hours. 11 months is not significant time in the “healing” process. Although I waited 4 years to add to our family our last two children were 18 months apart, also not a significant amount of time to heal.
I still suffered from both types of incontinence until I was 37 and found out that I had been performing Kegel exercises incorrectly. The whole “Pretend like you are stopping a stream of urine” analogy which is spread all over the internet and in many books, is WRONG! With the Vibrance I am able to focus on the pelvic floor muscle which assist in incontinence issues I was experiencing.
The main reason for using the Vibrance is so that I can make sure that I am engaging the correct muscles. Many of my patients are unable to isolate and, in some cases, identify the pelvic floor muscle. The Vibrance assist with this. The feedback that the device gives is so beneficial, you know you are doing your Kegels correctly.
The charging capabilities were great, any and most electronic devices we having laying around the house use the same type of USB cord. If you have extra USB “cubes” lying around it is easy to use. When I would travel I would plug the Vibrance into my USB port in my car. No one knows what the “egg” is, and discretion is important while traveling.
I recommend this device to all of my patients some are more receptive then others, but with education and constant instruction on the importance of performing Kegel exercises and encouraging patients to perform them correctly, and this device can assist. If, I have a patient who is having difficulty with isolation or even in the “finding” of the pelvic floor muscle I will recommend this device. This way when the feedback is given the patient knows they are flexing correctly, and they don’t feel like they are just doing nothing.
As far as strengthening “one’s core”, in all honesty this device does not do that. It works nicely in the identification of the pelvic floor muscle and assists the strengthening of the lower core muscles, but it will not strictly strengthen the core muscles. As far as the physically active patients, which I see a lot of, many are so use to using abdominal muscles “core” muscles. The isolation and identification of the pelvic floor muscles is exceptionally difficult for these individuals. The Vibrance assist with this identification of the muscle group we are trying to use. Many women do not know that these were two separate muscle groups. We do not want the abdominals to be in charge of a Kegel.