Patricia Lieblich
Why I became a Women’s Health Physiotherapist
When I had my 4 children, I taught prenatal classes and discussed pelvic floor exercises as one of the prenatal exercises the pregnant moms were to do, not realizing at that time how important these really were. Slowly over time, I became more and more interested in perinatal physiotherapy and recognized that pelvic floor dysfunction was a very common problem and one that affected women’s emotional health as well as their physical health. I would tell these women to find a physiotherapist in the community who could treat this problem. Slowly it dawned on me that there weren’t any who were treating this problem in the early 90’s and I was sending these women out with no hope of help for their incontinence other than surgery. I have family members who have significant continence issues that affect their lives, ability to travel, and their ability to exercise. I did not want this to be me!
I became aware that physiotherapists worldwide were treating this but no one in BC was. This is a problem that affects 1:3 women and 1:6 men. Working at BC Women’s Health Centre with Penny Wilson we decided we should start getting educated in pelvic floor dysfunction. We had to go to the US to take these courses and we took every course we could get our hands on so that we could approach the Women’s Health Center with a proposal to start a Continence Clinic. It took us a year, but we did it! That was 16 years ago. Women are so grateful that they can get treatment that does not involve surgery, that is successful and non invasive. They tell us that they can now, for the 1st time, feel more confident about going out socially, be active and be intimate with out fear of leakage. I am so very grateful to have had this opportunity to have a positive effect on so many women’s lives.