Electric chair gives new mothers relief
Sitting in this seat for 28 minutes zaps pelvic f loor back into shape, says the medical giant behind it
ONE in every three women in Ireland suffers from incontinence following childbirth.
And among those who endure the predicament are Kate Winslet, who told Graham Norton two years ago that she has stress incontinence, which can be embarrassing when coughing, sneezing, laughing, lifting heavy objects, or exercising.
But giving new mothers an electric chair could provide an easy fix to the widespread issue.
This chair, with a transmitter in the seat, emits electromagnetic waves that stimulate the pelvic floor to help reduce weakness in this area, which is the main cause of incontinence.
The pelvic floor is a layer of muscles that support the internal organs, and these can be significantly weakened as a result of childbirth. People who use the recently launched device, called the Emsella, will experience 11,200 contractions in a 28-minute session.
This is divided up by 20 minutes of zapping at the pelvic floor and eight minutes positioning the patient to make sure she fully feels the pelvic floor. The new technology targets the entire pelvic floor, compared to the 40% that people would usually activate when tensing. Those with the problem are usually told to tense and release their pelvic muscle, which the new chair also does. Ten fast and ten slow contractions three times a day are recommended to combat post-partum incontinence. To use the chair, patients sit in it fully clothed and the electromagnetic fields stimulate the nerves in the pelvic floor, causing the muscles to contract. Two 28-minute sessions a week are recommended for three weeks, costing around €1,400. The new technology has just been launched in Liverpool but hasn’t arrived in Ireland. Czech company BLT carried out a number of studies, and said they showed the new product helps to reduce the use of incontinence pads after six 28-minute sessions. Krysia Lynch, chairwoman of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services Ireland, said: ‘Most women think it’s a normal part of pregnancy, in the same way that you always have a little bit of bleeding after you’ve had a baby for two or three weeks.
‘Women just think, oh well, I’m going to be bit incontinent – but that’s not normal,’ she said.
While we wait on this new technology to come to Ireland, Krysia said that she would recommend pelvic floor exercises that will help focus on ‘drawing up the muscles’.