Are you having trouble emptying your bladder?
Hi, I'm Michelle. And today I'm going to show you how to empty your bladder and overcome some of the
really common bladder emptying problems. Now these include difficulty starting to empty the bladder,
if you've got a slow stream, and also to having the inability to completely empty your bladder,
which can be really frustrating. Now, when you empty your bladder, you should be able to start
the flow really easily, the flow of urine should be strong and continuous, and you shouldn't need
to strain and you should have the feeling of having completely empty when you finish.
So let's get started. Now we're going to go through the correct position and technique to use,
and then I'll go through some things you can do at home to improve your bladder emptying capacity.
So, looking at the position, first position is really important. We're going to demonstrate as we
go along here, so when you go to the bathroom, and you feel the appropriate urge to go, you've got
to sit on the seat. So don't hover above. If you hover above your contract your abdominal muscles,
sit down so that you're sitting on the toilet seat, rest your hands onto your thighs,
and lean your body forward so that you're keeping your trunk will support it and your
inward curve in the low back. Now that stays there throughout the whole
entire emptying. If you find that you need to bend foot onto your forearms, that's fine too. But
just make sure you keep that inward curve in your back, don't go into a rounded position. So in this
position, feet of flat legs are wide, and you're leaning forward. That's how you're going to start.
Now, let's go through the technique. The technique involves going when you have an appropriate urge
and then if you sit down and start on the toilet, and that you find that you can't start to empty,
what you might like to do is actually put on the tap with some running water and sometimes
that's enough just to trigger the bladder to contract. So let's say you're in there, you
seem you're leaning forward and you feel the urge to empty, you start to empty, what you then do
is you relax through your pelvic floor, you relax the opening to your bladder, your urine tube,
and you let your tummy bulge forward and outwards. When you bulge that lower area forwards, you also
to relax your pelvic floor and allow your body to empty the urine. So in that leaning forward
position, keep the normal breath that you have and your bulging your tummy forward in that position.
And holding there throughout the empty. So once you've emptied, you might find that you haven't
empty completely and here's where there's a couple of things, you can do these really helpful things,
and they're called Double void. Now the first thing you can do with a double void
is to rock from side to side. So if I turn around on phase two,
you'll see that so you can rock from side to side on the seat if you can't stand up
and you might like to do that a few times and then lean forward and see if you can empty some more.
The second thing you can do is just to stand up and rotate your hips as if you're
using a hula hoop. So if you stand up, and you can just throw your hips around to one side
and around to the other that hula hoop action, sit back down and you might find
then when you lean forward again, that you can empty a little bit more. Just progressing from
that some people find that they need to stand up and they need to move around,
and if you find that that helps you if you can walk around for maybe even 30 seconds to a minute,
and then sit back down again, you might find that you'll empty more from your bladder too.
The final suggestion that I have is to use both hands and you can use your hands above your pubic
bone there and you can press in very gently as you're emptying. Sometimes that can help you
increase the empty with that downward pressure. While you're actually leaning forward,
you could push one in hand or you could actually use both hands over that area too. Again,
making sure that's gentle, not too forceful. Now, after trying all those techniques, if you can
empty your bladder, this is a medical emergency you don't muck around, you actually go to the
emergency department of your hospital and they'll catheterized you because if your bladder over
stretches, you can actually risk the better than becoming floppy and weak and never contracting. So
some people find they have to go on a catheter for the rest of their lives to actually empty because
they've had that single episode of overstretching the bladder. So very important that you don't go
over stretching it. The other important thing is to remember that it is if there is some residual
volume in your bladder, that means some leftover urine in there, it can actually become infected
and it can make you more prone to having recurrent bladder infections. So there's two really
good reasons there for actually emptying your bladder and emptying your bladder really well.
Now, I'd like to take you through some tips to also use at home to more completely empty your
bladder. So the first thing obviously, is to avoid overfilling your bladder. So when your bladder is
too full, it can be really difficult. Ironically, to empty you think the fluid is the more it's
going to be likely to empty, but actually when you get to a certain volume in the bladder,
it doesn't empty nearly as well. So you're aiming to really empty
at least every three to four hours, or 250 to 400 mils, every time you empty.
The second thing to remember is to stay well hydrated during the day. Now,
this means drinking regularly throughout the day, and not drinking all of a sudden. So if you drink
regularly and keep your body well hydrated, then your bladder will be constantly filled. If you
suddenly drink a whole lot, then your bladder will fill up suddenly and can risk overstretching again
as well and make it difficult to empty. So try to stay well hydrated during the course of the day.
Now, the third thing is to try to take your time to really empty your bladder completely.
So try not to rush, try to take your time sit on the toilet, lean yourself forward and obviously
just taking your time rather than rushing you're emptying and also to making sure that you don't
go just in case, if you empty bladder just in case, you'll be doing little small voids as well
and just like I was saying with overstretching the bladder doesn't like often contracting when it's
adding a little bit in there as well. So try to actually go when you've actually got an optimal
amount in the bladder, not too much, and not too little. So the other thing to be mindful of,
is to watch out for your intake of bladder irritants, things like caffeine,
and things like alcohol, which can actually act as diuretics, and actually increase the amount of
fluid going into bladder very suddenly. So again, that's not good for someone who's having problems
emptying their bladder. So you might want to reduce your intake of those types of things.
So, there we have it, the important aspects of emptying your bladder.
We've talked about the importance of getting the right position,
getting the right technique, and also to then some strategies to use if you're on you can
empty bladder, the Double Void technique, and also to avoiding overfilling your bladder,
and just making sure that you schedule regular voids in during the course of the day. So,
this is a technique worth practicing, you'll need to practice at home to get it right. Just take
your time with it. I really hope this information helps you empty your bladder more completely.
Thanks for watching today. If you've enjoyed the video, please give it a like down below
as this helps other people find it too. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.