Postpartum pelvic floor conditioning using vaginal cones: not only for prophylaxis against urinary incontinence and descensus.

Seventy-one women were examined 6-8 weeks after spontaneous delivery by pelvic floor (PF) palpation, inspection, manometry and gravimetry. Re-examination was performed in the same way after 4-6 weeks of daily cone training. Control groups included 20 women prior to and after conventional puerperal exercises, and 8 nulliparae prior to and after the same cone training, using a five-cone set. The number of puerperae not capable of voluntary PF contraction declined from 34% before to 6% after training. Optimum initial and post-training responses were exhibited by all nulliparae. Differences between cone and conventional exercise groups were of minor importance. Contractility increased from 5 to 10 mmHg on average in puerperae and from 15 mmHg to 21 mmHg in nulliparae. Cone nos. 1-3 were most frequently required at the beginning of training, and nos. 3-5 towards the end. Cone training works well as an alternative or complement to conventional postpartum exercises, and may therefore be recommended especially to puerperae who are not capable of holding vaginal cones of 20-70 g 6 weeks after delivery.