Peeing 101
You’ve probably never though about how you pee or how often you pee. It’s kind of just like a normal part of your day to day. But there are ways to optimize your bladder health! Below are some healthy tips to keep your bladder happy.
Bladder Tips
Urinate every 2-4 hours during the day. If you are pregnant, you will most likely be outside of the norm.
'Urinate 0-1 x at night. Again if you are pregnant, this number may be slightly higher.
Focus on drinking your fluids from when you wake up in the morning until dinner time. Try to stop all fluids 1-3 hours before bed, unless you need to take a medication, then use a small amount of water.
Sit down on the toilet. DO NOT HOVER. This includes public bathrooms.
Things to Avoid
“Just in case” voiding. If you last voided recently, you shouldn’t confuse your bladder by going again just because you are running an errand. Now if you are about to head out on a road trip or get on a long flight, that’s an ok time to use “just in case”. If you are constantly using this strategy it can cause the bladder to start telling you it needs to go much earlier even before it is halfway full.
Waiting a long time to urinate. I’m looking at you nurses and teachers. If you wait longer then 4 hours in between voids, you may be over-stretching your bladder. It is also possible you are restricting your fluid intake.
The hover over the toilet. I usually hear this when people are using public bathrooms. When you hover, your pelvic floor cannot relax and you may have to strain to get the urine out. The urine may spray or go in all sorts of directions, resulting in urine on the toilet seat. So please, PLEASE, just use the seat covers or some toilet paper and sit down on the toilet.
Rushing your void. This is for my moms out there. The ones that feel like they only have 10 seconds to urinate before they need to get back to their baby. Baby is going to be ok if you give yourself a little longer. Straining to push your urine out so it’ll go faster can lead to other problems with your pelvic floor later on. So instead, sit down relax and let it go.
