Happy Women’s History Month everyone! In recognition of this month, I would like to speak about the woman who brought awareness to breathwork and the pelvic floor before Dr. Arnold Kegel.
Who was Margaret Morris?
Meet Margaret Morris: dancer, artist, teacher and choreographer. She started out as a dancer, and over time began to realize the importance of the intersection between posture and the health of her students. She first introduced Pelvic Floor Muscle Training (PFMT) in 1936 along with her mentor Minnie Randel.
They collaborated and introduced PFMT in the book Maternity and Post-Operative Exercises-In Diagrams and Words. It was described as a way to consciously contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles to reduce stress urinary incontinence where you were instructed to “invert the sphincters..until it becomes habitual.”
She also advised that this should be completed to Shubert’s Waltzes 16 no 2. Now, this was a full 12 years before Kegel would popularize PFMT in his article in 1948, where he would state the success of using PFMT to treat stress urinary incontinence. There is strong evidence out there stating that PFMT, with adherence to training, can help to reduce symptoms. PFMT over time has evolved into the pelvic floor physical therapy profession that we know today.
In the medical field, there is a strong correlation with female body parts being named after men. Anatomical structures such as Fallopian Tubes, Bartholin’s Glands, and the Pouch of Douglas are all named after men; and in fact the popular kegels that you hear about often, is just PFMT that has been named after Dr. Arnold Kegel. Luckily, medicine is starting to give women the credit they are due. So this women’s history month let’s give a shout out to those women who helped pioneer the Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy profession, thanks Margaret Morris and Minnie Randel!
