In today's episode, Anietie Tia Ukpe-Wallace, a pelvic health physical therapist and author of Tending to Your Womb, shares how relocating from Northern California to Lisbon, Portugal will shape her continued work virtually and internationally. She recounts chronic infections and pelvic pain that led her to pelvic health, then details her first pregnancy in 2011 complicated by fibroids and ending in a 20-week loss, followed by a second loss six months later. She explains how grief can manifest physically through posture, breathing, reduced movement, nervous system effects, and pelvic floor tension, and defines pelvic floor therapy's functions and common symptoms. Wallace describes how pelvic therapy after loss may begin with external work (breath, abdominal touch/massage, education) before any internal exam, emphasizes finding therapists comfortable with loss, and discusses surgery, therapy, and practices that supported her later pregnancy and ongoing anxiety. She highlights body literacy as a core takeaway from her book and shares where to buy it and how to connect with her and her retreats.
Key Takeaway: Body Literacy The core mission of her book, Tending to Your Womb, is to cultivate body literacy—empowering individuals to deeply understand, listen to, and advocate for their own reproductive and pelvic health.
Time Stamps
00:00 Meet Tia Wallace
01:00 Yoga to Pelvic Health
04:26 Loss and Fibroids Story
06:47 Grief Becomes Pelvic Pain
08:44 Books That Changed Everything
13:50 What Pelvic Floor Therapy Is
18:54 How Grief Lives in the Body
25:59 When to Seek Pelvic PT
29:21 First Visit What to Expect
32:58 Belly Work First
33:51 Pain Without Aggravation
35:30 Cranial Nerve Connection
36:42 Book And Body Betrayal
38:24 Touch And Pleasure Practices
42:22 Trying Again After Loss
43:15 Her Loss And Surgery Story
47:38 Readiness And Anxiety Tools
50:09 Body Literacy Takeaways
54:59 Where To Buy And Work
57:56 Rapid Fire Reflections
01:00:39 Connect And Closing
