![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4b9317c6e671d67dbd7362ff3df3994def642e6602dbc4f51f9b6be6deaaf476.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
August 27, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n The memory is etched in Monique Vogt\u2019s mind. It was 2022, and she was being wheeled down the corridor of the hospital, looking up at the fluorescent lights above. A nurse walked next to the bed and shook her, \u201cMonique, stay with me, stay with me\u201d. As everyone around her panicked, and the new mother haemorrhaged, she felt a wave of acceptance.<\/p>\n Minutes earlier, her first child had been born, dragged into the world by forceps.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember this thought going, \u2018OK, well, we didn\u2019t know the sex of the baby and I got to find out I had a son and I got to give him his name. Mitch [her husband] is going to be a great dad without me, it\u2019s going to be OK if I die\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Vogt, 33 at the time, was wheeled into the theatre where an anaesthetist squeezed her hand tightly. He said, \u201cMonique, I\u2019m going to save you.\u201d And then she was unconscious.<\/p>\n When she woke up in intensive care two days later, her obstetrician explained she suffered a third-degree tear<\/a>, where the vagina is torn down to the muscles of the anal sphincter, as her son, Levi, was being pulled out with the forceps.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick She would later find out that her pelvic floor had been partially ripped from the bone, and she had a pelvic organ prolapse<\/a>, which is when the bladder, uterus or bowel loses some of its support and moves downwards through the vagina.<\/p>\n The school teacher, now 37, recalls thinking, \u201cI have no f—ing idea what this means. I\u2019ve never even heard of this.\u201d<\/p>\n About 50 per cent of women experience a pelvic organ prolapse (POP) at some point in their lives, with about 20 per cent experiencing symptoms.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a public health issue,\u201d says Professor Anna Rosamilia, head of the pelvic floor unit at Monash Health. \u201cSomething like 22,000 Australian women per year have some form of prolapse surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is one of those women.<\/p>\n Last week, in an impassioned speech to parliament, Lambie told the Senate she suffered a prolapse six months ago, linked to an injury she sustained in 1997 while carrying a 40-kilogram backpack during army infantry training.<\/p>\n \u201cMy vagina was collapsing, and three months later, it was taking my bladder with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than wait years to find someone willing to operate for the \u201clow rates\u201d provided by Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs claims, and having heard nothing back from the department after putting in her claim, Lambie paid $7000 out of her own pocket to pay for surgery to treat the injury.<\/p>\n She begged the government to abandon planned caps on allied health services for veterans: \u201cWhat would they do if their penis was hanging by a thread? \u2026 Would they say \u2018OK no worries, I don\u2019t really need my penis?\u2019 I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n Birth Trauma Australia chief executive Amy Dawes says she sees women who are suicidal as a result of POP. \u201cThey are forever changed, they are shamed … It\u2019s still too often I hear women say, \u2018Nobody told me that this could happen to my body\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n What causes POP?<\/p>\n While vaginal childbirth is the main cause of POP, it can also be caused by repetitive heavy lifting, as Lambie experienced, being an elite athlete, having a chronic cough, asthma, obesity or chronic constipation.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen from all walks of life experience the condition,\u201d says Dawes.<\/p>\n Some people experience prolapse immediately after giving birth, but more often it develops over time. In one large US study, doctors performing routine pap smears could see that the vaginal wall had weakened and moved in about half of the women, yet few had symptoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very common that women going through menopause will start to experience incontinence and wonder what on earth\u2019s going on,\u201d says Margaret Wilson, a nurse continence specialist at Continence Health Australia<\/a>, a not-for-profit operating a free helpline.<\/p>\n \u201cBut incontinence associated with birth injuries sometimes doesn\u2019t show up until the hormones start changing. There is less collagen and elastin, so that\u2019s when prolapse or incontinence symptoms start to show.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a new report<\/a> by Birth Trauma Australia, the impact of birth injuries, including POP, is costing the economy $17.5 billion annually, which includes health system, workforce, wellbeing and health costs.<\/p>\n There are also consequences on a woman\u2019s self-confidence, body image and sexuality, says Rosamilia: \u201cIt has a profound effect.\u201d<\/p>\n For two years after her diagnosis, Vogt grieved the person she once was.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that I knew about myself was changed,\u201d reflects Vogt, now a mother of two.<\/p>\n That included her ability to move \u2013 \u201cI haven\u2019t run since the birth of my son\u201d \u2013 and work. A teacher, she had to get her classes moved to be close to a toilet.<\/p>\n One in three Australian women experiences incontinence, and in about 60 per cent<\/a> of those instances it is because of prolapse. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge issue across the country, and we\u2019re not talking about it,\u201d says Continence Health Australia chief executive Jim Cooper.<\/p>\n Treating and preventing prolapse<\/p>\n \u201cIf women adequately do their pelvic floors [exercises] in pregnancy, you get a 30 per cent reduction in risk of like a longer-term urinary incontinence,\u201d says Angela James, national chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Australia\u2019s Women\u2019s and Men\u2019s Pelvic Health Group.<\/p>\n But, James adds: \u201cIt\u2019s not just a random bunch of Kegels.\u201d It\u2019s about learning which muscles to engage and how to engage them safely. That applies to all women, pregnant or not.<\/p>\n Pelvic floor-safe exercises require bracing the pelvic floor before lifting weights or being in a sitting position.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt\u2019s not about not lifting weights \u2013 it\u2019s about being taught to engage your pelvic-floor muscles before lifting and doing it safely,\u201d says Wilson.<\/p>\n Physio prehab and rehab ought to be a standard part of pregnancy care, says James as should informing women about potential outcomes, including the use of forceps, which involve a significant increase in the risk of prolapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n Surgery can help some but not all women<\/a>. Pessaries \u2013 a silicon ring that a woman can fold in half and self-manage \u2013 are another management option, but don\u2019t repair the damage.<\/p>\n The research<\/a> of Monash University\u2019s associate professor Shayanti Mukherjee is focused on transforming how pelvic-floor injury and prolapse are prevented and treated. That includes hydrogels to prevent or heal prolapse, biodegradable and tissue-engineered implants in place of mesh, stem-cell therapy<\/a> and earlier detection models.<\/p>\n Vogt, who feels like she is finally emerging from the trauma, wishes there were more options, more support and more conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my friends, when they had kids, and I was like, \u2018Oh yeah, prolapse\u2019, were like, \u2018What\u2019s that?\u2019. It\u2019s important that I feel the message is out there, that prolapse can happen to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, half the population.<\/p>\n When Rosamilia is asked if she believes prolapse would have been solved by now if it affected the other half of the population, she laughs.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019d be a lot more money thrown at it, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox<\/a> every Monday.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"When](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/af909225e9353243101200ba023c93dcf6f0595f.jpeg\")
When Monique Vogt was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse, she had never heard of the condition. Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"Mollie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1b8bee1b08818475fb5a1b4be086251b787ade52.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Vaginal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/8267a996860c6801ca6294f21a32a1a088ba05ff.jpeg\")
Vaginal childbirth is the main cause of pelvic organ prolapse, but not the only one. Getty ImagesImpacts that go beyond the injury<\/p>\n![\"Sally](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/73dd62b7b2d132b4624d6a3060f60d9218305e12.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779301642_910_4b9317c6e671d67dbd7362ff3df3994def642e6602dbc4f51f9b6be6deaaf476.png\")
Sarah Berry<\/a> is a lifestyle and health writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 27, 2026 \u2014 3:36pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-870081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}