HELLO
I'm Dr. Ashley Hocutt
I didn't plan on becoming a pelvic floor PT. My own experience changed that.
THE SECOND TIME AROUND
My second pregnancy and birth were completely different.
Seven months later, I almost threw up from the smell of eggs cooking. Yep—pregnant again.
This pregnancy was physically harder. I had a lot of sacral pain and pelvic pressure, and I remember sitting at work thinking, this baby is going to fall out of my vagina any minute.
But 16 months later, my second baby slid out like a penguin on ice at the birthing center. No tearing. And an hour after birth, I walked to the bathroom with no vulvar pain.
It was almost impossible to believe after my first experience.
At six weeks postpartum, I was cleared to do anything and actually felt ready. Then I took one yoga class and quickly realized my core was not ready for everything just yet.
WHAT WE'RE TOLD...
“The pain will go away after birth.”
“I had a baby, of course I'm leaking.”
“You're cleared at six weeks, so you can get back to everything.”
“Sex shouldn't still hurt, but try more lube.”
And sometimes the message is simply, “Everything looks fine.”
But feeling like something isn't right matters, even when you're told it's normal.
That became a big part of why I wanted to do this work: helping women understand what's happening in their bodies and giving them options beyond “just wait and see.”
The Turning Point
That’s when I started asking a different question: could birth and postpartum recovery be better prepared for?
My two pregnancies and births were vastly different. Being strong during pregnancy was valuable, but it didn’t make birth easier or guarantee an uncomplicated recovery.
I started wondering whether women could be better supported—not just during pregnancy and birth, but in understanding what their bodies needed before, during, and after.
That question stayed with me when I went back to work. Then I took a pelvic floor class, and suddenly a whole new part of the body started making sense.
The pelvic floor class that changed everything
One pelvic floor class, and suddenly so many pieces of my own story made sense.
I went into physical therapy planning to work with athletes and sports injuries. I never expected to become an expert in the muscles around the vagina.
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But that class opened up a whole new way of looking at the body. I started connecting the dots between my own history—childhood constipation, vulvar symptoms, urinary frequency, nighttime peeing, pain with sex—and what I had experienced during pregnancy and birth.
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I couldn't stop learning.
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The more I learned, the more I realized how much women are expected to simply accept: pain, leaking, pelvic pressure, and changes that interfere with everyday life.
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I wanted to be part of changing that.
I didn't want women to feel as unprepared as I had.
That experience became one of the reasons I was so drawn to pelvic health—and why I started my pelvic PT practice in 2016.
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How I got here
When I had my first baby, I thought I knew what to expect. I was already a physical therapist, after all.
I remember thinking, “Why didn't anyone tell me this?”
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I had questions about what I was feeling, what was normal, and what I could actually do to help myself heal. And I started realizing just how little we'd been taught about postpartum pelvic health—even as healthcare professionals.
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I was active throughout pregnancy and had taken several birth preparation classes. I felt prepared for birth. What I wasn't prepared for was what happened afterward.
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After a perineal injury and a painful recovery, I was told at six weeks that I was cleared to do anything—but my body certainly didn't feel ready. Walking to the bathroom hurt, sitting was uncomfortable, and sex wasn't even on the radar.
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My labor moved quickly. Within minutes of arriving at the birthing center, I was 10 centimeters dilated and being asked to wait to push until the doctor arrived. My immediate thought was, someone will catch this baby.
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After less than 30 minutes of pushing, my doctor performed an episiotomy and I tore. I wasn't prepared for what came next—or how painful recovery would be.
But pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery taught me pretty quickly that knowing the body and understanding your own body are two very different things.
purple elephant ears...
that’s how I describe my vulva after birth
No one had prepared me for how different my body might look and feel after birth. I had vaginal pain with every movement, sitting was uncomfortable, walking to the bathroom hurt, and sex was off the table for months—not just six weeks. Ice, Tucks pads, and Advil became my go-to.
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At my six-week checkup, I was told I was cleared to do anything. I still hurt, but I assumed that was just part of postpartum recovery, so I didn't mention it.
Being a physical therapist for more than seven years, I understood healing and recovery from injuries. But the pelvic floor and birth were a whole new experience for me.