Coming 2025
Saving the Whole Woman
Natural Alternatives to Surgery for Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Urinary Incontinence
3nd Edition
by Christine Kent
Christine and her husband Lanny Goodman moved to New Mexico from San Diego so Christine could attend Nursing School. Towards the end of her Nursing program at the University of New Mexico, she was diagnosed with a benign fibroid tumor on her uterus.
At the pre-operation meeting, the surgeon suggested a bladder suspension surgery to address some minor leaking when sneezing or coughing. Foolishly, we agreed to this. As a result of this surgery, Christine suffered a severe uterine prolapse.
Told that the only treatment now was a hysterectomy, Christine refused based on after effects she saw when both her mother and sister underwent hysterectomy.
Christine struggled with the condition for a decade, including library research, experimenting with many forms of exercise, bodywork, yoga, both ballet and East Indian dance. The symptoms became so intolerable that she packed up her vehicle and drove to a tiny town on the north coast of California.
In the throes of menopause, Christine was undergoing what turned out to be a major thirty-day bleed. Surrendering herself to whatever all this pelvic health chaos meant, amazingly, a very clear message came to her, that resolving her prolapse was central to her work in this life.
Christine opened her heart to this message and the bleeding stopped immediately, her uterus shrunk to half its former size. In the next few days, she packed her belongings, drove home, and spent the next four years virtually full-time in the medical school library determined to crack the code on her condition and find how to get her prolapse under control.
Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle came together and she was successful in her efforts.
She wrote the first and shortly thereafter the second edition of this book, put up a website with a public forum. At the time, Christine didn't know if she could teach what she had learned to other women and if they would be able to get results.
Within a very few weeks, women began writing into the forum that their symptoms were improving! The revolution in women's health had begun.
Building on her prolapse research work, feedback from the women suggested that her methods were also effective for chronic hip and knee pain. She also was able to help women who were struggling with post-hysterectomy challenges they were virtually never informed of before the surgery.
Christine's work evolved into video which was the rising technology of the time. Remember VHS tapes and DVDs? These gave way to streaming videos as the internet became available to virtually every woman. Her video courses are now available at https://www.wholewoman.com.
Christine's books and videos have helped many thousands of women avoid potentially devastating surgery through education and persistent self-care in over sixty countries.
Many women still prefer books, however, and that has prompted Christine to update and republish these important books, Saving the Whole Woman and Save Your Hips, which are once again available as physical books.
Utilize this important work for your own education and self-care and as gifts to the women in you life. Depending on whose research you read, fifty to eighty percent of all women will struggle with prolapse at some point in their lives. Even if not challenged with prolapse, Christine's clear anatomical teaching and practical life ways can dramatically lower the probability of a woman experiencing prolapse in her lifetime.
Saving the Whole Woman will be available in the Fall of 2024. Please register below to be notified of the publication.
Professional Feedback on the First and Second Editions of Saving the Whole Woman
This updated version of Saving the Whole Woman is a breath of fresh air for thousands of women who have been diagnosed with uterine, bladder, or rectal prolapse. In truth, every woman should know the information in this book to help preserve her innate pelvic power.
Christiane Northrup, MD
Author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom, The Wisdom of Menopause, and Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom.
As a former gynecologic surgeon who came to see the error his ways, I passionately read ‘Saving the Whole Woman’. Christine’s work is medically accurate and will bring hope to millions of women suffering from pelvic organ prolapse and who want to avoid surgery. I hope mothers will share this work with their daughters to help them avoid the kind of childbirth experience that sets them up for problems later in life.
Michel Odent, MD
Author of Primal Health and The Caesarean Director, Primal Health Research Center, London
Saving the Whole Woman is a one of a kind book. It provides natural, helpful solutions for women and takes away the stigma often associated with pelvic floor problems. The original research in this book could be lifesaving.
Peggy O’Mara
Editor and PublisherMothering Magazine
Saving the Whole Woman is a scathing account of the way the medical field uses and abuses women’s bodies with regard to surgeries and procedures on the pelvic floor. These medical procedures parallel the mistreatment of women’s bodies in the childbearing year, and in both cases money is often the motivating factor. Christine gives us hope by teaching us about our bodies and how we can prevent or solve problems without medical intervention. Give a copy to every woman you know, old or young.
Jan Tritten
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Midwifery Today magazine and The Birthkit newsletter
As a surgeon who became enlightened to natural health, I recommend avoiding surgery for the treatment of chronic disorders if there are natural approaches that work just as well, if not better. Christine Kent has made a major contribution to women by compiling a comprehensive research-supported natural approach to the common problems of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. Any woman ready to take charge of her health needs to read this book!
Christine Horner, MD FACS
Author of Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer, winner of the 2006 IPPY Award for “Best book in health, medicine, and nutrition”.
Empowering women with accurate knowledge allows them to make informed decisions regarding their healthcare. For those women who are contemplating urogynecological surgery and for those healthcare practitioners who are advising these women, this new edition of Christine Kent’s Saving the Whole Woman is an essential read. The evidence is substantial; restoring optimal posture and muscle function can prevent and reduce most pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. Surgery should not be your first treatment choice.
Diane Lee
Physiotherapist & AuthorThe Pelvic Girdle
Christine Ann Kent is on a mission to expose the continuing tragedy of surgical mismanagement of pelvic problems. Her exhaustive and scholarly chronicle of the attempts to improve on female anatomy sends a serious warning: Avoid unnecessary or questionable surgery! Her detailed holistic approach to maintaining and restoring pelvic health reframes perceptions of female anatomy from “faulty” to “wondrous,” and gives women the key to their own pelvic well-being.
Penny Simkin, PT
Childbirth educator, doula and author including The Birth Partner and The Labor Progress Handbook
After over 36 years as an occupational therapist, I had an acute prolapse including difficulty with elimination. I greatly benefitted from Christine’s exercises in only one session at The Whole Woman™ Center. Her book is very thorough anatomically, practical and honest about a very real problem to untold women. The sensible self-help instruction and lifestyle ideas are extremely helpful.
Jan Harrison OTR/L
Monte Vista, CO
The decision to undergo surgery of any kind is often difficult, so it is often useful to explore other alternatives before moving forward. In Saving the Whole Woman, Christine Kent provides a perspective of other options available to women who have been recommended to undergo pelvic surgery. This book may anger some and empower others.
Dean Ornish, M.D.
Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Author, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease
Christine Kent has written a definitive book on the holistic approach to pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence for women. She exposes the risks and failures of surgical therapies and gives women alternatives in managing these issues and regaining a sense of their whole beings. Thank you Christine!
Lee Lipsenthal, M.D.
President, The American Board of Holistic Medicine
Every woman deserves and needs to know the vital information Christine has amassed in this book.
Elizabeth Plourde
Author, Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal & Hormone Replacement
I believe in the importance and the bravery of this book and hope that it will save women’s lives and sanity.
Phyllis Chesler, Ph.d.
Author, Women and Madness and Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman
Women, especially around the time of menopause, are too often advised to have major gynecological surgery for minor conditions that can be significantly improved with natural alternatives. In Saving the Whole Woman, Christine Kent has made an important contribution to women’s health literature by recounting her own story of unnecessary surgery and its effect upon her life. Her research of the medical information on pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence is accurately and clearly presented and can serve as a warning to other women. Her critique of the lack of oversight or scientifically-based criteria for such surgery should be read by every woman and provider of women’s health care.”
Ina May Gaskin
Author, Spiritual Midwifery and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth
Feedback from Women Practicing Techniques from Saving the Whole Woman
The following are posts taken from the forum on the Whole Woman website. They have been edited only for spelling and punctuation. These are just a small sample of results reported by hundreds of women from around the world.
This fire breathing is helping me. I want to sing it from the treetops. Thank you Christine!
GranolaMom
I have been to many doctors. None of them could figure out the pain, which was low abdominal, low back pain after bowel movements. I found this website and the posture information while researching, and within a few days of making posture corrections, the pain is mostly gone, AND my rectocele and cystocele have both gone from stage 2 to stage 1.
Tracy
For me, I will always be grateful for Christine, her materials, her inspiration and instruction, and for all of you who travel a similar path. By the way, the video exercises are still instrumental in my healing program. I didn’t do them for a couple of days and I noticed!
Marie
I just turned 48 and had what I believe to be a global prolapse (cystocele, rectocele and uterine prolapse) happen all at once, within about a month or so around March of 2004. Thank goodness I found Christine’s book and website!! I started using the posture immediately and I really believe it helped stop the progress of my prolapse.
Lynn
So I finally feel that my life is back on track with the discovery of your wonderful video and book. I thank God for giving me the help in finding you Christine....and thank you so much!!!
Gail
I have to add that I JUST started doing the fire-breathing a couple days ago, and I think it is so amazing. I kept raving on and on to my husband! I was feeling a little ‘droopy’ on Saturday and so I gave it a go. I checked myself before, and could feel my cervix dropping to the middle of my vagina. I did the fire-breathing for 5 minutes and then checked myself again - IT HAD MOVED UP!!! Unbelievably (to me) it worked immediately! I never thought that was possible, although going for a long walk in the posture helps almost as much...eternal thanks, Christine.
MichelleK
I have come to the conclusion that standing in my ‘old good’ posture was just balancing the vertebrae on top of each other and not utilizing the muscles around the pelvis and spine to do the stabilizing, so all those muscles weakened and were unable to do the stabilizing work required when I was lifting. Now they get their strengthening exercise just by sitting, standing and walking. They are working all the time and much better for it. Just remember that Whole Woman posture is at the heart of it. Just keep those pelvic organs forward of the pelvic floor opening and well over the pubic bone and they cannot descend because there is a big lump of bone in the way!!
Louise
I was told by my ob-gyn that I have UP [uterine prolapse] and adenomyosis and that a hysterectomy would be a “good option” for me. It was described as a procedure that could improve my quality of life. As a young-ish mother of two small children, wife, avid runner and outdoor enthusiast, I was devastated. My gut instinct told me that I had to research what surgery really meant, and find an alternative. I began researching surgical options...after reading those books, it is very easy to start feeling that your falling pelvic organs are the enemy and surgery is the key to restoring your quality of life. I was feeling a great deal of negativity toward my own body, as if there was something grossly wrong with me and I had been betrayed. I then read your book, and was reminded of what important parts of my body my pelvic organs are. Your book brought me back home...I feel so much more positive and confident that I have what it takes to work this out. I’m recommending it to my PT, sisters, and friends. Thanks so much for sharing your experience and research.
Thankful
I have been doing Christine’s exercises for about a year. I have stage 3 prolapse, am 59 and always thought I was in pretty good shape. I have been feeling really good, so Sunday I decided to do some yoga and some abdominal work (my brain still tells me no pain no gain) to my surprise today my prolapse is back full force. So it’s back to Christine’s video and my abdominal tape went in the trash. As soon as I went back into the posture and relaxed a little I was feeling better. This is a way of life for me now and I believe it’s not the worst thing that can happen to a woman. Thanks to all and a special thank you to Christine.
Rosemary
The Posture is working!
MommyNow
The posture has helped me no end - No longer do I have a falling out feeling or ‘peeking’
Sue
I have also improved tremendously since I first found the prolapse a week post partum. My cervix, which was initially at the vaginal opening, has not re-prolapsed and although it is still a little lower than before I had children is now in a place which is considered “normal” for multiparous women and is causing no problems.
UKMummy
I just want to say that I am so, so very glad that I found your website all those three years ago.... I am still doing very well now. The posture has been a miracle worker.... I get it! It is now so natural to me to stand and sit in this posture... I can’t even imagine putting myself back into the old stance, it seems it would be very difficult to even hold my body in that position anymore. As I said, in a few other long past entries, this posture not only brought everything up and secure and prevents any further prolapse no matter how much I lift or what I do physically. But more, it brought out my innate elegance, strength, self-confidence, beauty and power. Perhaps it was a grand combination of many changes colliding together in one synergistic point in my life, but what ever it was, I have grown to become, in many ways, a new person....or maybe it is that I found not a new person, but come nearer my real and truer, uncontaminated, God-blessed self.
Sandy-Joy
Christine, I am very thankful and appreciate all of your hard, wonderful work, and all the precious information. There is a positive energy and you give women all the hope that they have lost in their own bodies. Thanks for saving us!
Anna
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