OUR STORY

Dr. April Ritz is the owner of Effingham Pelvic Health & Wellness and started her private practice in 2021. She is an Effingham native, married to her high school sweet heart and has four children. Dr. Ritz was first exposed to the specialty of women's health and pelvic floor physical therapy while attending a conference in graduate school at Maryville University. It was during this conference that she first learned of the benefits that physical therapy can offer for those with pelvic health concerns. From that day forward, she knew she wanted to specialize in pelvic health.

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People were sharing their stories at the conference:

• low back and pelvic pain postpartum that limited a mother's ability to care for her newborn

• a lady that was unsure if she would ever be able to get married and have children due to severe pelvic pain

• a middle age woman that was unable to continue running due to urinary leakage

• another lady with fear of going out in public due to bowel leakage

• a male with severe abdominal and pelvic pain that made it hard to find and keep a job

• a female with pelvic heaviness after being up on her feet which was making it hard to continue with her factory job​

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It was these personal testimonies of the benefit of pelvic physical therapy that led Dr. Ritz to where she is today. The mother was able to completely eliminate her pain and care for her child, the pelvic pain, urinary and bowel leakage stopped, the runner was able to run again without incontinence. Truly life changing therapy. 

 

As a child, April had physical therapy herself for several years and knew she always wanted to be in a profession that could help others. She knew she wanted to be a mother some day as well and would personally need to know everything surrounding pelvic health and labor and delivery.   She graduated in 2016 with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy and helped build a pelvic health program at a hospital. During COVID, she realized to provide the best care possible to her patients she needed to step outside of the corporate healthcare world. She opened her private practice in 2021 and has not looked back. Her clinic continues to grow as patients realize the benefits of individualized care not limited by insurance shenanigans. Dr. Ritz has a passion for learning and continues to gain knowledge every year traveling to conferences in order to better serve our patients.

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As a mother of four little ones, Dr. Ritz herself has navigated through pelvic health treatment with success after her last three babies which has further solidified her passion for this specialized niche of health care. Dr. Ritz truly believes all postpartum mothers deserve an evaluation and individualized care/treatment in the fourth trimester.  Mothers should be educated on what they can do to prevent issues after childbirth such as prolapse, leakage, and chronic pain. She personally has experienced a C-section, hospital VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section), and two home water births. She has a passion for improving the birth experience and outcomes for all moms. Out of this passion, the pregnancy and postpartum membership was created as well as the popular Birth Prep Class and Fourth Trimester Rehab class.

 

Dr. Ritz and her husband also have a passion for marriage and healthy families. A key component of healthy marriage is a healthy sex life. Healthy sex in marriage helps improve emotional well being, bonding, and is great for physical and mental health. Too many couples experience issues in this area of their marriage- whether it be ED, pain with sex, low libido, mismatched libidos. Dr. Ritz enjoys having these difficult conversations with couples, improving their pelvic floor, and helping them reconnect with their spouse in the most intimate way.  Sex is a good, holy gift meant to be enjoyed by spouses and EPHW is here to help with that.

 

Effingham Pelvic Health & Wellness also provides wellness services and classes to focus more on preventative care and not just tertiary care. Dr. Ritz does not want women on bladder medications that can contribute to dementia. She does not want people having unneeded surgeries for prolapse or pain without addressing the underlying root cause of muscle or tissue dysfunction.

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Her goal is to give hope and support to women and men that have been navigating intimate pelvic health concerns and have not found the help they need. She also strives to bring awareness to the positive impact and benefits that pelvic therapy has to offer. Since having children, she also wants to improve kids' confidence and help them with leakage, constipation, and bedwetting issues. Her goal is to make people feel better, improve their confidence, and allow them to get back to all the activities they enjoy.

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Dr. Ritz is so thankful to have the opportunity to serve her hometown with this much needed specialty.

Her team looks forward to serving you!