Know Your Floors CIC aims to improve access to education and information about pelvic floor issues and other taboo subjects.
- KnowYourFloors has a following of over 630,000 on the social media platform TikTok, with over 5 million likes on the #SqueezeAlong videos.
- Suzanne Vernazza featured in a BBC Documentary ‘My Prolapse & Me’ and BBC Breakfast to raise important awareness on pelvic health and pelvic organ prolapse.
- KnowYourFloors uses physiotherapy exercises to prevent and improve pelvic health for populations across the UK, reducing barriers and stigmas around support.
Suzanne Vernazza is a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist and Founding Director of Know Your Floors who enrolled onto the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur programme in 2023 as part of cohort 7.
Founded in 2020, Know Your Floors CIC is a not-for-profit company aiming to dispel taboos, raise awareness and provide essential education around pelvic health and related subjects, across the general population and within healthcare.
“Pelvic floor dysfunctions affect 1 in 3 Women, and 1 in 6 Men”.
In 2003, as a newly qualified Physiotherapist, Suzanne Vernazza completed a placement in an area supporting new mothers with postnatal classes. The joy of supporting these women and witnessing their resilience sparked an interest in Suzanne around women’s health and the care provided in physiotherapy.
Suzanne then became a mother herself and during this time she experienced pelvic floor issues firsthand and realised that there was a lack of comprehensive post-birth information available to women. She recognised that understanding what was “normal” versus what wasn’t around pelvic health was crucial and this led her to returning to the NHS as a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist.
In her role, she saw the impact that comprehensive pelvic floor and women’s health information had on mothers, but after hearing numerous heart-breaking stories about women who had struggled to find support, felt unheard when they seeked advice or whose symptoms were normalised, so they did not feel empowered to self-refer, she identified that there was a gap in the services available.
“I have heard too many heart-breaking stories, where pelvic health issues impact and stop people in every aspect of their lives. They often feel dismissed by health professionals and feel poorly equipped to know what to do. This needs to improve.”
Suzanne Vernazza
Suzanne then became increasingly frustrated with the services provided, seeing further barriers including geographical limitations, service availability and embarrassment which hindered many women from seeking help. She started to explore how she could breakdown these barriers and then the urgency intensified when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, forcing Suzanne to be re-deployed, whilst the waiting list for care continued to increase. Driven by a combination of compassion and frustration, Suzanne founded Know Your Floors, a not-for-profit, social enterprise aimed at improving access to pelvic floor education.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Suzanne organized her inaugural Know Your Floors event, “Birthing Body”, a two-day conference that brought together professionals from diverse fields. The conference focused on providing education and understanding to women and birthing individuals on key topics including prolapse, bowel issues, baby loss, and other critical subjects. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees empowered Suzanne, and healthcare professionals expressed a desire for more such events to raise awareness.
Motivated by this response, Suzanne conducted feedback surveys to delve deeper into postnatal care experiences. She found that only 10% of mothers reported having conversations with their healthcare providers around physical postnatal care and a significant portion expressed a need for additional support. Suzanne extended her research to health visitors and general practitioners (GPs), revealing a lack of confidence in providing postnatal checks.
To address this gap and recognising the need for education among both patients and the healthcare workforce, she compiled an e-learning course titled “The Postnatal Care Guide”. This comprehensive guide equips practitioners with the tools to effectively screen and address physical, mental, and feeding health issues during the postnatal period and is available to all healthcare practitioners on FourteenFish.
‘Know Your Floors is on a mission to make pelvic health accessible and fun for all!’*
In June 2022, Suzanne explored how she could expand her reach using social media platforms. Linking her interests in music and pelvic health, she started a TikTok and Instagram account, curating the #SqueezeAlong and the #SqueezeSquad, which makes doing pelvic floor exercises more fun with support on how to strengthen the pelvic floor muscle correctly and safely. Her videos aim to support all different age groups, communities, and genders, having amassed a following of over 630,000 people. The popularity of the videos has led to a number of campaigns including the free Christmas #SqueezeAlong Challenge in 2023, with local companies and healthcare professionals coming together to support Suzanne in providing tips, education and donated prizes each day in December. Moving forward, Suzanne is creating a ‘Squeeze Squad School’, which will give participants daily emails over a two-week period on how to optimise their pelvic floor exercises and get involved in the #SqueezeAlongs confidently.
“2 spinal surgeries and 4 months in hospitals, I lost control of my pelvic floor- now I am relearning it, Thank You! This helps me so much more than imaginable.”
TikTok User Feedback
Due to the impact of the #SqueezeAlong’s and her work compiling healthcare educational resources, Suzanne was invited to share her insights on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and featured in a BBC documentary named ‘My Prolapse & me’. * The documentary explored pelvic organ prolapse patient stories, to reduce stigma around pelvic health and encourage people to access support for any symptoms they develop.
Following Suzanne’s transition to a new role at The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, she sought guidance from the site’s innovation team on funding and entrepreneurial support. They directed her to explore the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, and Suzanne successfully enrolled as part of Cohort 7.
The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has supported Suzanne’s entrepreneurial journey by connecting her with a network of like-minded visionaries and has provided access to business planning sessions. Through the mentorship, education, and inspiring stories from previous entrepreneurs, she has built self-confidence and in 2024 pitched to an audience of over 500 entrepreneurs, partners, mentors, and NHS leaders, at the NHS CEP Big Pitch Event.
“I never thought I was an entrepreneur or an influencer, but over the past two years on my journey, I have learned that through self-belief and support through the programme, I can be those things.
From the NHS CEP I have learned a lot about business, which is information that you do not usually receive when working within the NHS. It’s been extremely useful in understanding regulation, IP and what I need to do to grow and scale my social enterprise.
I have also been supported by fellow Clinical Entrepreneurs and mentors, including Seb Tucknott, Co-Founder of IBDrelief and Alastair Scott, commercial/procurement director at Aon, who have been an immense support along my journey in giving me practical advice and feedback.
The sessions on the programme have also inspired me, as hearing fellow entrepreneurs’ stories and being able to network with over 1,000 other passionate individuals is extremely supportive and has helped me to make links to push forward.
My biggest piece of advice to anyone with an idea is to believe in yourself, trust your instincts and find people who will support you on your journey because you can make a massive difference.”
Suzanne Vernazza
Looking to the future
In 2024, Suzanne hopes to continually expand Know Your Floors to support further populations, with an ultimate aim of developing an app to act as a central hub for pelvic health. The vision for the app is to act as a single point of access to support, educate and signpost professional help around pelvic health and other related topics.
“Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about improving pelvic healthcare or if you would be interested in supporting the app or expansion of Know Your Floors, Thank you.”
Suzanne Vernazza
For more information, please click on the links below.
*References:
- https://www.knowyourfloors.app/
- https://nhscep.com/2024/01/22/clinical-entrepreneur-on-bbc-breakfast-raising-important-awareness-of-pelvic-health/
- https://nhscep.com/2023/04/25/our-entrepreneurs-suzanne-vernazza/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67748637
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67748637
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0h0qqzr/and-me-my-prolapse-and-me