Pelvic floor and prolapse: The boat analogy

The boat in the dock theory (Delancey et al) is a way of illustrating the relationship between the pelvic organs (the boat) pelvic floor (sea), ligaments (ropes) and prolapse.
A weak pelvic floor doesn't cause a prolapse. But over time not having that support puts more strain on the other support systems, which in turn can cause more stretching or damage to the support system.
The best approach is to always maintain a strong pelvic floor. If you then stretch or injure any of the connective tissue supports (eg through pregnancy or childbirth), you've still got some solid muscular support.
If you've already gott a prolapse and haven't had any pelvic floor strengthening, hopefully you can see from this image why it's so important! ​