How to Manage Incontinence After Pregnancy
If you’ve suffered with incontinence during pregnancy, you may well be looking forward to childbirth to regain your previous immaculate bladder control. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple and many women don’t instantly snap back.
Once you’ve carried a baby, and particularly if you’ve had a vaginal birth, continence can be a complicated issue. However, before you concede defeat to a lifetime of crossing your legs, there are a few steps you can try. Here’s a look at what you can do to help improve your continence after pregnancy.
Be Realistic
If you’ve done your research, you’ll be aware that the weight of the baby on your pelvic floor is one of the main causes of incontinence during pregnancy. Although it’s a stretchy sheet of muscle, being putting under so much pressure for a prolonged period of time can make the pelvic floor saggy and overstretched. This in turn leads to a lack of bladder control.
It’s understandable to expect that the birth of the baby would lead to an instant improvement in the pelvic floor. After all, with the weight gone, what’s the problem? Unfortunately, the stress of supporting the weight of the baby for many months takes its toll and in most cases, continence won’t automatically return.
Some women go on to have long term continence issues, while others do manage to regain at least some of their prior control. However, it’s important to be realistic and understand that this won’t happen right away. Give your body a bit of time to recover from the experience of childbirth before you start working on recovering your prior continence.
Factors to Consider
Every woman is different and just because incontinence is common, it doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily have a problem.
There are some factors which can increase your chances of suffering from incontinence. These include:
- Incontinence during pregnancy
- Vaginal birth
- Long labour
- Forceps delivery
If you had any of these, it’s not uncommon to have problems with incontinence. These can easily be managed in the short term with the use of discreet incontinence pads, but you can work on improving your pelvic floor too.
C-section births, or those which involved an epidural may lead to temporary issues with loss of sensation and incontinence. These are generally caused by something different and resolve after no more than a few days.
What to Expect
The recovery for every woman is different and there’s no guarantee that you will – or won’t! – return to full continence. Around half of women experience permanent changes to their continence as a result of childbirth.
Nevertheless, you can still improve your symptoms of incontinence and this starts with returning to those dreaded pelvic floor exercises. You should be able to start doing this pretty soon after the birth, providing there were no complications. If there’s any doubt, consult your doctor or midwife first.
Pelvic floor exercises can promote healing of the perineum and vaginal area. This is because they increase blood flow, helping to reduce swelling, bruising and inflammation. In most cases there’s no reason to delay getting started with pelvic floor exercises once again.
You might not see any improvements in your incontinence symptoms for up to three months but don’t give up on the exercises. If you go for long periods without exercising your pelvic floor, it can become weak once more. Keep practicing and you should eventually see an improvement.
Although incontinence is a common problem for women after childbirth, you shouldn’t just accept it as permanent without seeking medical advice. If you’re still experiencing stress incontinence after a couple of months, mention it at your post-natal check or make an appointment with your doctor. In extreme cases, surgery can be performed to tighten up the pelvic sling, allowing you to regain bladder control.
Help Yourself
As well as regularly doing your pelvic floor exercises, there are some other things which may help.
Shedding any excess weight can be beneficial as surplus pounds add pressure to the pelvic floor. However, it’s important to do this in a steady and healthy way, particularly if you are breastfeeding. Don’t attempt any crash diets or strict calorie reductions; looking after a newborn baby is stressful enough!
Drink plenty as if you become dehydrated you could end up with an irritated bladder or even a water infection. Avoid foods that irritate your bladder such as tomato, citrus and alcohol. Caffeine is another known irritant so skip the coffee if you want to try and manage your incontinence better.
Training your bladder so you don’t have to suddenly dash to the toilet can help with incontinence too. Gradually increase the time between toilet visits, but make sure you don’t wait until it’s painful to go.
Incontinence is an issue for many women, but it shouldn’t be something that you simply accept. The measures above should help you gradually improve your bladder control but if you don’t see any improvement, book an appointment with your health visitor or doctor for a chat.
For incontinence products that can help you manage your symptoms both during and after pregnancy, take a look at HARTMANN Direct today.