You expanded your family and welcomed a new child (or perhaps children), and you're thrilled with the addition(s). What isn’t as exciting is the ongoing urinary incontinence you’re experiencing one year after your delivery, and your patience is wearing thin.
You might take some comfort in knowing you’re not alone in this struggle. One study reports that 32% of women experience the same incontinence at the one-year mark postpartum as they did during their third trimester.
As for why you’re still experiencing ongoing urinary incontinence, our team of women’s health experts at Capital Women’s Care dive into this common issue below.
We want to set the scene a little bit for pregnancy-related urinary incontinence, as well as postpartum incontinence.
During pregnancy, especially as the fetus grows, up to a half, or more, of women run into issues with stress incontinence, as the uterus sits atop the bladder. Thanks to this added pressure, any sneeze or cough can lead to leakage.
The reason why this stress incontinence can persist after birth is that the pregnancy can weaken your pelvic floor, which is a band of muscles that supports your pelvic organs. When this muscle group weakens, your bladder isn’t as well supported, which can lead to stress incontinence.
Birth and delivery can also cause nerve damage around your bladder and lead to urge incontinence, or overactive bladder.
If you’re still struggling with urinary incontinence one year or more after you gave birth, the issue might stem from:
If you haven’t done pelvic floor strengthening exercises, namely Kegels, after your delivery, this could be one reason why you’re still struggling with leakage.
Or, perhaps you have been vigilant about these exercises, yet the problem still persists — this may indicate a damaged pelvic floor.
If the nerves that control your bladder and urge to pee are still damaged a year after childbirth, this could account for your lingering incontinence.
If you’re still holding onto the baby weight or you’ve gained weight, this can cause your incontinence to persist.
If you’re still experiencing urinary incontinence one year postpartum, please come see us for an evaluation. Depending upon what we find, we can help address the issue with one or more of the following solutions:
Rest assured, we’ll work with you until we find a satisfactory solution that helps you gain more control over your bladder and leakage.
For expert diagnosis and treatment of your postpartum urinary incontinence, we invite you to contact one of our three conveniently located offices in Frederick and Mount Airy, Maryland, to schedule an appointment.
