Pregnancy Incontinence – How to Deal with the Issue and Gain Control Over Life

Are you pregnant? Then your life is about to be changed forever and hopefully it will be for the better. Naturally, this phase of your life is marked by a lot of turbulence that can have an everlasting impact on your body and mind.

Just like a caterpillar emerges as a butterfly after drastic transformation similarly, after pregnancy you gain a whole new life as you are blessed with your bundle of joy.

In this article, we are talking about one such condition that you suffer from during pregnancy and that is incontinence. One of the initial pregnancy signs happens to be frequent urination. Incontinence or leaking urine is also another common issue during pregnancy.

More than 50 percent of the women complain that incontinence has a pessimistic impact on their day-to-day life quality that restricts them from leading a normal life and takes a toll on their emotions.

The symptoms enhance with the growth of the baby and lasts till a few weeks post giving birth.

Urinary Incontinence Types

There are a number of types of incontinence that are summarised in the following manner:

Urgency Incontinence – Urine leakage because of a sudden urge to urinate. Bladder contractions are responsible for this kind of urination.
Stress Incontinence – Physical pressure on the bladder leading to urine loss.
Transient Incontinence – Urine loss due to temporary condition or medication or constipation.
Mixed Incontinence - A combination of urgency and stress incontinence.

Causes of Pregnancy Incontinence

The bladder is placed just above the bones of the pelvic region and the pelvic floor supports it. This actually relaxes and gets filled with urine all through the day. The sphincter helps to keep the organ shut until you can release it. The pelvic floor muscles are tested during this time, i.e., the pregnancy and the childbirth.

Here are some of the major causes of incontinence during pregnancy.

Medical Conditions: The medical conditions leading to incontinence include multiple sclerosis, diabetes, stroke in the past, anxiety medications and so on.
Pressure: Your bladder may leak during exercise, sneeze, cough or laugh. Extra pressure is put on the bladder because of these movements. Extra pressure is also exerted on the bladder as your baby grows bigger.
UTI or Urinary Tract Infections: Incontinence is a symptom of UTI. Between 30-40 % women who have not treated their UTI fully tend to develop the symptoms at the time of pregnancy.
Hormones: Changing of the hormones can affect the lining of your urethra and that of your bladder.

How to Treat Pregnancy Incontinence

Bladder management and lifestyle changes are the first lines of treatments for incontinence related to pregnancy. Here are some of the ways in which you can control your bladder and therefore restrict incontinence.

Create a Bladder Routine – Write down when you experience the most number of leaks so that you can go ahead and plan your bathroom tours. This is also considered to be the right step towards bladder retraining. Retraining your bladder means teaching your bladder to hold excess urine by prolonging the time between tours.
Do the Kegels – Reinforce your pelvic floor with regular Kegel exercises. They are effective and safe workouts during, after and before pregnancy. You have to emphasize on the muscles for holding the urine to do a Kegel. Before relaxing squeeze the muscles for about nine to ten seconds. You should do five to six sets of these workouts every day. If you learn how to ease your pelvic floor then it can help after and during labour.
Avoid Drinking after Sunset– Restrict your beverage intake at night to avoid tours to the bathroom or leakage at night.
Avoid Caffeinated or Carbonated Drinks – You should avoid drinking coffee, tea and carbonated drinks. These will make you feel the need to go for peeing more often. Go for decaffeinated drinks and lots of water.
A High-fibre Diet Should be Preferred –Constipation puts added stress or pressure on the pelvic floor region. That is why consume food that is rich in fibre to avoid the condition.
Sustain a Weight that is Healthy – Excess weight around the bladder can put added stress on your bladder. That is why you should try to stay fit. If you lose weight after pregnancy or labour, it will help to deal with post-pregnancy incontinence.

The above are some of the ways that you can adopt for treating pregnancy incontinence. Medication and surgery also help to deal with this condition. In extreme cases your doctor can suggest you to use Foley catheter. Consult your physician to ensure that you are doing what is best for you.

Guest Author: Akshay Sharma

Hi! I’m Akshay Sharma. I’m a blogger at Imagination Waffle. I love to read and write about Fitness, Health & Lifestyle topics.

That's all for today!
If you liked this article and found it helpful then please share it with your friends and family and please consider becoming our Patron or buying us a coffee through PayPal. Your support enables us to continue blogging and help people. Also make sure your subscribe to our Newsletter so that you don't miss out on our future posts! Thanks!

Subscribe to Our Blog

Become Our Patron