Bladder Control After Baby
You’re holding your sweet bundle of joy in your arms and you feel a tickle in your nose. Your eyes go dry and you inhale only to be met by a large sneeze… and a sudden trickle down below.
Sound familiar? Urine leakage—or incontinence—is common among moms, especially women who delivered vaginally.
What is it?
There are two types of incontinence: stress and urge. Stress incontinence is when you leak as a result of activity: a sneeze, a laugh, or lifting a case of water. Urge incontinence is when you feel a sudden need to use the restroom, even though your bladder may be nearly empty, and you leak before you can make it to the bathroom.
“Incontinence often appears during pregnancy because of the increased size and weight of the uterus and baby resting on your bladder. The hormones that relax your muscles and prepare your body for delivery, also relax your bladder and the sphincter that controls the flow of urine. Pair the two together and you get leakage,” explains Mark Ashby, MD, urogynecologist at Southwest Ohio Urogynecology.
Who is at Risk?
Susceptibility of incontinence is partially determined by genetics and partially determined by individual factors like your weight and age. Women who have had children, are over the age of 35, or overweight, are all more likely to experience bladder leakage.
Help is available if you are suffering from frequent leakage. “Sometimes women are able to resolve incontinence issues through implementing a simple exercise regimen. There are also other options available such as a bladder sling, which has a 90 percent success rate for stress incontinence,” says Janelle Evans, MD, urogynecologist at Southwest Ohio Urogynecology.
If you have to wear a pad every day or feel like you have to plan your outings and activities around the possibility of bladder leakage, schedule an evaluation with a urogynecologist. Are you wondering if you have bladder control problems that could benefit from medical assistance? Take a bladder confidence quiz today.
To find out more about your treatment options visit Southwest Ohio Urogynecology or call 937-436-9825
Visit http://www.ketteringhealth.org/urogynecology/locations.cfm for more information and locations.
