Vaginal birth not linked to urinary incontinence

Specialties Ob/Gyn

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I don't know if anyone else already posted this, but thought some of you may find this interesting:

lady partsl birth not linked to urinary incontinence

I had my kids young, at 18 & 21. Both were lady partsl. Ever since birth 2 I have had to wear panyliners every day and usually go through 3 a day. I can even sneeze RIGHT AFTER I have used the bathroom and still leak urine. I completely disagree with this study.

"The rate of urinary incontinence among the women with children was 50 percent, not a statistically significant difference from the 48-percent rate seen among the women who had not given birth, the authors report."

Which part do you disagree with? Personal experience is not evidence.

Altalorraine

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"The rate of urinary incontinence among the women with children was 50 percent, not a statistically significant difference from the 48-percent rate seen among the women who had not given birth, the authors report."

Which part do you disagree with? Personal experience is not evidence.

Altalorraine

If personal experience is not evidence then tell me why at the age of 21 I had bladder issues? You can think whatever you want and I will think whatever I want.

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If personal experience is not evidence then tell me why at the age of 21 I had bladder issues? You can think whatever you want and I will think whatever I want.

Well, we can all sing Kumbaya, but opinion is not science.

Altalorraine

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Specializes in OB, lactation.
One thing that this research study does not examine is age at onset of stress incontinence.

All the women examined were postmenopausal. We all know that as one ages, one's chances of having stress incontinence increases, as well. What would TRULY shed light on the link between pregnancy and stress incontinence would be to examine pre-menopausal sisters (one who has delivered a child, one who hasn't), preferably in their 20's-30's, and compare rates of stress incontinence. I'd wager a guess that results will be vastly different than this study on post-menopausal women.

--Heather

Heather, you are on target here. I got more curious about it and looked up the original study. The average age of women in the study was 60. From what I understand, there was no difference at that age... indicating that women who get incontinent after having babies were going to get that way at some point anyway. BUT it does not say that pregnancy/birth didn't make it come sooner instead of later.

The first quote is regarding the study in Dec. 05 Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The second is a quote from the discussion section of that same study which quotes findings from a 2001 Norwegian study (like I said, the women in this study averaged 60 yrs, not 65 as in this previous study):

"We found no difference in the rate of urinary

incontinence between nulliparous postmenopausal women and their parous sisters. There was also no difference in the reported severity of incontinence or its perceived impact on quality of life. Furthermore,

we found no difference in the types of incontinence by symptoms between nulliparous women and their parous sisters."

"They found no difference in the prevalence of urinary incontinence of any type in women over the age of 65 who were nulliparous, had delivered by cesarean only or lady partslly. However, they did find parity, especially lady partsl delivery, to be a risk factor

for urinary incontinence at earlier ages."

Then another from the 2005 study:

"We acknowledge that our study cannot address the possibility that parous women might have onset of urinary incontinence at an earlier age than their nulliparous sisters..."

The original study .pdf can be viewed here:

http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/green_journal/2005/v106n6p1253.pdf

This booklet "What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know about Cesarean Section" has a section called "Unnecessary Pelvic Floor Injury: Tips to Reduce your Risk around the time of Birth and Throughout your Life" in this .pdf:

http://www.maternitywise.org/pdfs/cesareanbooklet.pdf

it reads in part:

(I can't get it to copy & paste... I'll snip bits)

...3 out of 100 reported incontinence a year after lady partsl delivery... for most, symptoms are infrequent, and severity is minimal to mild... by about age 50 differences in women who had lady partsl vs. cesarean births disappear... many women in these studies may have experienced interventions during labor that injured their pelvic floor and contributed to these problems...

some of the interventions they mention include:

episiotomy, vacuum extraction, birthing while lying on back, pushing on abdomen to help move baby out, pressing against opening to lady parts while baby is coming out, caregiver directed pushing.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Just a reminder, please stick to the central issue in threads like this----they do tend to get emotional as we share personal experiences. But like Altalorraine points out, anecdotal stories are not research. And remember, also, research PROVES nothing---it only seeks to support a particular opinion or idea someone postulates. You have to do the research and draw your OWN conclusions in the end.

Please, also, treat one another kindly on these threads. Thank you.

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