The impact of physical activity on urinary leakage (UL) has previously been considered, but not in relation to first pregnancy and delivery. The aim of this study was to describe physical activity and urinary leakage before, during and after the first childbirth. The subjects who were invited to participate in the study were taken consecutively from nine maternity clinics in the northwest part of Stockholm County, and the study group included 665 primiparous women. The mean age of the women was 28 (range 17-43) years. The women answered one questionnaire during the 36th gestation week and another 1 year post partum. Physical activity/exercises were classified according to their impact on the pelvic floor, and the women were divided into three groups: high-impact exercise (n=327), low-impact exercise (n=84) and the inactive group (n=254). The results showed a high intensity and frequency of physical activity in the participating primiparous women. Risk factors for UL were symptoms of a dysfunctional pelvic floor and connective tissue disorders and high-impact physical activity before pregnancy, while low-impact activity seemed to promote continence. If urinary leakage was present before pregnancy, it persisted in most women during pregnancy and 1 year post partum.

In order to survey the influence of physical activity and micturition habits on urinary leakage (UL) in women before their first pregnancy, a study including 725 women attending nine maternity clinics in the northwest area of Stockholm was performed. During the 36th gestational week the women answered a questionnaire regarding the pre-pregnancy situation regarding UL, micturition habits and physical activity. Thirty-nine percent of the women, mean age of 28 (range 17-43) years, had experienced occasional UL. Of these, the majority (79%) had symptoms of stress urinary leakage and 21% had urge symptoms. Two percent were incontinent according to the definition of the International Continence Society (ICS). In a multivariate analysis age, inability to interrupt the urine flow and high-impact physical activity turned out to be independent risk factors for UL and thus should be observed together with traditional factors concerning UL in nulliparous women.

245 strains of hemolytic streptococci, isolated from 225 patients with infectious diseasses, were grouped serologically according to Lancefield. About 40% belonged to group B and half of them were found in the genito-urinary tract. Another 40% belonged to the groups C and G, half of them being found in the respiratory tract and often as the only potentially pathogenic organism. About 10% of the isolates belonged to other of the groups E to T, including M streptococci, and were found under similar circumstances as the C and G isolates. The last 10% could not be referred to any of the groups A-U. In 4 cases group B streptococci were found as the only potentially pathogenic organism in typical erysipelas, and in 4 cases of septicemia the only bacterial finding from blood was a streptococcus of the groups B, C or G. In these cases, as in most others in which an etiological significance could be ascribed to steptococci of other groups than A, the patient was in a bad general condition, due to very high age, agranulocytosis, ethylism or narcomania.