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Abstract

IntroductionUrinary incontinence (UI) is a significant health concern and has been shown to impair women's activities and also affects the physical and mental health [1]. Studies on UI have reported a prevalence of 32%-64% for all UI and 40-59% for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) including mixed incontinence [2]. Affected women have poorer health seeking behavior for UI. Approximately 54.3% of all pregnant women have detrimental effects on quality of life [3]. Although, pregnancy is an independent risk factor for UI, irrespective of labor and delivery practices, however, despite the multiple references in literature, the pathophysiological effects of pregnancy and mode of delivery on the pelvic floor and lower urinary tract symptoms remain uncertain [4].Prenatal physiological changes such as increasing pressure of the advancing gravid uterus and growing fetal weight on pelvic floor muscle (PFM) throughout the pregnancy, along with the pregnancy-related changing levels of hormones such as progesterone, estrogen, and relaxin, may lead to reduced strength and supportive and sphincteric function of PFM [5][6][7][8]. PFM weakness causes bladder-neck and urethral mobility, leading to urethral sphincter incompetence. Hence, when intra-abdominal pressure is increased with coughing, sneezing, laughing, or moving, the pressure inside the bladder becomes greater than the urethral closure pressure and the urethral sphincter is not strong enough to maintain urethral closure. Urinary leakage will be the result. In particular, SUI is common during pregnancy and puerperium. After delivery, SUI symptoms resolve in the vast majority of cases [9]. The healing process may take some time after the delivery, but in a significant percentage of women, it can persist in subsequent stages of life [10]. In primipara women, SUI symptoms tend to resolve within 3 month after delivery [11].Multiple risk factors have been associated with UI. Significant risk factors for UI in pregnancy were maternal age ≥35 years, body mass index and parity [12]. Smoking, diabetes, chronic cough and high intake of caffeine are identifiable risk factors for UI [13][14][15]. Research ArticleObstet Gynecol Int J 2015, 3(4): 00087 AbstractIntroduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common problem in antenatal and postpartum period. This study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of urinary incontinence in post partum women.