Urinary incontinence during pregnancy
N. Erbil, N. Tas, M. Uysal,
A. Keskin, N. Kiliçarslan, Ü. Gökkaya
Ondokuz Mayis University, Ordu School
of Health, Department of Nursing, Ordu, Turkey
Objectives This research has
been made to determine the incidence of urinary incontinence and the factors of
potential risks.
Design and methods The population women consulting to Ordu
Birth and Children’s Hospital Obstetrics Polyclinic form the cosmos of this
descriptive and cross-sectional research. However, only 502 Turkish pregnant
women, chosen from the stated cosmos with improbability sampling method, were
included into the sample of the research. The research was made between
03.10.2005 and 30.01.2006. The data were collected with a questionnaire form,
prepared according to the literature information. The analysis of the data was
made with frequency distribution, percentage, Chi-square test and Fisher’s Exact
Test in SPSS 11.5 statistical program on a computer.
Results It was determined
that 40.4% of pregnant women have complaint of urinary incontinence. It was
determined that 21.3% of pregnant women have information about urinary
incontinence, and 60% of informed women got the information from the doctors. It
was determined that 60.3% of pregnant women have complaints about urinary
incontinence only in current pregnancy, 39.9% of them have it drop-type, and
59.2% of them have it while coughing. It was determined that 38% of pregnant
women had episiotomy in the earlier pregnancy, 31.1% of them could not postpone
the urination, 87.1% of them have no information about protecting the pelvic
base muscles, and 43.9% of those who have information about this subject (57
women) do Kegel exercises. When the state of being effected from urinary
incontinence is evaluated, it was determined that 73.5% of them feel discomfort,
75.3% of them think that their daily routines are affected, 69.3% of them think
of getting assistance from a health institution, 52.6% of them avoid of taking
enough liquid with the anxiety of urinary incontinence, 47% of them think it
affects their sexual life negatively, 35.8% of them isolated themselves from
their environment because of urinary incontinence problem. The relation among
the compliant of urinary incontinence and age ( P=.000), number of giving birth
(P=.000), type of the earlier birth (P=.000), month of pregnancy (P=.000),
getting information about urinary incontinence ( P=.000), having a chronic
illness (P=.043), having information about protecting pelvic base muscles(
P=.005) was determined.
Conclusions At the end of this research, it was
determined that giving birth, especially vaginal giving birth is the most
important factor for women to develop urinary incontinence. The other important
risk factors about urinary incontinence during pregnancy were age, number of
giving birth, number of pregnancy, having no information about urinary
incontinence, and having no information about exercises of protecting pelvic
base muscles.