Teaching and practicing of pelvic floor muscle exercises in primiparous women during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to describe the teaching and practicing of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) before and after delivery.

STUDY DESIGN

This was a secondary data analysis from a prospective multicenter cohort study, the Childbirth and Pelvic Symptoms study, by the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network. Primiparous women (n = 759) with term singleton delivery were interviewed 6 months after delivery.

RESULTS

Sixty-four percent of the women had been taught PFME, most with verbal (76%) and/or written instructions (55%) and a few (10%) during pelvic examination. Women with anal sphincter tears were not more likely to receive instruction or reminders after delivery. More white women (75%) were taught PFME than were Asian women (48%), African American women (36%), or Hispanic women (39%; P < .0001). More women with college education (74%) were taught, compared with women without a college education (37%; P < .0001). Of those women who were taught, 68% performed PFME after delivery, and 63% were still performing the exercises 6 months after delivery.

CONCLUSION

Results reveal tremendous potential for the improvement of PFME education and targeting at-risk women in the peripartum period.