Preventing pelvic floor dysfunction: childbearing women deserve better care.

Pregnancy and childbirth are a major cause of pelvic floor dysfunction in women. Historically, symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction have attracted little attention from government policies, either in funding or targets, when compared with other conditions such as diabetes or cancer. With more than 30% of women in the childbearing years suffering from this debilitating and embarrassing condition, this article looks at National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other guidelines that justify spending time and money on managing this group of women. It also emphasises that pelvic floor muscle training should be offered to all women in their first pregnancy as a preventive strategy.