The impact of pregnancy and vaginal delivery on urinary incontinence.

OBJECTIVE

To identify women who had urinary incontinence (UI) before, during, and after pregnancy, and to determine whether women with symptoms of UI during pregnancy were the same women who had urinary incontinence postpartum.

METHODS

All primigravid women who delivered within 1 year (1999) at the Charité Hospital in Berlin received a questionnaire about UI at 5 different time points during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

RESULTS

Of 610 eligible women, 411 (67.4%) completed the questionnaire. The prevalence of urinary incontinence increased significantly in the second half of pregnancy (26.3%, P<0.001). Although the overall number of women who reported UI within 6 weeks after delivery (28.5%) was almost the same as the number reporting UI in the second half of pregnancy, approximately every second women changed from being continent to incontinent and vice versa.

CONCLUSION

The group of women who experienced UI postpartum was different from the group that experienced UI before delivery and vice versa. Pregnancy itself may influence pelvic floor function in a different way compared with vaginal delivery.