What are the symptoms of postpartum urinary incontinence?

It takes a certain amount of time to repair the pelvic floor muscles. Generally, it takes about a month for the pelvic floor muscles to be repaired and urinary incontinence will not occur easily. If the delay is longer, it is urine leakage. Urinary incontinence may not seem serious, but it actually hides a huge health crisis. Therefore, mothers must pay attention to whether their urine excretion is normal. So, what should you do if you keep leaking urine after giving birth?

What causes postpartum urinary incontinence?

Pregnant women often suffer from urinary incontinence. This is because the uterus enlarges, abdominal pressure increases, and the effect of progesterone during pregnancy causes the pelvic floor muscles to relax. In addition, the pelvic floor muscles will be damaged to a certain extent during the delivery process. In the interaction of these factors, pregnant women will suffer from stress urinary incontinence. Many pregnant women experience urinary incontinence during the third trimester. However, new mothers do not need to be very anxious as soon as symptoms appear. Because, for most people, the condition is not serious, and about one-third of people can recover naturally. After the confinement period (6 to 8 weeks after giving birth), the symptom will gradually improve.

Because most women's pelvic muscles can recover 6 to 8 weeks after giving birth. Therefore, 42 days after giving birth, new mothers should remember to assess the muscle tension of their pelvic muscles to understand the recovery of their pelvic muscles. Muscle tension is divided into 5 levels from low to high, with level 1 being the least and level 5 being the most. Some women recover very well after childbirth, and their pelvic floor muscle tension can reach level 5, but most pregnant women will be below level 3. If you still have urinary incontinence three months after giving birth, the chances of muscle recovery are low. If she is not actively treated at this time, there is a 90% chance that she will suffer from urinary incontinence for the rest of her life. For urinary incontinence, you can try the following methods to control and improve it.

1. Urinate regularly: do not let too much urine accumulate in the bladder.

2. Bladder training: Train your bladder by gradually increasing the interval between urinations. At the beginning, the interval between going to the bathroom to urinate can be set to 60 minutes, and then gradually increase the interval according to the adaptation situation, and adjust it to 90 minutes, 2 hours, 3 hours, and 4 hours.

3. Exercise to expand: When you feel like urinating, don’t go to the bathroom immediately, delay going to the bathroom for 15 minutes, persist in exercising for 1-2 weeks, and then adjust the time to 30 minutes later. You can sit on the toilet, urinate halfway, and then suddenly stop, and repeat the training.

4. Kegel training: Kegel training is a method of training pelvic muscles (mainly the phalangeal muscles and coccyx muscles) proposed by a British obstetrician and gynecologist. It can effectively treat postpartum incontinence.