How to Avoid Incontinence During Pregnancy

It might not exactly be the thing you most look forward to, but there’s a good chance that you might suffer from incontinence during pregnancy. Up to a third of women report problems with bladder control both during pregnancy and up to a year afterwards.

There is plenty of support available with high quality products to make your life more comfortable, but there are some self-help measures you can try too. It’s not entirely within your control, but there are a few top tips you can try to avoid incontinence during pregnancy.

Stay Active

If you were fit and healthy before you fell pregnant, there’s no reason to suddenly give it all up. Most forms of exercise are safe during pregnancy; just check with your doctor before you start. There are certain types of sport which can be risky, and it’s not generally recommended to start something new.

Staying active during pregnancy has been linked to an easier labour later on, another good reason to keep in good shape. Your muscles can come under a lot of strain with the extra weight of the baby, so if you’re fit and strong you could well find you suffer less with backache and general muscular pains.

If you’re active you could well decrease your risk of incontinence, both now and following the birth of your child. Although you should never actively diet while you’re pregnant, it’s not a good idea to pile on lots of extra weight either. Sticking to a healthy weight gain can help to reduce the pressure on your pelvic floor, in turn minimising the risk of incontinence.

Bladder control can be a problem after childbirth too and one of the factors for this is a difficult or prolonged labour. By increasing your chances of having a trouble-free childbirth, you could also be reducing the possibility of having incontinence later on too.

Watch What You Eat and Drink

Although watching what you eat and drink can help you keep weight gain under control, there are other reasons why it’s important to be aware of your diet too.

Stress incontinence can be caused by excessive pressure, and constipation can contribute to this. It’s important to keep your bowels healthy and moving properly while you’re pregnant to reduce the strain. One of the ways you can do this is to eat a good diet which contains plenty of fibre. This will also help to prevent excessive weight gain, so it provides double the benefits!!

For some women, a healthy diet isn’t enough because constipation can be a particular problem during pregnancy. This is caused by a combination of factors including the extra weight pushing on the rectum, an increase in progesterone causing the relaxation of smooth muscles and also constipation caused by iron tablets, a common side effect.

In some cases, exercise and being generally active can help to get things moving. However, if nothing works and constipation is a problem, an over the counter stool softener, laxative or fibre supplement may do the trick.

Drinking lots of water will help ease constipation too, and this is important because it’s essential not to become dehydrated. If you’re leaking you might be tempted to cut back on fluids, but this could make matters worse. Insufficient fluid intake won’t just lead to dehydration, it could also cause a water infection which in turn could increase the risk of incontinence.

Get Your Pelvic Floor Working!

Your pelvic floor muscles take a real pounding when you’re pregnant, but you can help to strengthen them by doing exercises.

Every pregnant woman will be given pelvic floor exercises to do, regardless of whether they suffer from incontinence. If you already have incontinence, the exercises could help to improve the symptoms. If you don’t have incontinence, the exercises could help to prevent it. Either way, pelvic floor exercises are one of the most powerful tools you have to combat incontinence.

One of the best parts about pelvic floor exercises is that you can do them while you’re watching TV or just relaxing at home. It only takes a few minutes, but you’ll need to repeat them every day to build up your muscles. With daily repetitions, it can take up to three months for the pelvic floor muscle to become significantly stronger. If you already have symptoms of incontinence, this is how long it can be before you see any improvement.

Beat the Odds

Although incontinence is a common feature during pregnancy, it doesn’t happen to everyone. By following the above steps, you will be giving yourself the best possible chance of beating the odds and avoiding incontinence during pregnancy.

If you do suffer from incontinence and are looking for high quality products you can trust, take a look at HARTMANN Direct.