Effectiveness of Pelvic Floor Exercises for Stress Urinary Incontinence among the Postpartum Women

Abstract

Urinary incontinence is a socially embarrassing condition for a woman, leading to gradual withdrawal from society and decreased quality of life. This withdrawal may have impact on women's health. Regular moderate physical activity is important in prevention of osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of 4 weeks pelvic floor muscle training program on the severity of leakage, improvement in the pelvic floor muscle strength and quality of life among the postnatal mothers suffering from genuine stress incontinence. A Quasi experimental design was followed in this current study, where 20 women subjects were selected by lottery method. The subjects who had urodynamically proven Genuine Stress Incontinence for more than 3 months after delivery (3 to 24 months) were only chosen for this study. The study consists of 1day pre-test and post-test after 4 weeks. The subjects were treated by physiotherapist individually with pelvic floor muscle exercise of both phasic and tonic contractions along with Knack maneuver. At the end, the patients were subjected to the test for severity of leakage, pelvic floor muscle strength and quality of life. The results of the present study showed that 4 weeks of pelvic floor muscle exercises are effective in decreasing postpartum urinary incontinence. With the search for low-cost, simple and easily administered treatments, this study contributes to the development of treatment protocols which are effective and with less expense for the public health system.