05/27/2002 By Harvey McConnell
Physiotherapy training can reduce the prevalence of urinary incontinence in women after giving birth, reducing the severity of incontinence and helping women learn to perform pelvic floor exercises at adequate levels.
Researchers tracked incontinence in 676 women three months after they had forceps or ventouse deliveries or gave birth to babies weighing 4,000 grams or more.
Births took place at one of three tertiary teaching hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. Investigators from the University of Newcastle in Callaghan assigned 348 of the women to an intervention group and 328 to usual care. Women in the intervention group received a 20-minute visit from a physiotherapist while in hospital followed by another session eight weeks after delivery.
The follow-up session was 30 minutes long and given at home by the same physiotherapist. Women in the usual care group received routine postpartum care which did not include a visit from a physiotherapist. While in hospital, participants in both groups received a brochure outlining general postpartum and pelvic floor exercises.
They were also invited to join routine physiotherapy postnatal classes held in the wards. At three months post-delivery, prevalence of incontinence in women in the intervention group was 31.0 percent. In the usual care group, it was 38.4 percent. Significantly fewer incontinent women in the intervention group were classified as severe (10.1 percent) compared with
those in the usual care group (17.0 percent).
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