Postpartum Pelvic Floor Muscle Training and Urinary Incontinence

Abstract

: I.

Do pelvic floor muscle exercises reduce postpartum anal incontinence? A randomised controlled trial

“…This concurs with previous findings that efficacy of PFME is associated with high adherence to the treatment protocol. 4,21 Thus, our results may indicate that PFME frequency and intensity has a major role in reducing postpartum AI symptoms. One in five women failed to attend their post-intervention appointment and this may have resulted in the discrepancies between the un-imputed and the intention-to-treat analyses.…”

“…21 Further, a recent Cochrane review concluded that targeted PFME intervention in populations with AI was more effective than mixed prevention and treatment approaches. 4 The success of PFME depends on the patients' ability to actively contract the pelvic floor muscles, and Bø et al 22 demonstrated that 30% of the participating women were unable to perform a correct VPFMC on the first attempt.…”

Change in pelvic organ support during pregnancy and the first year postpartum: a longitudinal study

“…The exclusion rate was 29% (n = 87): five women were excluded for premature delivery or stillbirth; 11 women were excluded postpartum for new pregnancies; and 71 women were excluded from the two last visits because they participated in the intervention group of an RCT exploring the effect of postpartum pelvic floor muscle training. 23,24 Data for the latter two groups were collected, but were considered ineligible for analysis because of the potential effects of pregnancy or training on the POP-Q score. The drop-out rate in this study was 11% (n = 34).…”

“…Continuing exclusion criteria were premature delivery prior to 32 weeks of gestation, stillbirth, having a new pregnancy of more than 6 weeks of gestation in the postpartum period, and participation in the intervention group of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effect of postpartum pelvic floor muscle training. 23,24 The RCT recruitment took place at 6 weeks postpartum, including participants with vaginal deliveries. No a priori power calculation was performed for the outcomes of this study.…”

Vaginal cones or balls to improve pelvic floor muscle performance and urinary continence in women post partum: A quantitative systematic review

“…Excluded records 36 records were excluded; seven (Spreafico, 1992;Cox, 1995; Pelvic floor muscle training for prevention and treatment of urinary and faecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women, Bø, 2011;Duffin, 2012;Rathfisch and Kızılkaya Bejı, 2012;Freeman, 2013) because they were not primary studies, and 24 (Sleep and Grant, 1987;Dougherty et al, 1989;Sampselle et al, 1998;Glazener et al, 2001;Meyer et al, 2001;Sanlorenzo et al, 2001;Cockburn, 2002, Chiarelli et al, 2004;Dumoulin, 2004;Dumoulin et al, 2004;Gorbea Chavez et al, 2004, Erratum, 2005Ewings et al, 2005;Glazener et al, 2005;Lee and Choi, 2006;Citak et al, 2010;Sheeba et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2012;Ahlund et al, 2013, Assis et al, 2013Dumoulin et al, 2013;Hilde et al, 2013;Peirce et al, 2013;Glazener et al, 2014) because they did not research the use of cones or balls but the usual pelvic floor exercises without device. and (same study) was not a randomised controlled trial; in Jonasson et al (1992), women were at least two years post partum.…”