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Urinary incontinence in pregnancy is a common situation that happens due to the growth of the baby throughout pregnancy, which causes the uterus to press on the bladder, causing it to have less space to fill and increase in size, generating the desire to urinating more frequently.
Despite being a problem that usually disappears after delivery, in cases of induced delivery or in situations where the baby weighs more than 4 kg, the woman can maintain urinary incontinence even after pregnancy, as the muscles of the perineum stretch a lot during delivery and become more flaccid, causing involuntary leakage of urine.
How to identify urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is a condition that manifests itself with:
- Loss of urine before reaching the bathroom;
- Leaking small spurts of urine when laughing, running, coughing or sneezing;
- Not being able to hold the pee for more than 1 minute.
Usually the difficulty of holding the pee passes after the baby is born, but doing pelvic exercises, contracting the muscles of the vagina is the best way to combat this symptom, having total control of the urine.
Watch the following video with exercises for urinary incontinence:
How the treatment is done
The treatment for urinary incontinence in pregnancy aims to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles through their contraction to decrease episodes of urinary incontinence.
This can be done through physical therapy with pelvic floor muscle contraction exercises, which are called Kegel exercises, but in the most severe cases, it may still be necessary to use an electrical stimulation device, in which the pelvic muscles contract involuntarily. due to a light and bearable electric current.
To perform the exercises you must:
- Empty the bladder;
- Contract the pelvic floor muscles for 10 seconds. To identify what these muscles are, you only have to stop the flow of urine when you are urinating. This movement is one that you have to use in contraction;
- Relax your muscles for 5 seconds.
Kegel exercises should be repeated 10 times in a row, 3 times a day.
The most important thing is for the woman to be aware of the muscle that must contract and contract it several times a day. The more exercises you do, the faster you will be cured. This exercise can be done sitting, lying down, with legs open or closed.