Postpartum urinary incontinence.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the present study was to identify prepregnancy, pregnancy and delivery correlates of urinary incontinence postpartum (PP UI) as reported by women in a cross-sectional population sample.


METHODS
A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey was carried out in 1998 in a random population sample of 3900 20- to 59-year-old women. The present study includes 376 women who had their last delivery during 1993-96.


RESULTS
UI immediately after childbirth and 6 months thereafter was reported by 23.4% and 2.7%, respectively. PP UI was strongly associated with UI both before and during the present pregnancy, explaining 37.5% and 51.7% of postpartum UI, respectively. Eight percent experienced their first UI episode ever immediately after the delivery. Among women undergoing a cesarean section 8.8% reported postpartum UI, as contrasted with 24.9% in other women. Postpartum UI was positively associated with perineal suturing but un-associated with labor augmentation, episiotomy, birth weight, and breast-feeding.


CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, which included a comprehensive causal model, postpartum UI could be explained first of all as the decline of pregnancy UI, secondly as a manifestation of a pre-existing tendency to react by UI, and finally as a consequence of the birth process itself.
Hvidman
Lone
L
Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Aarhus, Skejby, Denmark. lh@soci.au.dk
Foldspang
Anders
A
Mommsen
Søren
S
Nielsen
John Bugge
JB
D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000009:adverse effects; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004841:Episiotomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*