title: Preventing pelvic floor dysfunction: childbearing women deserve better care.
abstract: Pregnancy and childbirth are a major cause of pelvic floor dysfunction in women. Historically, symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction have attracted little attention from government policies, either in funding or targets, when compared with other conditions such as diabetes or cancer. With more than 30% of women in the childbearing years suffering from this debilitating and embarrassing condition, this article looks at National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other guidelines that justify spending time and money on managing this group of women. It also emphasises that pelvic floor muscle training should be offered to all women in their first pregnancy as a preventive strategy.
authors.affiliation: Homerton Hospital, London. becky.aston@homerton.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Becky
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aston
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000293:injuries*; D056887:Pelvic Organ Prolapse / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards