Urinary Incontinence in Women with Low Back Pain After Post Partum Period

Abstract

Background: Urinary incontinence is a very common problem in postpartum women. In the literature, about 38 to 43% of postpartum females experience urinary incontinence (UI). Postpartum UI usually occurs due to bladder injury, nerve injury, pelvic floor muscle dysfunction or damage to urethra during delivery. In women having C-section, UI is most probably occurs due to instability of detrusor muscle resulting from vesical denervation. Others risks factors involve in development of UI are fetal factors, operative vaginal delivery and antenatal bladder neck mobility due to pelvic floor muscles (PFM) dysfunction and connective tissue weakness. Lower backache (LBP) is also very common in postpartum females due to joint laxity, weakness of connective tissue, loosening of ligaments and strained abdominal muscles due to enlargement of uterus. There’s a coexisting link between low back pain and UI in postpartum females. Objective: To find association between the severity of urinary incontinence and low back pain in women after postpartum period. Methodology: In this study Quota sampling technique was used. Participants divided into two groups, one group with females having low back pain after postpartum period while other group was having females without low back pain after postpartum period. Participants were provided with questionnaires for urinary incontinence to find out the association between severity of UI and LBP. The questionnaires were self-administered and were provided in English language. Some participants were illiterate, thus questionnaires were filled from them by asking questions verbally. Results: Statistics of ICIQ-UI score was checked by applying Fisher’s exact test, The null hypothesis was not rejected because the p-value was > 0.05, indicating that there was no significant association between UI and LBP in females after their postpartum period Conclusion: It is concluded from this study that there is no significant association found between UI and low back pain in women after postpartum period. Keywords: Postpartum period. Urinary incontinence (UI), Stress urinary incontinence (SUI), Urgency urinary incontinence (UUI), Low back pain (LBP), Pelvic girdle pain (PGP), Pelvic floor muscles (PFM), Pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD)