Pregnancy
The female body goes through a million wonderful, crazy and mysterious changes during pregnancy.
As your baby grows, it puts pressure on your bladder, so a sneeze, cough or even a hearty laugh can tip the scales for you to experience bladder control loss.
Why Pregnancy?
Bladder Weakness is a common condition while pregnant.
Firstly during pregnancy, any soon-to-be mothers body requires more blood and nutrients than usual. This is why pregnant women have strange cravings. However, it also means you get thirsty, so drink more. For some pregnant women, the hormones racing around in your body can slightly change the signals from your bladder to brain, and the urgent feeling can come on very quickly. With a full bladder from drinking the extra fluid, bladder weakness can often occur.
Most pregnant women experience bladder weakness in the third trimester, when the baby has grown so much they are pressed up against your bladder. This not only puts more pressure on it, but also reduces the amount of urine the bladder can hold, making you want to urinate more often. All the extra weight pressing down on your pelvic floor muscles weakens them, so consequently, bladder control loss happens.
Be sure to talk to your doctor or health care professional as they will help you to control and manage your bladder weakness appropriately during your pregnancy.
See our Poise® Nutrition and Lifestyle Tips below to help pregnant women manage and control their Bladder Weakness.
Nutrition & Lifestyle Tips
Keep up your fluids
It might seem annoying to go to the toilet every half hour, but concentrated urine can irritate the bladder and make things worse. However, don’t go to the toilet “just in case” or every time you get the urge, try to hold on and increase your bladder capacity.
Toilet tip
Try rocking back and forth on the toilet when emptying your bladder. This helps move the pressure of the baby off the bladder so it can empty properly, this will help reduce how often you need to go.
Pelvic Floor Exercises
Pelvic floor exercises performed throughout pregnancy results in more bladder control and can also help during labour. Keeping up with your pelvic floor exercises will also speed up your recovery post birth.
Perineal massage
Try perineal massage around week 34 of your pregnancy. Your perineum (tissues and the pelvic floor muscle between your vagina and anus) can tear or have to be cut during the crowning of the baby’s head. The less of a tear or cut, the more chance the pelvic floor can repair and heal back to its original condition.
How much weight are you really gaining?
The weight of pregnancy can have a serious impact on your bladder and the supporting muscles of the pelvic floor. As well as the baby’s growth, the fluctuating hormone levels of pregnancy also contribute to weight gain, so keep an eye on how baby and you are growing so there won’t be as many kilos to lose when he or she arrives.
Food rules
Certain foods and drinks can irritate bladders. Citrus fruits, tomatoes or hot spices may have this effect on you. Try keeping a bladder diary to see which ones may be affecting your bladder weakness.
Get more fibre
With a growing baby, constipation can become a common pregnancy condition. If you are straining your pelvic floor muscles to empty your bowels, this can have a very damaging effect and bring on bladder weakness. Increasing the amount of fibre in your diet can reduce the likelihood of constipation. Fresh fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of dietary fibre, which is important for a healthy bowel.
