Assessment of the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercises applied during pregnancy in postpartum stress incontinence and quality of life

A plenty of both anatomical and physiological changes occur in the urinary tract during pregnancy and in postpartum. The factors of urinary incontinence related to pregnancy and childbirth state as term reaching parity, mode of delivery, birth complications, episiotomy, presence of tears, baby's birth weight and the problems about micturation after birth in postpartum. This research was designed to evaluate the effects of pelvic floor muscle exercises performed during pregnancy on the pelvic floor muscle strenght, stress urinary incontinence and quality of life in postpartum. The research was carried out at Ege University Medicine Faculty Hoşpital, Gynecology and Obstetri Clinic, Urogynecology Policlinic and data were collected between October 1, 2014 and May 31, 2016. The study includes total number of 32 pregnant women 14 of whom are control group and 18 of whom are experimental group. The essential criteria to include women in the research are that all the pregnant woman were between the weeks 20 and 30, primipar and they would have vaginal delivery. Data were collected using Incontinence Impact Questionnare (IIQ-7) and Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) scales, measuring muscle strenght by Biofeedback, electromyelographi probe, perineometre and digital examination (Modified Oxford Scale) in addition to questionnare form including descriptive and sociodemographic information of women. In the data analysis, SPSS 16.0 package programme was used including numeric and persentage distributions, Mann Whitney U Test, Independent T Test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and Chi Square Test. Investigating the pelvic floor muscle strength range of pregnant women according to Modified Oxford Scale it is found that the women have1 muscle strength level is the highest percentage of %31.2 (n=10) and %28.1 (n= 9) of women have 2 muscle strength level. Analyzing thr muscle strenght of experimental and cpntrol groups no significant difference is found between the women who has taken the exercises and the women who has not. Analyzing UDI-6 and IIQ-7 total scale score no significant difference was statisticly found between the experimental group and control group. The results achieved from the research show that teaching women pelvic floor muscle exercises performed during pregnancy and postpartum usefull. It is thought that long term researches with bigger sample number and long term follow ups are recommended to investigate effects of pelvik floor muscle exercises during pregnancy and postpartum. Key words: Pelvic floor muscles exercises, urinary incontinence, pregnancy, postpartum