Pregnancy And Incontinence

[dlover49]

How common is it for a woman to have problems both during pregnancy and post-partum? My ex-wife described being pregnant as "feeling like I have to pee all the time". Or is this a woman-only topic where if you tell me you would have to kill me? (joke)

[Angela Bauer]

How common is it for a woman to have problems both during pregnancy and post-partum? My ex-wife described being pregnant as "feeling like I have to pee all the time". Or is this a woman-only topic where if you tell me you would have to kill me? (joke)

Well, DLover, when you get pregnant please give us a complete report!

My Mom and all her sisters needed diapers while pregnant. This proves nothing because all of them were urinary incontinent long before getting pregnant. Same goes for my sister Missy. She told me many of the women she got to know waiting at her obstetrician did have urge and stress incontinence while pregnant. Only a few took to wearing disposable diapers to deal with that. However, Missy was pregnant late in 1989 and early 1990. With the newer and more discreet disposables it well could be a larger percentage of pregnant women do wear diapers to manage incontinence.

[dlover49]

As always, thank you Angela for your intekkigent response. My your diapers never leak!

[d_drew12]

The urge to pee frequently does not = incontinence. They are totally seperate items. A women while pregnant will typically have the urge to urinate more frequently due to the movement and size changes of her organs as the baby grows. The vast majority will continue to always have the urge to urinate and if they in the very off chance decide to wear a diaper, wetting in them would be voluntary meaning not incontinent. The women can often still hold their bladders for quite a while it's just the urge to grow keeps getting stronger. It's typically not going to be like, "I gotta go" and if they don't find a bathroom in minutes wet everywhere. It's just not comfortable to keep holding it, no different than a normal persons bladder it's just the frequency in which the urge happens increases substantially.

Now sure, incontinence could probably happen but keep in mind that anything is always possible and nothings really 100% true but for the most part I'd say what I wrote above would apply to 99% of continent women going into pregnancy. Also, keep in mind most women are in their prime when pregnant, typically in their 20's so most will have pretty good functioning bladders to begin with. Those that don't are probably more prone to problems but that's pretty obvious.

Oh, forgot to mention though that women often do wet a few drops however during a cough or sneeze which I guess could be called stress incontinence but it's typically only a couple drops for most healthy women without any prior continence issues. Only enough maybe to use a small pad but nowhere near a brief.

Yeah, I don't know what the whole appeal is about women pregnant wearing diapers, it's crossed my mind a number of times. Maybe it's the thought to us like "you go aaaaallll the time so why not just use a diaper" and the joking comments of pregnant women like "I gotta go all the time, should just wear a diapers".

My wifes been pregnant so I can attest to a lot of what happened to her during this time and I tried to get her into diapers but she refused saying "gross, I just couldn't wet myself and sit in it knowing I just did that." I did get her to wear one for a couple hours though just to try. Didn't use it and complained constantly about being uncomfortable and didn't know how I did it. It was a thin diaper too.

[Angela Bauer]

With all due respect, D_Drew12, has your medical training in OB GYN progressed to a point you are qualified to offer a professional expert opinion as to the definition of urinary incontinence. I accept as fact that your wife has been pregnant, but while both of you were attending birthing classes, can you be sure the other pregnant women were entirely candid about their wetting while talking to you?

So you guess that when a person voids a few drops of urine while sneezing that could be stress incontinence? Can you share a more classic example of stress incontinence? Do you conclude that a person needs to wear a tape-on brief or a pull-on if such minor stress incontinence is their only problem? Have you discussed with your wife what she has learned about the experiences of all her friends who are now mothers? Perhaps in the near future you can share that useful information with us.

The urge to pee frequently does not = incontinence. They are totally seperate items. A women while pregnant will typically have the urge to urinate more frequently due to the movement and size changes of her organs as the baby grows. The vast majority will continue to always have the urge to urinate and if they in the very off chance decide to wear a diaper, wetting in them would be voluntary meaning not incontinent. The women can often still hold their bladders for quite a while it's just the urge to grow keeps getting stronger. It's typically not going to be like, "I gotta go" and if they don't find a bathroom in minutes wet everywhere. It's just not comfortable to keep holding it, no different than a normal persons bladder it's just the frequency in which the urge happens increases substantially.

Now sure, incontinence could probably happen but keep in mind that anything is always possible and nothings really 100% true but for the most part I'd say what I wrote above would apply to 99% of continent women going into pregnancy. Also, keep in mind most women are in their prime when pregnant, typically in their 20's so most will have pretty good functioning bladders to begin with. Those that don't are probably more prone to problems but that's pretty obvious.

Oh, forgot to mention though that women often do wet a few drops however during a cough or sneeze which I guess could be called stress incontinence but it's typically only a couple drops for most healthy women without any prior continence issues. Only enough maybe to use a small pad but nowhere near a brief.

Yeah, I don't know what the whole appeal is about women pregnant wearing diapers, it's crossed my mind a number of times. Maybe it's the thought to us like "you go aaaaallll the time so why not just use a diaper" and the joking comments of pregnant women like "I gotta go all the time, should just wear a diapers".

My wifes been pregnant so I can attest to a lot of what happened to her during this time and I tried to get her into diapers but she refused saying "gross, I just couldn't wet myself and sit in it knowing I just did that." I did get her to wear one for a couple hours though just to try. Didn't use it and complained constantly about being uncomfortable and didn't know how I did it. It was a thin diaper too.

[Darkfinn]

With all due respect, D_Drew12, has your medical training in OB GYN progressed to a point you are qualified to offer a professional expert opinion as to the definition of urinary incontinence. I accept as fact that your wife has been pregnant, but while both of you were attending birthing classes, can you be sure the other pregnant women were entirely candid about their wetting while talking to you?

Why is it that you get all hostile and defensive whenever anyone disagrees with you? Your words and "experiences" are not gospel. Other people have opinions too, and it doesn't take a doctorate to grab a dictionary and look up the definition of incontinence.

[Angela Bauer]

Why is it that you get all hostile and defensive whenever anyone disagrees with you? Your words and "experiences" are not gospel. Other people have opinions too, and it doesn't take a doctorate to grab a dictionary and look up the definition of incontinence.

Excuse me, but why do you consider my questions to be "all hostile and defensive"? Is there some policy precluding us from asking the basis of sweeping statements? I politely asked if the statistics were taught in medical school. I also asked if a poster who used his own wife as an example was certain pregnant women would openly discuss their own experience with wetting with a man they did not know and trust very well. It is entirely possible those women had talked to his wife and she later reported the conversations accurately to her husband.

Ever since I began communication with the AB/DL community in 1990 there has been hostility toward just about everyone. It is a given we all have different experiences. Very often people are reluctant to believe anything outside their own experience. This is a significant problem when selecting juries for complicated cases, a situation I deal with on a regular basis.

For these reasons I have always admitted being an attorney, not to brag, but instead so everyone reading my posts can factor in their own experiences with attorneys. I have also made it clear I became urinary incontinent years before I started using AB play as a coping strategy. I do not claim to represent the entire AB community.

The subject of this topic is loss of bladder control during pregnancy. This is hardly the first time the topic has been discussed in DD and the AB/DL community. It would be ideal if a large number of pregnant women were to share their opinions, but as long as men post wild speculation not backed with any personal experience little material will be made available.

[dogpiss]

OK, throwing some petrol on the fire here...

Yes... been to MedSchool...a SHORT rotation at GYN/OB... No, don't do that (med) now (long story).

Bladder/urinary problems during and after pregnancy are a vast storybook of their own. In addition to producing more urine due to a higher fluid load during pregnancy (OK vast oversimplification, but hey, I'm too lazy to type even the PDR short version and it's no fun to read either) there are weights/strains on different muscles. Things can prolapse and get bent out of shape. The shape of the body is usually altered after childbirth and things shift when this happens.

What someone does to help deal with these problems comes down to their status/need, social attitude towards using pads/diapers and the amount of personal inconvenience they experience. Balance these three and you have your answer. Well it's more of a Venn diagram, but you get it.

So, it's complicated, a personal choice and based on social attitudes. (the short answer)

For many women (based on my experience) the usual leakage they 'feel' is about 1/4 teaspoon and up to 1 tbs when having a coughing or laughing fit if that applies to them, so often using a larger maxi-pad will suffice since there seems to be no/little social stigma there. These amounts actually aren't too far off (due to my inco, I did a study back in med asking women to report leakage... how much they thought and saved their inco pads. That way I could weigh them and get an idea of how much actually leaked versus perception. I got the idea from weighing diapers in a hospital to determine "fluid output" as an understudy to help pay the bills back in the day... and no I don't do that anymore either... thank goodness!) This was interesting but a story for another time.

[d_drew12]

With all due respect, D_Drew12, has your medical training in OB GYN progressed to a point you are qualified to offer a professional expert opinion as to the definition of urinary incontinence. I accept as fact that your wife has been pregnant, but while both of you were attending birthing classes, can you be sure the other pregnant women were entirely candid about their wetting while talking to you?

So you guess that when a person voids a few drops of urine while sneezing that could be stress incontinence? Can you share a more classic example of stress incontinence? Do you conclude that a person needs to wear a tape-on brief or a pull-on if such minor stress incontinence is their only problem? Have you discussed with your wife what she has learned about the experiences of all her friends who are now mothers? Perhaps in the near future you can share that useful information with us.

With all due repsect, Angela Bauer, your post here did come across as sarcastic and accusatory.

No I'm not an OB GYN but as I said, my wifes been pregnant, several close friends and family member have been pregant in recent years as I'm only 26 and baby's have been popping out all around me with my friends also being that age in which reproduction is high. Many had noooo problem telling me the nitty gritty details about pregnancy and there's a lot more than meets the eye. A lot women won't tell you. I even saw a show a few years ago titled something like "Things about pregnancy not even your best friend will tell you". Some of which are pretty gross thus not talked about much. For example, having a bowel movement while giving birth happens in about half of women. Yup, poop while pushing and it's often because the baby is pushing through the birth canal and kind of squeezing the BM out of your colon like a tube of tooth paste since there right by each other. Learned that in our birthing class. Also the fact that after the baby is born, you deliver the placenta too. A bloody, veiny blob that attatched to the uterus that was the lifeline for the baby. Deliver baby then deliver blob placenta and yes, you push it out like having a second baby. Never heard of that until recently.

Then there's the peeing. I've worked side by side with coworker friends who were pregnant that had to get up sometimes every half hour to pee once they were closer to delivering. I was close enough to them and like I said, also have a wife who was pregnant so things like frequency of urination and pads got brough up. To many, it's no secret as it's pretty obvious they get up and go so often that they feel the need to comment about themselves. I don't have to have a degree to know what's happening with my wife, friends, family and coworkers during their pregnancy when they willingly offer up the information about urination. The other stuff, they don't really talk about because the BM and placenta delivering is a one time thing while the urinating is several times a day so it gets talked about. My wifes told me what her friends have told her and to watch out for while she was pregnant so I got the details from her friends though my wife too. Not one ever said anything about wearing a diaper for real. They joked, nearly all of them but at most, they wore anywhere from a thin pad to a big thick pad but just a pad, nothing more and as someone else said, that's more socially acceptable and to many women, it's not even considered a diaper, it's a pad and can be openly talked about even though it's to catch urine and some vaginal leakage. A diaper to most will be considered a full on brief style. One of my lady friends had a baby and afterwards wore a belted undergarment while in the hospital and the day or two after she was discharged but not after that. She told nearly everyone in the room and I saw it when I was there but to her, not even that was a diaper, just a really big pad. It's also not like she was voiding her bladder into it, it was more for the fluids coming out of her vagina and in part for some "stress incontinence" related urine leakage.

Yes, stress incontinence as defined by www.webmd.com

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence may happen when there is an increase in abdominal pressure -- such as when you exercise, laugh, sneeze, or cough. Urine leaks due to weakened pelvic floor muscles and tissues.

Causes of stress incontinence include:

Multiple pregnancies and childbirths, which cause stretching and damage

Being overweight

Genetic weaknesses

Radiation therapy

Other chronic conditions

Anyway, in the birthing class there were nearly twenty women. They're all in the same boat so not much was held back as the instructor said, ask anything and don't be too embarrassed about it because chances are, you may all be wondering that same question. Now, not all women in the class were willing to ask those questions or discuss the nitty gritty but there were the few that were always asking questions and weren't afraid. The doctor giving the class was also a uroligist for the past dozen or so years and said expect minor leakage during and after pregnancy but wearing a small pad is often enough for nearly every women. She was big on kegels and recommended highly to do them. I was pretty impressed with the women I've known and seen pregnant in the class as nearly all of them take the pregnancy and care of themselves very seriously like it's a mission and a duty. Diaper being worn just didn't happen with any that I knew of and it's quite a few. Think about it, you can get a pad that will hold quite a bit of urine so why would a women cross that line into the stigma of a diaper brief when she can get nearly the same results with a pad? Also, try searching diapers while pregnant online. You hardly find a thing and you can find almost anything you want online. With the lack of information out there on the subject, I'd conclude it just happens so infrequent that it's hardly discussed thus hard to find.

Anyway, I'll answer any other questions if you have some, just let me know.

[littleJaina]

Well, I can only give my personal experience, but no - being pregnant caused absolutely no incontinence whatsoever. I didn't even have to pee noticably more often, which is strange considering I was thirsty and drinking ALL THE TIME! I was a teacher during that time period and so only had the opportunity to pee twice during my workday, and it was never a problem. My son was a big baby too. He was 9lbs9oz at birth. However, I did carry him high the entire pregnancy. Even when my water broke, the Dr's at the hospital were concerned because he hadn't dropped at all.

Now - immediately after birth was a totally different story. They didn't expect my son to be as large as he was, so I had a completely vaginal birth. After he finally emerged I had over 70 stitches (I forget the exact number) in order to put all my skin back together. I also had a Dr. who didn't believe in giving nursing mothers anything except Ibuprofen for pain. I was so swollen and I hurt so badly for about a week that I had difficulty sensing much of anything in that area. I often wouldn't realize I needed to pee until it had started to leak. It didn't matter much however. Anyone who has had a baby knows that you pretty much gush blood for a good long time after the birth. I was already wearing thick pads for that, so a little urine was hardly noticeable.

Once all that healed, I went back to normal for the most part. I still have a touch of stress incontinence every once in a while if I sneeze or cough too hard. However, I learned that if I make a conscious effort to "hold it" before sneezing or coughing, then nothing happens. Thus, I might leak a few drops of urine (probably close to that 1/4 teaspoon mentioned above, if that much) once every 6 weeks or so. It's not enough to even cause me to wear maxi pads all the time.

[BethAnn]

Ok. I will seriously never have a baby if I am going to mess myself at the same time.

I doubt many pergnant women want to wear diapers, unless they just really want practice changing them. (haha)

[d_drew12]

I'm still amazed that after giving birth they just have the women use "pads". Yes, very large pads but it's just soooooo taboo to have you wear a d-d-diaper!! One friend who had a baby, right after she wore a belted undergarment of some sort which to the ones who don't know is basically a diaper that has all the wings chopped off and so you're left with just the center from front to back. It's a rectangle piece that has belted loops that are like the elastic band of regular underwear (about 1 1/2 inches wide) connecting the front to the back around your waistline. Google it if you're not sure. The nurses still called them "pads" though. I have a relative who's a nurse at a nursing home and they call full brief diapers "pads" too though. Can't say diaper, too demeaning or something. I just don't see why they don't give these patients who just gave birth protective underwear or something instead of "pads". Seems like it'd be so much easier but I think it's a mental issue with wearing a "diaper", ooh, taboo!!

[littleJaina]

d-drew. I pwersonally DID consider wearing protective underwear. I'd worn them before, in college, when I had really bad periods. However, after birth they just weren't practical. I bled so much I had to be changing ALL THE TIME, and while the protective underwear cover more survace, they don't absorb blood efficiently enough (not to mention tissue) to have resulted in being able to go much longer between changes. It's also SO much harder to change a protective undergarment than it is to change just a pad. When you're ripped up down there, movement of any sort is just not something you look forward to. Then you have to consider that protective undergarments create a warmer, moister, environment - which is also not something you want when you're trying to avoid getting infections around stitches.

[TDL]

Why is it that you get all hostile and defensive whenever anyone disagrees with you? Your words and "experiences" are not gospel. Other people have opinions too, and it doesn't take a doctorate to grab a dictionary and look up the definition of incontinence.

+1

[KittenAB]

FYI ... turns out this actually does happen often, saw a few stories online from various sources confirming it ... just sayin.