Effect of pilates performed during pregnancy on postpartum stress urinary incontinence in primipara women

Abstract

Introduction: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) constitutes the majority of urinary incontinence (UI) cases that occur due to anatomical and physiological changes during pregnancy and postpartum period. The objcetive of this study was to evaluate the effect of pilates in preventing the occurrence of SUI in the postpartum period. Methods: A retrospective case-control study was conducted in a private hospital. Participants consisted of patients who gave birth vaginally at the hospital and were admitted to the hospital for routine control at the postpartum 12th week. The women did pilates for two days a week from the 12th week of pregnancy until the birth were included in the case group. The women did not do pilates in the control group. Data was collected using the Michigan Incontinence Symptom Index. To detect the presence of SUI, researchers asked women Do you have urinary incontinence problems in your daily life?. STROBE research check-list was used for reporting the study. Results: The study was completed with a total of 142 women consisting of 71 women in each group. Of the women, postpartum SUI occurred in 39.4%. The severity score of women who did pilates were found to be statistically significantly lower than those who did not do pilates. Conclusion: During pregnancy, women should be encouraged to do pilates about the prenatal period by health professionals.