The effect of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise Intervention Program on postnatal multiparas / Noorlizan Wahab

Background:Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common distressing problem and has a profound effect on women’s quality of life (Pare & Martı, 2014). The most common form of urinary incontinence is that of stress incontinence. Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) is defined by the international incontinence society (ICS) as the complaint of involuntary loss of urine in the effort or physical exertion or on sneezing or coughing (Abrahms et al., 2010). The prevalence of stress incontinence varies widely both during and after pregnancy (Hvidman et al., 2002), ranging from 6% to 29% after childbirth (Hvidman et al., 2003). Despite the negative effects, the number of women seeking help for this frequent problem has been reported to be low. Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise (PFME) is an effective technique in the prevention and treatment of UI in the short term and later in life.
Aims of the study: To evaluate the effects of pelvic floor muscle exercise intervention program on postnatal multipara mothers in preventing stress urinary incontinence to increase their quality of life
Materials and methods: The study design was quasi-experimental study. This study was conducted at two Health Clinic in District Muar, MCH Bandar Maharani Muar (intervention) and MCH Kampung Kenangan Muar (Control). A purpoive sample of 68 post natal multiparas mother with SUI who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study. They were divided into two groups of intervention (n=34) and control group (n=34). Three tool were used by the researchers to obtain the necessary data. Tool 1: The structure questionnaire including socio-demographic and tool 2: Tool to Measure severity of SUI and tool 3: Tool to evaluate the impact of UI on health-related quality of life (QOL).
Results: There was statistical significantly different between pre and post intervention program that showed the pelvic floor muscle exercise intervention program had significant effect toward the severity of stress urinary incontinence among post natal multiparas the p-value < 0.001[0.85 (0.9) versus 2.85 (1.2) , (95%CI;-2.5,-1,5)]. Based on the results, had proved that the intervention program on pelvic floor muscle exercise had a highly statistically significant difference of perentage the quality of life (QOL) among intervention and control group (p-value= 0.01) at post intervention. This study had proved that the Pelvic Floor Muscles Exercise (PFME) is the best practice in increasing the quality of life (QOL) by reducing the Severity of Urinary Stress Incontinence among post natal multiparas mother
Conclusion and recommendations: The findings of the study was significantly different between both groups in the total and showed the effectiveness of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise (PFME) intervention program after 3 months to resolved and reducing the severity of stress urinary incontinence. Therefore PFME must include as a specific program in all antenatal and post-natal care. Encouragement must be given to the mothers to undertake both antenatal and post-natal PFME.