Is Bladder Leakage after Pregnancy just a Normal Part of Motherhood?
“Leaking after having a baby is normal”
“Welcome to life as a mom!”
“Girl, I’m {insert months/years here} postpartum and I still pee every time I sneeze.”
Familiar with these statements?
Yes, we know leaking after having a baby is common, but that doesn’t mean it has to be normal.
So, what can you do about it? Is there any time after baby that you should expect leaking being a thing? How soon can you start dealing with leakage? Is it ever too late?
These are some of the questions I’ll answer in this blog about bladder leakage after pregnancy. Let’s get right to it!
Bladder leakage after birth- normal?
We know that lots of changes happen during pregnancy and birth. During the actual pregnancy, your core and pelvic floor have changed a lot, been under a lot of pressure for a long time, and the muscles have gone through some significant changes. It’s a pretty cool adaptation we make in order to grow a baby.
During birth, even more changes happen to the pelvic floor. It stretches and allows a baby to exit the premises. In some cases the muscles stretch and cervix dilates, but the baby isn’t born out of the vagina necessarily- there are still changes that happen here. Sometimes there’s tearing, stitching, and other circumstances that present even more epic changes down there.
It can be very common and expected to have some bladder leakage in the weeks after birth. Like if you have to sneeze unexpectedly or wind up bringing home a cold from the hospital. Adding pressure on top of a healing pelvic floor can most definitely result in leaking. Many women note that it clears up after a few weeks and they’re back to normal. This leakage can still happen among women who have had a C-section or an easy vaginal birth with no tearing.
In all cases, strengthening the pelvic floor after birth (not just with kegels) and a gradual return to exercise, specifically heavier loads, impact, and running, are super important even if the leakage seems to go away on it’s own. Because studies DO show that women who experience postpartum urinary leakage are more likely to have it down the road.
So, What do you do about it?
What can you do about leakage after pregnancy?
The first thing you can do about leakage after pregnancy is talk to your doctor about it, though I’m fairly certain you’ll hear “it’s normal and should go away”, to which you should respond “can I have a referral to a pelvic floor physical therapist to get it checked out?”
In many cases, the answer will be yes. That being said, in a lot of cases you may have to advocate for it. Pelvic floor physical therapy after birth is a standard of care in some countries but is not in many. In order to get an evaluation or treatment, you’ll need to ask for it.
An evaluation of the pelvic floor is important after birth anyway and a pelvic floor physical therapist can give you guidance on how to properly strengthen your pelvic floor based on your own personal needs after birth.
You can find a pelvic floor physical therapist using the directory at pelvicguru.com or searching for Herman-Wallace trained therapists here.
If you do not have access to one, whether that be because of time, financial, or availability barriers, many therapists are now doing telehealth- which means you can have an evaluation remotely.
How soon should you make that appointment? I’ll talk about this coming up.
I also cover some ways to start strengthening your core and pelvic floor immediately after birth in my free resource- you can grab 5 ways to heal your core and pelvic floor post-baby here.
How soon should you start dealing with bladder leakage? Is it ever too late?
I would venture to say that it is never too early to start addressing bladder leakage after pregnancy. There are definitely things you can start doing pretty much immediately after birth to start strengthening your pelvic floor, and your core for that matter. The sooner you begin to deal with it, the quicker you can start getting back to “normal” (in quotes because it always took me a good year to feel somewhat normal after having a baby) again and return to the activities you want to be doing without leakage.
As far as pelvic floor PT? Most will not see you before the 6 week mark. Making an appointment during pregnancy for about 8 weeks post-birth (or due date) is a great idea, that way you don’t have to wait for an appointment just in case your therapist is booked for a while. Some pelvic floor PT’s also do in-home evaluations- this is usually something they list on their website.
So, is it ever too LATE to deal with bladder leakage? That’s also a no. The pelvic floor is made of muscles and whenever you begin to train muscles, they respond- right? There is never a time where it is too late or that your window of healing closes. It may take a bit longer or you may have to dial back on some activity, but it is never too late.
So there you have it, friends. The details on bladder leakage after pregnancy. The conclusion? Yes, it is common but doesn’t have to be normal now that you’ve had a baby. There are things you can do to reduce or eliminate bladder leakage immediately after birth and down the road as well.
For more on how to strengthen and heal your core and pelvic floor post-birth, grab my free resource “5 Ways to Start Healing Your Core and Pelvic Floor Post-Birth” here!