Is it normal to experience urinary incontinence during pregnancy?
Some women do experience stress incontinence, urine leaking from the bladder, whilst they are pregnant. This may be due to hormonal changes or the pressure of the uterus as it grows with the baby. This may continue after child birth for some women because the pelvic floor muscles are weakened. Pelvic floor exercises known as Kegels are exercises that were developed for women to help tighten vaginal muscles and increase feeling during intercourse, particularly following childbirth. In order to do Kegel exercises, you will first need to find the pubococcygeal muscle. It is the muscle that you ‘squeeze’, when you try to hold back urine. Tightening or squeezing this muscle (not the butt muscle!) should feel like pulling everything up inside of your pelvis. Try to do sets of 10-20 or more. These exercises can be done at any time when you are sitting, standing or lying down.
