Pelvic Organ Prolapse
>> Thursday, July 28, 2011
According to a recent article in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, pelvic organ prolapse (POP) occurs in about 50% of women who give birth vaginally. Subsequently there have been several epidemiological studies that suggest c-section delivery significantly reduces a woman’s risk for post-partum urinary incontinence and stress urinary incontinence. While they are finding women who have had only one vaginal birth have no greater risk for POP or stress urinary incontinence than women who have delivered all their children by c-section, once a woman has more than one vaginal birth, the risk rises sharply (it can go from 0.7 in 10,000 women to 4.3-7.1 in 10,000 women).
I know this is an important issue for women to consider. We often encourage vaginal deliveries but, with the statistics showing what they do, more and more women are choosing elective c-sections to avoid the type of problems they’ve seen older female relatives suffer through.
When women start asking if the rumors are true about c-section saving them from later problems we can’t blame them for choosing elective c-section. Although there are surgeries to fix POP and stress incontinence, nothing is ever as good as the original. Weight also plays a major role in how severe problems can become and weight loss can be one form of self-help that gives awesome relief of symptoms without surgical intervention.
I hope this helps some of you who were wondering the same. I will be having more information on incontinence and POP in the future. Until then write in your questions if you have any.
