Impact of Pregnancy on Pelvic Floor Muscle Strength
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- Category: Vol. 85, December 2017
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Impact of Pregnancy on Pelvic Floor Muscle Strength, MOHAMED A. AWAD, MARWA A. MOHAMED, AMIR A. GABR and ASHRAF G. MASHALI
Abstract
Background: The growing uterus and fetus weight solely on PFM causes chronic stress on PFM throughout pregnancy and results in PFM weakness.
Aim of the Study: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of pregnancy on pelvic floor muscle strength.
Methods: Two hundred pregnant women in their 12 weeks of gestation selected randomly from antenatal care clinic of Al-Kasr El-Aini University Hospital in Cairo. Their ages were ranged from 25 to 35 years old and their body mass index was not exceeding 30kg/m2. They were primigravida and multigravida. Women who had history of pelvic disease, any previous pelvic operations, previous caesarian section delivery, diabetes mellites, history of abortion and history of pre-eclampsia or smokers and alcohol abuse are excluded from the study. They were divided into two groups equal in number, Group (A) one hundred primigravida women, Group (B) one hundred multigravida women. All women performed evaluation test of their pelvic floor muscle strength using TG Myo feedback 420v at 12, 20 and 32 weeks of gestation to determine any change in pelvic floor muscle strength in these different periods of pregnancy.
Results: The results of this study found that, within groups there was a statistically highly significant decrease (p<0.01) in pelvic floor muscle strength in both groups A and B with percentage of decrease 17.57% and 42.77% respectively. Between groups comparison, there was statistically highly significant difference in pelvic floor muscle strength in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester between both group with higher percentage of decrease in pelvic floor muscle strength in Group B (multigravida).
Conclusion: Accordingly, it can be concluded that the pregnancy markedly affect the pelvic floor muscle strength with more affection of the multigravida women.