Discussion
Study limitations
There are limitations to this study. In sifting through the
conditions of SUI in pregnant women, the researcher asked
only about the symptoms of the condition of urinary
incontinence occurring in the past 1 month. The researcher
did not, however, ask about the symptoms of other types of
urinary incontinence which might also have occurred but
could not be confirmed through laboratory investigations or
physician’s confirmation. Thus, it was difficult for the
researcher to clearly identify whether or not the symptoms
of SUI were also due to other types of urinary incontinence.
The findings of this study were discussed according to the
patho-physiological changes involved with SUI during pregnancy
and conservative treatment by using PFME to relieve
SUI symptoms. It could provide data that could lead to an
improvement in nursing practice. These findings indicate that
the specially designed 6-week PFME programme during
pregnancy was effective at decreasing the severity of SUI in
pregnant women. This finding supported the research
hypothesis 1 and 2 of this study and can be explained by
increasing the strength of the pelvic floor muscles. The
strength of the pelvic floor muscles corrected the mobility of
the bladder neck and the urethra, leading to increased
urethral sphincter competence and increased urethral resistance
(Newman 2001), thus resulting in decreased frequency
and amount of urinary leakage further leading to improvement
of the quality of life among the pregnant women in the
experimental group which participated in the 6-week PFME
programme (Newman 2001).
These findings also concurred with those reported by
Dumoulin et al. (2004) who studied the effects of a PFME
programme on mothers with persistent postnatal SUI, finding
that the mothers in the experimental group showed a
statistically significant reduction in urinary leakage from
12ฦ5 to 8ฦ0 g on a pad test, and a decrease in mean score of
perceived SUI severity as evaluated by VAS from 8ฦ0 to 2ฦ5
after 8 weeks of PFME (P < 0ฦ001 and P < 0ฦ001, respectively).
Morkved and Bo (2000) studied the effects of an
8-week postpartum PFME to prevent and treat mothers with
SUI, finding that 13 mothers in the experimental group (16%)
had SUI symptoms at the 16th week postpartum and 15%
had mild frequency of SUI while the control group consisting
of 25 mothers (31%) had SUI symptoms at the 16th week
postpartum and 9% had moderate frequency of SUI. The
results demonstrate an important reduction in the prevalence
of SUI and a decrease in the frequency of SUI in the
experimental group following an 8-week intensive exercise
programme compared with the control group which received
only usual nursing care.
With regard to the aforementioned reasons, the pregnant
women in the experimental group who participated in the
programme possessed sufficient understanding of SUI during
pregnancy and were able to perform correct PFME daily for a
period of 6 weeks, thus showing that PFME can effectively
strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and improve SUI symptoms.
These findings are consistent with the study conducted
by Morkved et al. (2003) on the effects of a 12-week PFME
programme for 60 minutes once a week on the prevention of
urinary incontinence in nulliparous women with gestational
ages of 36 weeks wherein the authors found that the
frequency and incidence of SUI were significantly lower
among the experimental group than the same figures in the
control group (P = 0ฦ014 and P = 0ฦ007, respectively). Furthermore,
pelvic floor muscle strength was significantly
higher in the pregnant women who participated in the PFME
at gestational ages of 36 weeks (P = 0ฦ008) and 3 months
after delivery (P = 0ฦ048). Similarly, Glazener et al. (2001)
studied the effects of PFME on the severity of urinary
incontinence at 12 months after delivery in 747 mothers with
urinary incontinence at 3 months postpartum, showing that
the severity of urinary incontinence evaluated by VAS in the
experimental group significantly decreased after PFME
training. Notably, the current study required only 6 weeks’
training a reduction in SUI severity in pregnant women. The
reason may possibly be due to the provisions of the
knowledge of SUI and the handbook on PFME containing
detailed instructions of self assessment for SUI and with
PFME protocol included. In addition, the experimental
participants received instruction in PFME classes every
2 weeks to ensure correct exercise protocol.
During participation in the programme, the pregnant
women in the experimental group were given instructions
about SUI on a variety of related topics, for e.g., definition,
symptoms, causes, impact, treatments and PFME and pelvic
floor muscle anatomy and function, identification and correct
methods for certain types and steps and the benefits of PFME.
Verbal instruction was provided in combination with a
25-page PFME handbook. The handbook contained simple
and clear instructions, illustrations of pregnant women with
SUI, a comparison of pelvic floor muscle strength with
weakness and a diagram of the pelvic floor muscles to
stimulate interest and attract the attention of the pregnant
women. The instructions and the handbook helped the
participants understand the causes and treatment for SUI
during pregnancy while enhancing their understanding of the
benefits of PFME to minimize SUI severity. In addition, the
handbook contained a record for time and frequency of
PFME and a record on frequency of SUI with amounts of
urinary leakage in order to record daily adherence to PFME
and the frequency of SUI with the amount of urinary leakage
that occurred.
The table record of daily adherence to PFME can help the
women recognize their adherence to daily performance of
PFME. After completing the programme at the sixth week,
the record was assessed by the researcher, who found that
100% of the pregnant women in the experimental group
(n = 31) were able to perform the PFME for at least 28 days,
which is the minimum requirement for creating muscle fibre
hypertrophy that helps to increase the strength and endurance
of the pelvic floor muscles to reduce the severity of SUI
(Bo et al. 1990, Griffin et al. 1994, Fantl et al. 1996).
Furthermore, it was found that approximately 84%
(n = 26) and 13% (n = 4) of the participants were able to
perform correct PFME daily for periods of 6 and 5 weeks,
respectively; and one participant (3ฦ3%) was able to perform
exercise daily for a period of 4 weeks. In addition, the record
for the frequency of SUI and the amount of urinary leakage
was able to help the pregnant women assess and monitor the
outcome of PFME on their own. The outcome was assessed
and monitored by the frequency and amount of urinary
leakage of SUI which was reduced after correct and continual
exercise. Moreover, this table record helped the researcher
assess and monitor the outcome of the PFME among the
participants. In several studies, records were used to monitor
compliance to the PFME but not as a monitor of urinary
incontinence (Reilly et al. 2002, Morkved et al. 2003). In the
present study, the records were used to monitor both
compliance to the PFME and urinary incontinence. It can
be concluded, therefore, that the record of daily adherence to
PFME can help pregnant women recognize their adherence to
performing correct PFME daily for a period of 6 weeks.
Furthermore, this record was able to help the pregnant
women observe positive changes on their own and this led to
further motivation and adherence to PFME.
In contrast, the pregnant women in the control group
received only routine nursing care by staff nurses. These
pregnant women did not receive SUI instruction during
pregnancy and had no training to support the performance of
correct PFME. Hence, the SUI severity in this group increased
steadily throughout pregnancy. The results are comparable
with the study conducted by Thorp et al. (1999), in which the
SUI frequency and severity of urine loss worsened steadily
throughout pregnancy due to the increasing in intra-abdominal
pressure of the growing uterus and the foetal weight on
the pelvic floor muscles leading to trauma and stretching in
the pelvic area (Reed et al. 2004). Combined with hormonal
changes during pregnancy (Hilton & Dolan 2004), pelvic
muscle strength is reduced and intra-abdominal pressure
increases with coughing, sneezing, laughing or moving. When
the intravesicle pressure becomes greater than the urethral
closure pressure, it results in SUI (Morkved et al. 2003).