Wellbeing of Women
Clare's Story
Clare explains how she suffered with incontinence after giving birth to her last child.
I have three children aged 7, 5 and 2 and my third baby was a particularly difficult delivery. Very soon afterwards I realised my pelvic floor muscles were very weak as I would have frequent leaks. I told my GP at my 6-week check and was told to do lots of pelvic floor exercises. I did tons of pelvic floor exercises and hoped that in time I would recover. This didn't happen and I let myself worry for about 6 months before going to my GP. She was so understanding and referred me for physiotherapy and I saw someone fairly quickly. After 3 months and seeing very little improvement, I decided I really had to just get on with my life and joined an exercise class. I found I could do very little without leaking, so I made my excuses and left.
My GP then referred me to a gynaecologist, but before any decisions could be made about the next step, I had to have urodynamic tests done in order to be clear about the type of incontinence I had. Once this had been done, my options were made clear: medication or surgery. I knew straight away that medication would not be an option for me, as I really saw the cause of my incontinence as an injury. Just as athletes damage muscles, childbirth had damaged mine irreparably. Having said that, I hated having to make that decision about surgery. I had a young family – all surgery has risks...did I really need it done? Could I manage as I was? How bad was it anyway? I had no one to compare myself with.
My lowest point came when I gave my middle child a piggyback half way to school. When I got back home, I realised my jeans were soaked! Carrying my children and running in sports day were just two of the many treasured moments I was not about to miss out on, so I decided to go for it. In fact, now when I look back, I made huge compensations for my 'disability'. I stayed within my comfort zone, and never went anywhere where I knew I would be far from a toilet.
The Tension-Free Vaginal Tape procedure (TVT) was fine. Despite not being able to do much for a few weeks, my family and friends were so supportive. The time went very quickly and I have absolutely no regrets. I can now do everything just as before and I'm looking forward to a future where my children can see me as an active and fit mum.
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