NEW YORK (Reuters Health):

A year after giving birth, many women are plagued by urinary incontinence, pain during sex, and other problems, United Kingdom researchers report.

Eighty-seven per cent of mothers who responded to a survey complained of at least one health problem. Problems were particularly common among women who had delivered with the assistance of forceps.

Women rarely seek help for after-birth health problems, Dr. Amanda Williams of the University of Birmingham and colleagues note, so doctors, nurses and midwives should address these issues proactively with their patients.

Little information is available on whether problems relating to the perineum - the area between the rectum and vulva - persist long after childbirth, so Williams and her team surveyed 2,100 women who delivered infants and then contacted them again 12 months later. A total of 482 women responded to the second survey.

Urinary incontinence was the most common problem reported, with roughly 54 per cent reporting stress incontinence (the inability to hold urine when sneezing, lifting or experiencing some other type of stress); 37 per cent having urge incontinence, meaning they had difficulty holding urine when experiencing the urge to urinate; and 33 per cent reporting that they leaked urine on a continual basis.

Decreased libido

Sexual problems were also frequent, with about 54 per cent of women reporting at least one, for example, decreased libido or satisfaction with sex, and 30 per cent reporting vaginal pain during sex.

Women who had forceps births were more likely to have urinary incontinence than those who had C-sections or non-instrumental births, and also started having sex later after delivery.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Nursing, March 2007.