Pregnant women’s awareness about pelvic floor dysfunction and preventing strategies

Introduction: The aim of the study is to determine the knowledge of pregnant women about pelvic floor dysfunction and their awareness of the pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) preventive effect of pelvic floor muscle exercises. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on pregnant women in their third trimester who applied to Izmir Atatürk Research and Training Hospital Birth Unit between April and May 2022. A questionnaire was used in data collection. A total of 32 questions were asked to the 90 participants in order to evaluate their knowledge about urinary incontinence(UI), pelvic organ prolapse(POP) and fecal incontinence(FI). Correlation between knowledge about pelvic floor dysfunction and related factors such as age, number of pregnancies, educational status, occupation and economic status were evaluated. Results: It was determined that the level of knowledge about urinary incontinence was significantly higher than FI, and the awareness about POP was similar to the other two subgroups. The knowledge of the participants about the therapeutic-protective effect of pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFMT) for UI, POP and FI were determined as 65.5%, 41.4% and 27.6% respectively. It was determined those with higher educational level had a significantly more knowledge about POP being a treatable disease then the others. There was no significant difference between the groups in other parameters. Conclusions: Awareness of pregnant women’s about pelvic floor dysfunction and knowledge about protective effect of pelvic floor muscle exercises from PFD are insufficient. Effects of pelvic floor muscle exercises for protection of the pelvic floor should be underlined in antenatal classes and pregnant women encourage to practice pelvic floor muscle exercises in order to prevent PFD.