Urinary Incontinence A Risk Factor for Post-Partum Depression

Wendy Sword, Professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University, and her colleagues have recently published a study in which they looked at the relationship between mode of delivery and risk for post-partum depression. An interesting correlation that the authors found shows that having urinary incontinence in the first 6 weeks after childbirth doubles the risk for having post-partum depression. In McMaster University's post about this research, it is pointed out that up to 20% of new mothers experience post-partum depression, and this can interfere with the mother's self-care, with bonding between the mother and child, and with the care needed by the infant. Early detection and treatment of post-partum depression is critical.

In this research, 1900 new mothers were studied, up to 1/3 of them had c-sections as the mode of delivery. At 6 weeks post-partum, nearly 8% of the mothers had post-partum depression. The depression was not identified as being related to one mode of child delivery over another. The 5 strongest predictors of post-partum depression were identified as: 1) mother's age less than 25, 2) mother requiring hospital readmission, 3) non-initiation of breast-feeding, 4) good, fair, or poor self-reported health by the mother, and 5) urinary incontinence.

Dr. Sword recommends that providers ask patients about continence status early in the post-partum period, as patients may be embarrassed to bring it up, and also because incontinence is often dismissed as a common issue post-partum that will likely improve. When patients are referred to rehabilitation for continence issues, we often find that the symptoms have persisted for years, sometimes decades, unfortunately. During our marketing visits and education of the community, we can also encourage patient providers to send the patients to rehabilitation as early as possible. It is often at the 6 week appointment that the patient can be screened for such concerns, and this is when many of our referrers are comfortable sending a patient in for a check of the pelvic muscles.