Doing Kegel exercises treat Urinary Stress Incontinence

Urinary Stress Incontinence is usually observed in women. Urine leaks for a few women when they cough, sneeze or even laugh. There will be no control over the urinary bladder. This condition is very embarrassing. Few women even avoid social gatherings when the problem is severe.

The Urine Incontinence is observed in women during pregnancy and after childbirth. Ideally the nerves, ligaments, and pelvic floor muscles work together to support your bladder and keep the urethra closed so urine doesn’t leak out. Overstretching or injury to these areas during pregnancy or childbirth can cause them to stop working properly.

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Causes for Urinary Stress Incontinence

• Pregnancy
• After delivery (birth vaginally)
• Assisted Vaginal delivery ( usage of forceps)
• Prolonged pushing ( large baby)
• Obese persons
• Smokers
• Genetic predisposition(runs in the family)
• More number of vaginal deliveries
• Menopause stage , Aging
• Repeated urinary tract infection

Treatment for Urinary Stress Incontinence

The treatment options range from conservative treatment, behavior management, bladder retraining, pelvic floor therapy, medications and surgery. The success depends on the correct diagnosis in the first place.

Exercises to control Incontinence

Kegels are exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles – the muscles that support your urethra, bladder, uterus, and rectum. Kegel exercises may also help reduce the risk of Anal incontinence and urge incontinence.

How to do Kegel exercises at home

Start the exercise with an empty bladder. Imagine that you’re trying to stop yourself from passing gas and trying to stop the flow of urine midstream at the same time i.e closing and drawing up of the front and back passages.

Make sure that you squeeze and lift without pulling in your tummy, squeezing your legs together, tightening your buttocks, or holding your breath. In simple words, only your pelvic floor muscles should be working.

Though you may have trouble isolating these muscles at first, it gets easier with practice. It might help to place a hand on your belly while you’re doing your Kegels to make sure that it stays relaxed.

What is the frequency and duration for Kegel exercises

Start doing Kegels a few at a time throughout the day. As your muscles starts to feel stronger, gradually increase both the number of contractions you do each day and the length of time you hold each contraction, up to ten seconds. Practice them in sets of ten and try to work up to three or four sets about three times a day.

Make Kegels a part of your daily routine. You can schedule a set in the morning, while watching TV and prior to bed time. But it really doesn’t matter when or where you do them – as long as you do them regularly.

Be patient and keep up the schedule. It may take three to six weeks of regular Kegels before you notice an improvement in bladder control.When done correctly and often enough, they can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, giving you better control.

Precautionary measures

However in the initial stages follow some precautionary measures to avoid any embarrassment.

• Use a sanitary pad to protect your clothes from urine leaks
• Try crossing your legs and tightening your pelvic muscles or shifting your body weight to one side when you feel a sneeze or a cough coming on.
• Cut down on caffeine consumption.(results have indicated positive effect)

Ayurveda recommendations for Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence is primarily a vata disorder, caused by weakness of the muscles of the bladder, especially the bladder sphincter.

Natural Home Remedy using Indian gooseberry, turmeric powder and honey:

Cut and de-seed 1 Indian gooseberry (Amla), Crush the Indian gooseberry into paste. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and 1 tsp of honey. Mix well.

Have 1 tsp of this mixture every morning for about 4 weeks.

You will feel the strengthening of prostrate muscles after duration of 4 weeks.

Natural home remedy using milk, fennel seeds and sugar:

In a glass of warm milk, add 1 tsp of crushed fennel seeds (saunf) and 2 tbsp of sugar syrup in it. Mix well and drink this every day.

To make Sugar syrup: Mix 2 tbsp of sugar in ½ glass water. Heat the sugar and water solution till it becomes a syrup.

HOW TO CARE AFTER A MISSED ABORTION

Missed Abortion is a painful process and if you were longing to have a child, the aftermath process should be dealt with lots of care. The patient is physically as well as mentally shattered.

The common terms referred are miscarriage, missed abortion where the process is natural and not induced. Abortion is termed when removal of the foetus is by unnatural method or medicinally intervened.

Following are the symptoms observed and the precaution to be taken is also mentioned.

CRAMPING:

Cramping is not always a sign of a problem. At times cramping indicates that there are blood clots in your uterus, you have a strained muscle near your uterus, or your uterus is contracting to its normal size.

Remedial methods to relieve cramping are:

• Massage your abdomen. Push down starting from below your belly button towards your pubic hair. You can lie down or sit on the toilet. Massaging will help you to pass blood clots that might be causing your cramping.
• You can lie down on the side that hurts and pull the bottom knee up towards your chest, or put your leg on a chair and lean into the direction of the pain. If you get relief from this, the pain is most likely due to muscle strain and can be treated by resting.

FEVER:

If you feel hot or have cramping, take your temperature. If your temperature is over  100.4 degrees, you need to consult your doctor. Fever can be a sign of infection. Most infections can be treated with medication and do not require hospitalization. Recommended to go for early treatment . Intense cramping that is not alleviated by medication recommended by Doctor or tenderness of the abdomen can also be signs of infection.

BLEEDING:

If the amount of bleeding increases to soaking more than one maxi pad in one hour or if you begin to pass blood clots larger than a golf ball, inform the doctor and take medical advise. Do not waste time as the patient will have heavy blood loss, become anemic and have further health problems.

BREAST TENDERNESS:

Following your abortion, your breasts may remain tender for as long as two weeks. It is also possible for milk to come into your breasts. This is more likely to occur if you were more than 12 weeks in the pregnancy, measuring from your last menstrual period.

Remedial methods to relieve breast tenderness are:

• Place cabbage leaves on your breasts and cover with a supportive bra. Cabbage leaves should be changed every 2 hours until tenderness is relieved.
• Wear a tight fitting bra (even while you sleep).
• Do not stimulate your breasts.
• Do not squeeze or express the milky fluid.
• Take medication as per Doctors advise to minimize pain and discomfort.
• Ice compresses on your breasts for ten minutes every 2 hours may also provide relief.

Precautionary measures to protect your uterus and tubes from infection are:

• You should not have sexual intercourse for 2 weeks. However, when you do resume having intercourse, have your partner wear a condom and/or be certain that you are using some type of birth control. You may be more fertile after an abortion.
• Use sanitary napkins only, Do not use tampons for 2 weeks.
• You may take a shower and wash your hair, but no tub baths for 2 weeks.
• No swimming for 2 weeks.

To make sure you recover completely:

• You may go to work or school on the day following the procedure. However, REMEMBER no strenuous exercise or heavy lifting over 20 kgs because this can cause you to bleed more.
• Be sure to take all of the medications given to you according to the directions on the label.
• We do not advise douching in general, but especially refrain from douching until after your follow-up exam.
• All of your pregnancy signs and symptoms (except breast tenderness) should decrease within 48-72 hours.
• Your next period should start four to eight weeks after your abortion. In case you do not get your periods after 8 weeks, consult your Doctor .
• It is possible to get pregnant right after your abortion, so if pregnancy is not desired, a method of birth control is recommended.

General Tips to avoid a Miscarriage:

• In the initial stages of pregnancy there will be lots of hormonal changes , the dwarf characters  in body constitution will become dominant and therefore you may come across few heredity problems like wheezing, allergies , skin rash like pimples all over face, vomiting, morning sickness , diabetes,  thyroid etc. The mentioned factors will vary from person to person.
• No antibiotics must be taken during  pregnancy.  Antibiotics increase the heat of the body.
• Opt for natural remedies only or based on advise of the Gynecologists – Doctor you are consulting.
• In Ayurveda – arishtam and churna powders are prescribed. You need to take the advise of the Ayurveda doctor as most recommend pathyam meaning diet restrictions. This will complement the medicine.

Natural remedies to avoid a miscarriage:

• Take some amount  of asafetida (Hing) and dissolve in water. This must be consumed once daily during the months of pregnancy. In case you have had a miscarriage earlier  then asafetida water must be given in that month. This is considered very effective after an abortion.
• Have a spoonful of fresh juice of vitamin C mixed with honey every morning.
• In order to lower the heat in the groin area, a towel must be dipped in cold water and compressed in that area. This must be done once a day.