Common issues after giving birth can significantly impact women’s health and well-being for the remainder of their lives, according to Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and author of research published in The Lancet. Because of the potential long-term impacts on women’s health and well-being, the study highlights the significance of increasing awareness of common postpartum concerns.
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How well a woman coped with her pregnancy and delivery may provide light on why some otherwise healthy women have postpartum depression, incontinence, and erectile dysfunction. A study published in the Lancet found that at least 40 million women globally will likely experience long-term health difficulties as a result of giving birth. One can be dealing with issues that persist for a long time. Women are no longer eligible for postpartum care services, which were formerly available for a maximum of six weeks following the delivery of the baby.
This is why the Lancet study argues that the present healthcare system should pay greater attention to women’s postpartum difficulties. The president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Dr Ranee Thakar, urges, “We need to work together to improve how these conditions are prevented and treated, along with better reporting and more money.” Dr. Thakar is also one of the authors of the studies.
Just how critical is it to conduct this research?
Since these difficulties can impact women’s health and well-being for a long time after giving birth, it is crucial to bring attention to them. We address these under-discussed circumstances in our paper. People assume they aren’t common or essential since they aren’t on national action plans or the global health agenda, we say. The following conditions are listed: low back pain (32% of cases), anal incontinence (19%), urine incontinence (8-31% of cases), anxiety (9-24%), depression (11% to 17%), perineal discomfort (11% of cases), tokophobia (6-15%), and secondary infertility (11% of cases). Dyspareunia, or pain during sexual activity, affects about one-third of women after giving birth.
What causes these issues to persist?
No matter how easy the delivery was or how little assistance the mother needed, many women nevertheless experience some sort of difficulty in the postpartum period. They looked at epidemiological statistics on short-, medium-, and long-term problems that can happen after giving birth or labour after six weeks. The physiological changes that happen during pregnancy affect many organ systems in the mother. These include the immune system, the cardiovascular system (spiral arteriole remodelling, decreased peripheral resistance, increased cardiac output and blood volume, and lower blood pressure), the endocrine and hormonal systems (changing hormone cycles and increasing progesterone and oestrogen levels), and the ligaments.
During pregnancy, these changes happen naturally (for example, the pelvic floor muscles and ligaments relax to make room for the baby’s head), but they also make it more likely that long-term problems will happen (for example, pelvic organ collapse). Poor social support, an older or younger mother’s age, having more than one child, being overweight, or having other health problems can all make these risks worse. Fetal factors, like position or size, or complications during labour, such as malpresentation, the prolonged second stage of labour, levator ani avulsion, or soft tissue trauma, can also make these risks worse.
Can having a good birth experience stop or lessen the effects of medium- and long-term problems?
Along with better reports and more money, we need to work together to make it easier to avoid and treat these conditions. It’s also important to have high-quality guidelines that health systems in places like India can use to make sure they stress the value of good care at birth, as well as regular clinical assessments and screenings of women who have just given birth to find those who are at risk. The RCOG is dedicated to working with partners to bring evidence and new programs that can enhance maternity care to the attention of members and fellows around the world.
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