Incontinence Tied to Lifestyle, Not Mode of Delivery

The Ob.Gyn news reports on a study that shows that the mode of delivery has no bearing on incontinence in older women:

"Body mass index, smoking, and hormone replacement therapy remain bad news for the pelvic floor," said Kaven Baessler, M.D., who conducted the study at Royal Women's Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Continence Society, Dr. Baessler, who has since moved to Charité University Hospital in Berlin, said neither age nor mode of delivery was associated with incontinence in her study population of 443 women aged 40–80 years.

The data were analyzed based on three delivery modes: women who'd had no births, women with a cesarean delivery, and women who'd had either a spontaneous or instrumental delivery. This analysis showed no association between any of these three categories and incontinence.

Other studies which have shown a link between vaginal deliveries and incontinence have not differentiated between spontaneous and instrumental (forceps, episiotomy) deliveries.