The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationships between pregnancy, childbirth and incontinence (both urinary and faecal) and the effect of preventive activities during pregnancy on continence. Two papers comprise this thesis. The first paper, a scoping review, focused on examination of how pregnancy and childbirth affect continence in nulliparous women. Several key considerations were identified from the published literature that we suggest are crucial to understanding these relationships. The second paper, a systematic review, is focused on the effect of preventive measures during pregnancy on continence. Pelvic floor muscle training was found to be effective in reducing the incidence of incontinence at 3 months postpartum. Few studies met our inclusion criteria thus limiting analysis of data. Based on these two papers, further prospective research is suggested. The final chapter of this thesis outlines a developing PhD project that addresses gaps identified through the scoping and systematic reviews.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1428 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Prendergast, Susan |
| Contributors | Dr. Kathleen Hunter (Faculty of Nursing), Dr. Katherine Moore (Faculty of Nursing), Dr. Gary Gray (Faculty of Medicine) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 953444 bytes, application/pdf |
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