To think it's unacceptable thing my GP said

[idontwanttogotoschool]

I saw my GP last week for my 6 week check. Generally my GP doesn't give the mother a 6 week check the receptionist told me as it's a waste of their time. So obviously GP was already miffed he had to give me a double appointment, so to see me and check my newborn.

Anyway I had some health issues with Gestational diabetes late in my pregnancy so that's why I wanted to check, but I mentioned I am wetting myself a bit when I bend, carry or lift baby. And the GP said well that's normal after your second child, and that was his advice. I said nothing I can do, as I wondered if it was just early days since birth. He said it's a long term thing ask your other friends with two children and it is just what happens.

So I'm disappointed he is saying live with wetting issue and I'm annoyed this is acceptable for women.

your GP is useless. have you had your post delivery diabetes test scheduled yet? doesn't sound like they're interested in that and I seem to recall it happens around 6 weeks post birth. You need a better GP. I'd be complaining and/or trying to see a different one or registering at a different practice.

In France I think it is fairly standard practice for women to be given advice on pelvic floor health after giving birth.

It's better than that even - every woman who gives birth in France is entitled and encouraged to do 6-8 sessions of post-natal physio, thus saving their health system untold money in treating conditions that oculd be improved/prevented, and resulting in a much better quality of life.
Having been through the system, no-one in France considers incontinence "just one of those things women have to put up with"

Rubbish advice from your gp - I'd be asking for a 2nd opinion. I'm a mother of two and I don't wet myself. I also forget to do my pelvic floor exercises. It might be common but it's not normal and shouldn't be something we're expected to put up with.

I'm in a clinical trial and doing set core reconnection/pelvic floor exercises. Since I started, my pelvic floor has improved to the point that a small prolapse from my first child is gone and I can now jump/run with a full bladder. Even before 6 weeks I googled post partum core exercises and did breathing, pelvic tilts and rolled over in bed. Wetting yourself is not normal, it can be fixed! Have a look online for post partum core exercise and hypopressives. Mother and baby yoga often has an element of this incorporated. There are videos on youtube too. I do the exercises 2 or 3 times a week so it's not terribly onerous. If you can afford it, a post partum physio is an investment in your future health.

YANBU. I have 3 kids and there is a lot you can do to help it. Kegel exercises are great for retraining the pelvic floor. There is plenty of NHS leaflets on this, surprised your GP practice do not hand them out to all new mums.

Sounds like this GP needs to understand the difference between common and normal.

Erectile dysfunction is common. If a man goes to ask for help with that, do they just get told it’s normal once you hit 40 and to ask their mates? I’ll bet money they don’t

Another example of how trivially 'women's' concerns are treated within the medical system and NHS. Get another opinion and practice pelvic excercises. There are tools you can buy to help on Amazon.

Also just in case you don't know and may need it, look up diastasis recti and post birth excercises, don't assume your doctor will tell you anything about that either.

What a horrible, dismissive, unkind man!

Not to mention fucking lazy-ask your friends??!!

There really are no words.

Molly2017

It might be a bit of a pain doing pelvic exercises two years post parturition, but please don't give them up now they are in your routine. Pelvic floor weakness can strike at any time if the pelvic floor muscles stop doing their job. A healthy pelvic floor is for life not just for Christmans post partum.

Echo was PP have said. Also, if you had gestational diabetes, have they booked you in to test your blood sugars? I can't remember at what point they did mine post-partum.

I’ve had 2 children vaginally, one very fast and the other with complications.

I don’t do kegals, I never have.

I don’t leak urine.

I hear lots of women say this, and also a nurse who said that it shouldn’t be normalised, it’s not normal. Anyone doing this needs to get some help.

No one should be leaking urine child or not.

Fucking hell, it's a disgrace.

Instead of moaning because someone is called Mrs instead of Ms, I really wish people could concentrate on real issues.

It might be usual, and "normal" in a way, but it's not a curse and you most certainly shouldn't have to put up with it!

You are absolutely right to complain and more importantly fight to get your health issue resolve .

The lack of care and support around child birth is an absolute scandal in this country, we should be ashamed. Don't be ashamed to try to get better, it's your right and you don't have to put up with that crap.

Point of my post- please see another doctor and make a formal complaint about the one you saw.

Disgusting treatment of a PP women.

Imagine if you were feeling really down and considered post natal depression and needed to talk about it, you’d have not opened up at that appointment.

OakElmAsh that is amazing. We should have demanded health parity for all European women , (while we had the chance to that is)

Most certainly not expected after 2 children.
Awful GP. Can you register elsewhere?

Totally unacceptable.

You’ve got lots of good advice about pelvic floor exercises, but I’d also lodge a complaint with your surgery.

I’m sure this has upset you, but for someone already suffering with baby blues, it could be really destabilising to have a conversation like that. Ping a brief email to the Practice Manager, or ask for their complaints procedure. Quote the NICE guidelines which he has neglected to follow. They clearly state that instructions for Pelvic Floor Exercises be given and if the issue doesn’t resolve, a follow up appointment should be given for further investigations.

Congrats on the new baby 💐

I agree you need to make a formal complaint. That was unacceptable, dismissive, patronising and downright unpleasant. Absolutely not ok and sorry you were treated like that. And I agree if it were reversed how the hell would he feel about being told to get on with it, that there was nothing to be done and to ask his friends. 😡

We should have demanded health parity for all European women , (while we had the chance to that is)

we should have - when you see what is possible to have in other countries, our is an absolute joke. If support exists elsewhere, and women are not kicked out of a communal ward from hell after 2 hours like we are, it means it's entirely possible to expect human treatments for new mothers and their babies.

I also think you should make a complaint, and I'm not usually one to say that. It makes me so angry how women's health is treated by some men.

He's a pillock if he really thinks every woman with two children has urinary incontinence. I hate to think what he imagines happens to women who end up with five, six or more.

Pleased to see Gusset Grippers has been mentioned and adding my recommendation.

Your gp is wrong. There is a whole body giving advice on incontinence....urge incontinence, general incontinence etc. Google and email them and they will send excellent leaflets giving advice. If that doesn't go back to go for a referral to hospital

Absolutely unacceptable and sadly too common. I went to my GP as I had alopecia and he said "yes, I'm losing my hair too". Not the same thing! Unfortunately you really need to push to be taken seriously.

Please lodge a complaint about this response to your genuine medical concern. It's unacceptable.

and it's not true.

Routine 6-week check for mothers coming back (allegedly )

A proper check always happened in the good old days. DD2 had her DC1 last summer & I was quite shocked (& saddened) to find it doesn't any more. (My youngest is mid-20s now & when he was born I stayed in for 7 days - after CS - & wasn't allowed home until stitches were out & incision well-healed)

amp.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/07/new-mothers--receive-health-check-six-weeks-after-giving-birth-nhs-england