Will second labour make my bladder worse?

[flightattendant]

After reading a thread below, I recalled I had a minor bladder prolapse after/during the delivery of my first baby 4 years ago.

The Dr. said it was a cystocele, just a little weakening of the bladder wall so it bulges into the vagina a bit.

He never examined me, just guessed from what I told him and said it should rectify itself within about 6 months.

TBH I forgot about it, I haven't had much of a problem - very occasional stress incontinence, mainly about halfway through this pregnancy when I had a cough. Not really had an increase in UTI's or anything but sometimes I do feel a heaviness down there.

I'm worrying that having my second child vaginally will make it worse by stretching the walls even more...has anyone found this happened to them? I don't want to be left with severe problems but with only a week to go before my due date, it seems daft to suddenly go from planned homebirth to elective C-section!!

Pula, if it's not nosy to ask, what happened with you first time round? I imagine if your HCP's are recommending a section then it might be for a good reason...I don't think anyone really cared about my little cystocele : ( as It didn't really cause me any major probs.
It's strange as I expected at least to be a bit leaky after this time, but it feels exactly like it did before. Think the birth position may well have helped and the fact that I was aware of the feelings down there, not just pushing with my face screwed up and no idea of what might be going on

Good luck with your CS anyway!

Oh just seen what you wrote on the pushing thread...sounds really difficult.

It could have been to do with the presentation as I was told that if a first baby is OP, often the mother will not be able to push it out...I was lucky in that my first was at least the right way round, but my second was OP and therefore having already been pre-stretched he did come out Ok. But they said with a first, it can cause a lot of trouble.

HTH, maybe that was a contributory factor.

hi flightattendant,

yes, i think the OP presentation and the tears i had (one was 'internal') affected my pelvic floor. once my catheter was removed, i weed on getting out of bed twice and couldn't stop the flow. i then started to go every half hour or hour to make sure i was never too full. When i saw the physio 2-3 weeks afterwards, there was no sign of me being able to control my pelvic floor at all so i was given a device which triggered the muscles by electrical current. Took 6 months to get back to an acceptable level, and didn't want to go through all that again with a toddler and new baby.

Oh I'm sorry to hear what happened, it sounds like it took a lot of work to get back to normal and I can totally undertand why you'd prefer to avoid a similar scenario.

I don't know how much truth there is in the idea that the first labour and the actual pregnancies are the main culprits, but in your position I wouldn't want to take the risk again.

Very best of luck for tomorrow! xx

Hi all,

I'm a veteran of bladder disasters! Had my son in 1999 - long induced labour, epidural, epesiotomy and ventouse, but no problems afterwards at all. Was back in shape very quickly post-birth, not a hint of leakage, and pelvic floor was tight as a drum for all of you who remember the Spry Crisp n' Dry ads from the 70s.

Had my duaghter in 2001, another long labour, another epidural...and it was only after what seemed like eons that they realised she was stuck (spine to spine) and had been for quite some time. Consultant was called and I had another, this time very brutal ventouse delivery, using only half the proper equipment, since they couldn't find the handle for the ventouse.

Had more or less no bladder control afterwards and continued leaking copiously in the weeks afterwards (oh, the shame of having to buy Tena Lady in my mid 30s) until I went to the doc's for my 6-week check and confessed my problem. Was then told that this definitely wasn't normal, and luckily, being covered by medical insurance, was referred to a consultant.

To cut a long story short, I ended up having to have a colposuspension operation, in which they cut you open in the same place as for a casaerean and then haul your damaged pelvic floor and prolapsed bladder back into place. Oh, and they repaired my vaginal prolapse at the same time - although I still have a grade 1 uterine prolapse. So, having been fine after my first birth, the cock-ups in my second delivery meant I was left in a right old state and had to have a fairly major operation that my consultant informed me he normally performed on 'incontinent old ladies in their 80s'!

Things have held up pretty well down under ever since the op, although I have to be sure to do my weights for fear of everything sagging again, and now at the rather unseemly age of 42 I find myself surprisingly pregnant again. Of course I'm terrified I'll end up reaching for the Tenas again by the end of it all, but have been advised to have a casaerean this time round since a vaginal delivery would put too much strain on the repair work. 18 weeks so far and no embarrassing incidents as yet, so just hope it doesn't turn out to be a heavy baby!