SAN DIEGO, May 31 (UPI) -- A California study found 42 percent of women who gave birth vaginally had one or more pelvic floor disorders compared to 27 percent who had a Cesarean.
However, the study's principal author, Dr. Emily Lukacz, assistant professor of reproductive medicine at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center, said this is not a reason for women to request Caesarean sections.
"Although the study's outcome showed a statistically higher rate of pelvic floor disorders in the vaginal delivery group, 58 percent of those who delivered vaginally did not suffer a pelvic floor disorder at all," said Lukacz.
Some 12,000 women enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente of Southern California Health Plan were sent questionnaires, and of the 4,458 women who returned the surveys, 7 percent suffered from pelvic organ prolapse, 15 percent had urinary incontinence, 13 percent experienced an overactive bladder and 25 percent had fecal incontinence.
Thirty-seven percent of the respondents suffered one or more of these conditions, regardless of their status of having given birth or not, said Lukacz. The women who gave birth only via Cesarean section suffered the conditions at the same rate as women who had never given birth at all, according to the study published in the June issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
