Many women discover a new battle after giving birth, incontinence! This is one that causes us to isolate ourselves and suffer in silence because we are simply too embarrassed to discuss it. To family members, this isolation can be puzzling and is often misunderstood. Older children and even your spouse may not understand why you don’t want to take longer car trips or venture outdoors as often as you once did.
It is very unfortunate that motherhood can cause one suffer from incontinence. Even more so that the silence leads to a lack of information that would be helpful to others in the same situation. You don’t realize that there are solutions. In fact, the condition maybe corrected through medical treatment and self care measures.
Treatments for incontinence include:
- Exercises to strengthen pelvic muscles.
- Trying to urinate on a regular schedule to avoid accidents.
- Medications to treat infection or to make the bladder relax.
- In-home medical devices, like the ApexM.
- As a last resort, surgery to correct the bladder problem.
Pregnancy in itself puts a toll on your pelvic floor. All of the extra weight from baby and the fluids are just there pushing down. This eventually stretches the muscles and causes them to weaken. Those muscles are then unable to hold everything they once did before motherhood. Size of baby, method of birth and situations that arise during giving birth all play a part in the condition of your new mom body.
Some women experience a weakening of their bladder immediately or even months after the birthing process is complete. Many will suggest kegel exercises to regain strength and bladder control but some women can’t even do that because the muscles are so weak, or are you maybe doing them incorrectly. The ApexM device offers resistance, or something to squeeze against, to help re-train the muscles and get them strong once again!
The Solution
ApexM is the only device that treats urge incontinence, or also known as the overactive bladder. This is a very common situation when discussing motherhood incontinence. For me, urge incontinence is more noticeable during the week leading up to my period. It took a several weeks after giving birth for me to notice this issue and as the months and even years went by, it seemed to happen more often.
Urge incontinence is the sudden urge to go, that cannot be denied, or waking up several times per night to use the bathroom. Basically the muscle that surrounds the bladder (the detrusor) starts telling your bladder “its time to go now!” even though you may have just went. Nobody knows why that happens but our OBGYN thinks it is possibly due to the three c-section births, instead of the general belief that it is brought on by age. After all, I am not even 40 yet. This left me concerned that the problem would worsen even more over time.
So we turned to the ApexM. This device uses low frequency stimulation to calm that muscle over time, reducing the urge. I am into my 5th week of use and am in my 3rd day of the cycle. The days leading up to that time of the month, I noticed a significant change in the number of accidents I generally experience. In fact, I only had one time that I didn’t make it before the embarrassment came and that was after being on a four hour drive. While I still had moments of urgency and still get up to pee in the middle of the night, I have noticed an increase of control allowing me to make it to the restroom within time.
For someone that has been going through incontinence after giving birth for eight years, the possibility of a true solution that does not have me on an operating table was like a weight being removed from my shoulders. No one really understands the embarrassment until they are the ones dealing with it. And with the embarrassment comes the silence that needs to be removed.
No one should ever suffer when there are solutions available. Even if you are not ready to speak out loud, do some research online at incontrolmedical.com and see if there is a device that fits your needs. They have medical professions that are just a phone call away if you have questions or any issues along the way concerning the cure for incontinence.
Just imagine a life as it once was. No pads, no medications and no surgery! You are not alone and do not have to suffer from incontinence after giving birth. You can regain your confidence! Join us in breaking the cycle of silence of motherhood incontinence.
