REVIEW article
Front. Glob. Womens Health
Sec. Maternal Health
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2025.1562572
Quality of Life of Women with Urinary Incontinence in the Postpartum Period: An Integrative Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- 2Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- 3University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- 4School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
- 5ciTechCare - Center for Innovative Care and Health Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
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Urinary incontinence (UI) during pregnancy and after childbirth can negatively impact women's lifestyles, health, and well-being. It is a common problem that is often normalized by both healthcare professionals and women. This integrative review examines the impact of UI on women's quality of life (QoL) during the postpartum period and identifies the main affected domains. It will also contribute to the discussion of the results of a primary study. Fourteen studies were included in this review, mainly from Brazil and Spain, with most using quantitative methods. The findings indicate that UI negatively affects the QoL of women during the postpartum period, with mixed UI causing greater discomfort despite stress UI being more frequent. The main affected domains are general health perception, physical functioning, daily life activities, psychological/emotional/mental and social aspects, and sexuality. Effective interventions should promote women's self-care and enhance their awareness and recognition of the problem. These interventions should go beyond physical aspects to address emotional and psychological dimensions, such as low self-esteem and self-image, secrecy, embarrassment, and reluctance to seek help. Nurse midwives have specialized skills and can work within multidisciplinary teams to improve the QoL of women with UI at a time of increased vulnerability.
Keywords: Women1, urinary incontinence2, postpartum period3, quality of life4, nursing5
Received: 17 Jan 2025; Accepted: 18 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lopes, Henriques, Lopes and Mendes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Filipa Daniela Lopes, Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
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