When you’re pregnant, it’s often a whirlwind of excitement, exhaustion, soreness, concern about your diet, and running mental lists of everything that needs to get done before the baby comes. But one day you laugh, and you feel a trickle of pee down your leg. Or you realize you didn’t make it to the bathroom in time even though you’ve never had bladder control problems before you got pregnant. So what’s going on?
Turns out that pregnancy bladder control issues are really common—one of those less pleasant, under-the-radar side effects of pregnancy that fewer people talk about. In fact, about half of women experience pregnancy bladder control problems—and it’s no wonder! Your organs suddenly have to share their space and get shifted around to accommodate the baby growing inside you. The baby puts some pressure on your bladder, making you pee more than you’re used to or making the bladder more sensitive to stress.
Technically, these pregnancy bladder control problems are referred to as urinary incontinence, which can be subdivided into stress incontinence and urge incontinence and sometimes occurs as a mix of both. Briefly, urinary incontinence occurs when the muscles of the pelvic floor, which keep the urethra closed, weaken or get stretched out, which is common in pregnancy. In stress incontinence, small physical stressors, such as coughing, laughing, or lifting things, can cause the bladder to open a bit. Because the muscles aren’t keeping the urethra shut as they should, you might experience a trickle. With urge incontinence, pressure on the bladder (for instance from the baby!) might make you feel sudden, frequent urges to pee, even when your bladder isn’t full. Sometimes these come on so quickly that making it to the bathroom isn’t really an option. And pregnancy bladder control issues can come in either form.
In many women, pregnancy bladder control problems go away after the baby is born, sometimes in a matter of weeks or months. For other women, urinary incontinence persists to some degree. Whether or not your pregnancy bladder control issues will subside depends on a number of factors, including how your baby is delivered, its size, your weight, whether or not you smoke, and your genetic predisposition. In other words, it’s hard to say whether your incontinence will go away postpartum, but you should certainly talk to your OB-GYN about it. A doctor can give you specific insight into what kind of incontinence you’re experiencing and what solutions are best for you while it lasts.
The good news is that there are a lot of products out there designed specifically for pee leaks that can do wonders for managing your pregnancy bladder control symptoms. From light liners for mild drips to super-absorbent pads for nighttime to discreet underwear that can absorb a day’s worth of leaks, there’s something out there that is bound to work for you. Be careful, though, when trying out any bladder control solutions taken orally or inserted into the body. Poise Impressa bladder supports, for instance, which are inserted into the vagina to squeeze the urethra shut, are not recommended for pregnant women. Neither are bladder control pills and supplements like AZO Bladder Control. If you’re considering using a solution that goes anywhere but in your underwear, talk to your doctor first to make sure you’re using it safely.
Many women experiencing urinary incontinence respond by drinking less water. And while that may seem like a natural reaction, it doesn’t actually help and can lead to its own problems, including dehydration. In particular, it’s especially important to stay hydrated in the third trimester—right around the time that baby’s starting to press on the bladder—to avoid preterm labor, which can be triggered by dehydration.
Of all the things to surrender control of during pregnancy, you might not have expected it to be your bladder. But just remember that you’re not alone. Essentially one in two pregnant women you encounter share your experience—so we encourage you to talk about it! Swap stories, laugh about it, trade recommendations for liners and pads. If we’re all going through this together, we might as well make it easier on ourselves.