I never thought this would happen to me.

I thought never ever would it occur.

It only happens to others right?

And if it does it is older people that have this happen.

Wrong.

“46% of women affected by incontinence are under 50”

In fact incontinence and bladder leakage effects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men. These numbers show that there are a lot of people in Australia dealing with this issue.

TENA has created infographics to help simplify your understanding of incontinence and prepare yourself for it.

Although there are thousands or possibly millions of people affected, no one seems to discuss this issue.

The idea of bladder leakage seems a taboo subject.

I like others have not liked to discuss it, however it happens. It is real, it is an outcome of life, and an outcome of being a mother.

Pregnancy can weaken your pelvic floor muscles. Don't worry exercise can make it all better. — Pregnancy can weaken your pelvic floor muscles. Don’t worry exercise can make it all better.

Incontinence is not all the same, there are different reasons for why it happens.

Below are the main reasons that people would have any form of incontinence.

Stress Incontinence – When you sneeze, cough, jump or laugh and end up having a leak. This is due to having a weakened pelvic floor muscle. Due to the weak pelvic floor muscle the urine cannot be contained and creates a downward pressure. This is mainly an issue for women and the reasons for the weak pelvic floor is pregnancy, childbirth, being overweight could be an issue, if you smoke that could not help and if you have constipation or had issues trying to go to the toilet.
Overflow Incontinence – This is when you have an overwhelming need to urinate and it cannot wait. Sometimes getting the toilet in time is not possible, and must be very upsetting. This could also be a sign of infection and it is best to seek advice from your doctor about this issue. Other causes could be fizzy drinks, caffeine, and alcohol.
Overflow Incontinence – Although this can be experienced by anyone it is mainly men that have this issue. Check with your doctor and see if there are any issues with prostrate or maybe a blockage. Once all fixed everything should return to normal.
Functional Incontinence – Physical injury or other health issues might affect a person’s ability to get to the bathroom on time. It might also be neurological, including Alzheimer’s, stroke and head injury, where the messages between brain and bladder aren’t getting through.
Bowel or Faecal Incontinence – Causes of Bowel or faecal incontinence can be a weak pelvic floor due to constipation, poor bowel habits, diarrhoea or maybe bowel surgery. Diseases such as Coeliac and Chrohn’s can impact control over your bowel.

Incontinence is an outcome that I don’t like.

Not only do you carry a baby for nine months or close to it if you have babies early.

Your body changes, you are also dealing with extra weight due to putting it on for the pregnancy and then have limited time to exercise to lose the weight.

Although it is an annoying outcome, it is something that can be fixed or made much better.

Yes you read that right, there are treatments that can help you!

You need to understand what is causing the issue first. Once you know why you are having bladder leakage then you can start to treat the issue.

Pelvic Floor Exercises – This addresses the weakened pelvic floor mostly due to childbirth. One option is to consult a continence physiotherapist who can develop an individually tailored program as well as assist in monitoring progress.
Bladder Retraining – This is done under the supervision of your GP, Gynaecologist, Urologist or Continence Physiotherapist. You retrain your bladder to have longer intervals to the toilet.
Surgery – This is an option if all the other treatments have not worked. Only when your doctor has recommended it is a solution that will correct the issue.
Medication – Before medication is considered doctors try a change to lifestyle, such as reducing coffee, soft drinks and alcohol. A doctor will advise if this is needed and how it can help.

Have you been slack on the kegel exercises? I am, and it is really not hard to fit them in.

TIP to help you exercise

MAKE A TIME EACH DAY WHILE DOING A CHORE: One tip that helps me is to make one time a day or maybe two to do the kegel exercises.

It could be when you are hanging out the clothes, picking kids up from school or driving in the car.

Shhhh….Don’t tell anyone, I like to do them when I am driving back and forth from school. This way they get done in the morning and afternoon.

Having a chore to do with your kegel exercises means that every time you do this chore you will think to do your kegel exercises. A win all round.

Pelvic Floor Exercises for Women – Continence Foundation of Australia

There are also to exercises for men to help their pelvic floor too.

Now armed with some great techniques, my pelvic floor muscles will be like steel.

Yep, not abs of steel, pelvic floor of steel! Maybe this is a bad visual for you my dear readers.

I have been wanting to get toned, fit and drop some weight, maybe soon I will be a woman of steel! It could happen….given enough time? A personal trainer would help….oh how I wish.

TENA has got a great list of myths around incontinence management. I must say that I have been guilty of one of them, restricting water intake was my silly thing that I did.

It is best to have more water to reduce the concentration of urine, if you don’t have enough water you can irritate your bladder and aggravate urge incontinence.

Making sure that you look after yourself now, is going to pay off when you get older. Strong muscles will mean that when you are older you can control any leaks and not have accidents.

This helps with quality of life and also confidence. If you are not worried about the possibility of incontinence you can do more and be more active.

While you are exercising and working towards stronger pelvic floor muscles it is advisable to wear protection to allow you go confidently go about your everyday tasks without worry.

TENA is offering customers free samples to help find the right product for their needs. Fill out the form and get some free samples sent to you, all in discreet packaging. (I’ve signed up for my free samples. Have you??)

Get Free TENA Samples to find out what works best for you.

While you are busy getting pelvic muscles of steel make sure to protect yourself with TENA. It will allow you to have confidence to exercise and enjoying life.

Life is short and it is best to get on with it and participate. If bladder leakage or incontinence is holding you back, get it checked at the doctors, do the exercises and be key to improving your quality of life.

MAKE YOU A PRIORITY!

Disclaimer: This post is in collaboration with TENA. I was approached to help the awareness of the different causes and treatments for incontinence. It is a fixable issue and one that you should not live with if it is bothering you. Make an appointment with your doctor and get it fixed so that you can start enjoying all the fun things you wish to do again.

I hope this helps you know more about this issue.

Note: I am going to be doing more follow up articles on this issue, so stay tuned.

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Picture this. I am up at 3am or so. I’m feeding my baby boy.

While I do this I like to have the television on with the volume on low to maybe muted so that I can have some light in a very darken room, plus it does help while I get the baby back to bed as this can sometimes take hours.

You can imagine my shock when I saw a story on Good Morning America about a woman called, “Meghann Foye” and her book about “meternity leave”

Meghann wants all the perks of maternity leave but without having any kids!

I had not heard of this person and also about her idea of meternity leave…. I have obviously been having too much fun on my magical holiday with my new born baby.

One point Meghann made was that parents left work on time to go home to their kids. Well she can do this too. Meghann can make a point of leaving on time to go home or to meet with mates after work. She does not have to have kids to do this.

I know that putting in extra hours at the office shows that you are keen and want to do more. However this can also not be helpful to you as you will be stressed out and might burn out due to the extra hours. Maybe the extra hours are the issue… if Meghann left on time she might not want meternity leave?

I was so intrigued and amazed I increased the volume on the television but was very conscious this might delay getting the baby back to sleep. I had to learn more about this weird idea.

Well I have a nasty shock for you Meghann, maternity leave is not an exotic holiday.

It is not a time that you can just do whatever you want, although it would be nice. You are caring for a new little person that relies on you for everything.

The reality is that you are on call 24 hours a day and also 7 days a week. No sick leave, no pay, and no help really. It is just you.

When you bring home your bundle of joy you are most likely still exhausted from childbirth, you are sore and just feeling like shit actually. Although you feel horrible you still love the fact that you had the baby and think it is amazing and also a fabulous experience.

However all the lovely fuzzy feel good stuff cannot erase the whole thought and feeling that you would really like to be left alone and have a HUGE SLEEP ALL ALONE! This to date has not happened yet….I’m still waiting. Maybe I need some meternity leave now to have some time for me. This way I will get this long anticipated and wanted sleep.

I am not sure what Meghann means by perks of maternity leave?

Is it getting up at all hours to feed a baby?

Is it being extremely sleep deprived that you mix up dates and times. In reality you are really like a zombie…. I’m sure you know what I mean.

Maybe getting thrown up on when the kids are sick? I have had this times two.

Oh….. Wait maybe it is the fact that as the mother you are now the primary caregiver and you cannot get anything done without a little person or people following you around.

I do think it is wonderful that I have had three lovely little people and I feel blessed that we could do that. I also do understand that some women don’t want kids and that is fine too.

However to make out that maternity leave is like a glamourous vacation is just not so. How about you try and spend a day or even a week with me and that idea will be crushed in seconds.

Housework
Never getting to finish tasks
Being constantly interrupted
Cleaning
Washing and sorting clothes
Getting kids to school
Caring, feeding and all things baby. I do love my cuddles with our new little person and of course his lovely giggles and smiles.
Dropping kids and picking kids up from school
Taking kids to after school activities all with the baby…. Yes waking him up for everything is annoying but I have no choice
Getting the kids to do their reading, homework and other things for school. Now this is such a drama as they really don’t want to do this. I try and do this all while trying to settle and get a baby to bed, while the older two are having arguments and being loud and annoying

Do you think it sounds like there are fabulous perks yet? The only perk that I can come up with is that I have three little people that make me feel great when sometimes I don’t. They love me and I love them to bits.

I agree that everyone needs me time.

Everyone needs to be able to recharge their battery so to speak. Some downtime, a chance to chill and to refocus and maybe get the creative juices flowing again.

I don’t think that asking for time out to help with study, work or just to have a break is a bad thing. However trying to say that maternity leave is a perk is just wrong.

One place I worked for factored in some time to just be creative in the workday. This creative time allowed the staff member to explore other areas of interest, maybe learn something that would help them in their role or allow them to work on a pet project.

Me time is something that everyone should get. It is hard though when you take care of young children. It also might be hard if you are the carer of a family member. Time out is good for everyone, and also allows you to be a better mummy or carer since you had some time out. Not being able to do something for you and not having the time to do it can get very frustrating.

What do you think of Meghann Foye’s idea of meternity leave? Do you agree that it should be a thing? I personally think that you can have this option it is just called holidays or say study leave. Or maybe it is called something else at your workplace.

I personally think that if you don’t have kids or other pressures you can have as much me time as you want. I do understand people have to work and other commitments, but once you have done that, you can have your time.