Long-term effect of first childbirth on pelvic floor muscle function: Cross-sectional study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) function of nulliparous and primiparous women with history of vaginal delivery and cesarean section. This study took place at the Women’s Health Research Laboratory, in the Department of Physical Therapy at Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil. Sixty volunteers were included between 18 and 40 years-old; regarding the primiparous, the assessment was done strictly from one to three years postpartum. A sample of 20 participants in each group was determined: vaginal delivery group, cesarean group and nulliparous group. Procedures included vaginal palpation, vaginal manometry and surface electromyography of the PFM. Non-parametric variables were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test or Mann-Whitney test and parametric variables using One-way ANOVA. A significance level of 5% was adopted. No significant difference was found between groups in relation to the function of the PFM evaluated by digital palpation (p = 0.75), vaginal manometry (p = 0.25) and surface electromyography (p = 0.465). The function of the PFM was similar between primiparous and nulliparous.