Written By: Debjani Arora | Published : March 30, 2018 8:03 PM IST
A woman s body goes through a lot of changes during pregnancy. Post pregnancy it takes awhile for the body to get back to its pre-pregnancy state. Till then the hormones keep playing tricks with her body which accounts for many of the postpartum physiological problems. Apart from making the new mother suffer from a number of problems like mood swings, breast engorgement, baby blues, constipation, sleeplessness, it can also give rise to UTIs. A UTI is the last thing she would like to suffer from postpartum. But as they say, mothers are spared neither health wise or otherwise. Here is everything you need to know about postpartum UTI.
Post delivery the chances of getting a UTI are definitely high due to several reasons. First, if it is a vaginal delivery, the vagina, as well as the uterine area, undergoes a trauma which makes it a vulnerable environment. It takes time for the vagina to heal and get back to its pre-pregnancy state. The moist area makes the bacterial fauna to grow abnormally at times which could give rise to postpartum UTI. Also, if the mother has undergone an episiotomy it could make the area down there more susceptible to bacterial infection during healing. However, with good hygiene practices in place, this can be prevented.
UTIs are not just a problem for mothers who undergo a vaginal birth, even mother who have to go for a c-section and are spared the vaginal trauma are equally at risk of developing UTIs. During c-section, a catheter is placed into the vagina during the surgery and it stays in that position for a day till the mother is allowed to get up and walk. This cauterization (pipe in the bladder) can pose a high risk of UTI post a caesarean. Here is what you should expect after a c-section.
The symptoms of UTI for mothers who undergo a vaginal delivery or a c-section are the same. Hence, one must be alert if she experiences any kind of symptoms like burning or inadequate passage of urine or increase in the frequency of urination. These changes should be reported to the doctor and a urine routine check-up should be done to see if the infection is anything serious, says Dr Gayatri Deshpande, gynaecologist, Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai.
In general, a UTI infection after pregnancy might not be a threat to a mother s health apart from just making her irritable and throwing her life off tracks with its symptoms. But if it remains untreated and the bacteria spread from the vagina to the cervix and uterus it could lead to secondary infertility in rare cases.
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