For a study, researchers sought to analyze spina bifida (SB) women’s successful pregnancy histories and discussed how pregnancy changed their mobility, bladder and bowel management, and mobility. Investigators performed semi-structured interviews with women who had previously had successful pregnancies and were being followed in our adult multidisciplinary SB clinic. Perinatal concerns, obstetrical difficulties, urinary tract infections (UTI), and neurological abnormalities were all addressed in the survey. The Study Group compared mobility, bladder control, and bowel management changes before and after pregnancy. Between 2009 and 2016, the adult multidisciplinary spina bifida clinic followed 121 women of reproductive age per year. About 6 ladies were found as having successfully brought 8 pregnancies to term. There were no miscarriages in the pregnancy. Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunts were implanted in 4 women. There were no children born with neural tube defects. The average age at the time of the first pregnancy was 23.5 years. At the time of delivery, the average gestational age was 37 weeks. A spontaneous vaginal birth was experienced by 50% of the women. Only 1 patient drank folic acid regularly before pregnancy, even though 5 of the 6 women wanted to get pregnant. In addition, 2 of the 6 women underwent bladder augmentation surgery, with 1 of them experiencing urologic abnormalities during pregnancy that continued after delivery. The other patient underwent a bladder neck sling operation simultaneously and had no urologic difficulties during her pregnancy. During their pregnancy, 50% of the patients suffered bladder-bowel dysfunction. While 67% of patients had full baseline ambulatory function, 4 patients had impaired mobility and needed extra help during pregnancy. After that, everything went back to as before. About 6 of the patients had 8 successful pregnancies, with no neural tube problems in their offspring. However, more than half of the women encountered new changes in mobility, bladder, and bowel management during their pregnancies. Future research should concentrate on the function of multidisciplinary teams in reproductive health education and the perinatal treatment of changes in everyday activities in the population during pregnancy.
Source:www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1477513121005234
