How to Manage Urine Leaks During Pregnancy & Postpartum

It’s common for women to leak urine (also known as incontinence) during pregnancy and after childbirth. In fact, research shows that one in three women over the age of 35 experiences urine leakage, including light leaks.

Here, we look at the causes behind stress urinary incontinence during and after pregnancy, and share some advice on how to get your bladder back under control.

Key points we’ll cover:

• Why do women leak urine during pregnancy?
• Are leaks during pregnancy always pee?
• How to manage urine leaks during pregnancy
• Female urinary leaks after childbirth
• How to manage urine leaks after childbirth

Pregnancy incontinence is a term for bladder leakage, which happens because of pregnancy hormones, added pressure on your bladder, and pelvic floor muscles getting a bit weaker. It’s quite common, affecting around 40% of women during pregnancy.¹ But it doesn’t always stop after childbirth. Many new moms continue to experience bladder control issues, known as postpartum urinary incontinence.

What Are the Types of Pregnancy Incontinence?

Let’s break it down. There are a couple of main types that can pop up during pregnancy and after baby arrives:

• Stress incontinence: Ever had a little leak when you cough, sneeze, laugh, or lift something heavy?¹ That’s stress incontinence.
• Urge incontinence: That sudden, strong urge to pee right away? That’s urge incontinence.¹
• Mixed incontinence: Sometimes, you might experience a bit of both. Yep, that’s called mixed incontinence.

What Causes Pregnancy Incontinence?

There are many ways that pregnancy affects the bladder, which can lead to frequent urination and constant bathroom trips during pregnancy or leaks. Here are some of the reasons why it happens:

1. Your body produces more pee

Throughout pregnancy, your blood volume increases, causing the kidneys to produce more urine, so you’ll need to go to the bathroom more frequently.

2. Your bladder is getting squeezed

As your uterus expands with your growing baby, there’s extra pressure on your bladder. The bigger your baby gets, the more your bladder gets squeezed, which is why you might feel like you live in the bathroom during your third trimester.

3. Your hormones are softening everything

The body’s reproductive hormones loosen and relax your muscles, joints and ligaments during pregnancy to help your body stretch and prepare for delivering a baby. These hormones also weaken the muscles that control urine flow, so leaks become more common.

Throw in constipation (a common symptom that we can experience during pregnancy and after birth) and there’s even more pressure on your pelvic floor and bladder. This weakens the support around your urinary tract, which can mean you experience light leaks or stress urinary incontinence, especially when you laugh, cough or sneeze.

4. You’re lying down at night

When you finally lie down to rest after carrying around a baby all day, any fluid retention in your legs and feet finds its way back into your bloodstream. This increases the production of urine, which could explain why you keep waking up at 3 a.m. to pee.

How Long Does Pregnancy & Postpartum Incontinence Last?

Great question! The good news is that pregnancy incontinence is usually temporary. For some women, bladder control bounces back within a few weeks. For others, those unexpected leaks can hang around for months or even longer. But in most cases, things return to normal a few months after pregnancy.¹

Recovery depends on factors like how strong your pelvic floor is, whether you had a vaginal or C-section delivery, pregnancy weight gain, and any pre-existing bladder quirks.

Most women see improvement with time (and a little pelvic floor TLC). But if you're still dealing with the problem 6 weeks or more postpartum, or if things seem to be getting worse, it’s worth checking in with a healthcare provider.1 There’s no need to suffer in silence when there’s help available.

Leaks during pregnancy are most likely urine. If you put a liner in your underwear and the fluid is yellowish in color, then it’s probably pee. If you’re at all worried that you could have amniotic fluid leakage, contact your doctor or midwife. A quick scan will determine if everything’s as it should be and put your mind at ease.

1. Strengthen your pelvic floor

Pelvic floor exercises, which involve contracting and relaxing the pelvic floor, can help to reduce leaks by strengthening the muscles around your bladder. This gives you the support you need to carry the extra weight of a baby while also counteracting the softening effect that your hormones have on your muscles and ligaments.

The exercises are really simple and can be done anywhere — at home, on the bus or even at work when you’re bored in a meeting. They help to keep the pelvic floor strong and elastic with good blood circulation, which can also improve recovery time after childbirth. Check out: Pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy.

2. Take time to empty your bladder fully

When you’ve been to the bathroom three times before breakfast, it can be tempting to rush the next visit, but don’t. Leaving even a small amount of urine in the bladder increases your chances of developing a urinary tract infection (UTI), so always take the time to empty your bladder completely. A great tip is to lean forward on the toilet seat — this is the most effective position for the body when it comes to emptying the bladder fully.

3. Wear the right incontinence liners

Wearing the right liners means that you can relax at whatever cough, sneeze or laughing fit life throws at you. You might be tempted to use standard menstrual pads, but these won’t offer the right levels of absorption that a liner specifically designed to deal with urine leakage will. If you’re experiencing light leaks, try TENA Sensitive Care Very Light Liners or TENA Sensitive Care Ultra Thin Incontinence Pads that provide triple the protection from leaks, odor and moisture.

4. Wear compression socks

To avoid leaking at night or waking up multiple times to pee, try wearing compression stockings. It’s a good idea to wear them first thing in the morning so that fluid doesn’t have time to build up in the legs and feet throughout the day. That way, when you lie down at night, there’s less fluid to make its way back into your bloodstream.

By the time your baby’s due to arrive, your organs (including your bladder and urethra) will have moved around a lot to make room for your growing baby. The pelvic floor muscles, which surround your urethra, vagina and anus, will have been stretched; and labor also takes a significant toll on the pelvic floor.

All of this can cause bladder weakness after childbirth. This can last a few weeks, or you might find that you experience the odd accident now and again over a longer period.

Your body just needs some time to heal and readjust. But there are things you can do to prevent, reduce and manage your symptoms. However, if you’re concerned that you may have a more serious problem, it’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor.

1. Work that pelvic floor

Pelvic floor exercises aren’t just essential throughout pregnancy and in the months after childbirth, they’re essential for all stages of our lives.

A strong pelvic floor is key to prevent and manage urinary and anal incontinence. That’s because your pelvic floor muscles support all of the organs above them, including the bladder. They also balance abdominal pressure. When abdominal pressure increases (think about when you cough, sneeze or lift something heavy) a strong pelvic floor will spring back, so that you don’t experience leaks.

It's a good idea to try to fit pelvic floor exercises in every day. If you’ve recently given birth, it’s best to do the exercises lying down to avoid putting any extra pressure on the pelvic area, but over time, you can practice them pretty much anywhere.

2. Find the right women’s incontinence products

After giving birth, it’s worth investing in pads that are specifically designed to help absorb leaking urine.

In the weeks after birth, you’ll need pads with heavier absorbency levels. TENA Sensitive Care Ultimate Incontinence Pads provide triple protection against bladder leaks odor and wetness. The Duolock core, and cushiony foam side barriers offer skin comfort and security.

Over time, as the leaks get lighter, you can move to a liner like the TENA Sensitive Care Moderate Incontinence Pads that provide triple the protection from leaks, odor, and moisture. It’s super absorbent and no larger than a menstrual pad.

3. Train your bladder

During the latter stages of pregnancy, your bladder can’t hold as much urine as usual, as it’s being restricted (read: kicked and squeezed) by your baby. It’s only natural that, after you’ve given birth, it needs to get used to holding more pee again.

As a rule, you should pee between 4–8 times a day or every 4–6 hours (average bladder capacity is around 10–17 oz). So, if you find you’re peeing a lot less than this, gradually try to increase the time between bathroom visits. This will help train your bladder to hold in more pee while, at the same time, exercising those all-important pelvic floor muscles.

And if you’re still waking up at night to pee, see if you can go back to sleep again without going to the bathroom. Sometimes, old habits can take a while to shift.

4. Don’t be tempted to drink less water

It’s the most natural conclusion in the world — you’re peeing too often, so you drink less water. But this is exactly what you don’t want to do. Drinking less water leads to dehydration which, in turn, causes your urine to become more concentrated. This can irritate the bladder, creating the urge to go to the toilet even when the bladder isn’t full, so it’s important to stay well-hydrated.

Drinking water is essential if you’re breastfeeding. It also helps with digestion, eases constipation and keeps your urine healthy, which reduces your risk of developing a UTI. To find out more about what to do if you get a UTI, check out Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) During Pregnancy.

TENA is here to help you navigate your pregnancy and postpartum journey, with practical advice for pregnancy and postpartum incontinence. We have a full range of incontinence products for women designed to provide the support you need, so you can focus on what truly matters.

Leaking During Pregnancy: Amniotic Fluid or Urinary Incontinence?

Not sure if that unexpected wetness is amniotic fluid or just your bladder acting up again? Here’s how to tell the difference:

• Amniotic fluid cushions your baby in the uterus and leaks when your water breaks. It may gush suddenly or trickle slowly, sometimes making you feel like you’re peeing. It’s usually clear and odorless, but it can also be straw-colored or tinged with brown or green.¹
• Urine has a yellow tint and that familiar ammonia-like smell.

If you’re unsure, do a quick underwear check. If you get a whiff of ammonia, it’s likely pee. If the fluid smells fishy or unpleasant, it could be a sign of infection.¹

It’s best not to take chances, so if you’re not sure what’s leaking, contact your healthcare provider to be on the safe side! ¹