Childbirth: 9 common postpartum complications

Although the care of pregnant and parturient women has improved in recent years, childbirth remains a challenge for women’s bodies. A study published in Tea Lancet Overall Health and presented by the WHO on December 7, reveals that each year, at least 40 million mothers are likely to suffer from a long-term health problem caused by childbirth. This represents one in 3 women.

More than a third of women suffer during lovemaking sex after childbirth

The majority of the approximately 140 million women who give birth each year worldwide do not experience any morbidity in the six weeks following delivery, recall the authors of the study. However, their work shows that postnatal conditions that persist in the months or even years following the birth of a child remain important. Among the complications most often noted by scientists, we can cite:

• pain during sexual intercourse (called dyspareunia): they touch 35% women in the postpartum period;
• lower back pain (32%);
• anal incontinence (19%);
• urinary incontinence (8 to 31%);
• anxiety (9 to 24%);
• the Depression (11 to 17%);
• perineal pain (11%) ;
• secondary infertility (11%);
• a fear of childbirth: between 6 and 15% of mothers develop this disorder called tocophobia after a traumatic childbirth.

Despite these significant complications, the authors note that “These conditions have been largely neglected in clinical research, practice and policy.”

THE WHO press release precise : “In a review of the literature spanning the past 12 years, for 40% of the 32 priority conditions analyzed in their study, the authors identified no recent high-quality guidelines likely to support effective treatment and did not found no quality guidelines from a low- or middle-income country. Data gaps are also significant: for any of the conditions identified in the research, there are no nationally representative studies or world”.

“Many postpartum conditions cause considerable suffering in women’s daily lives long after childbirth, both emotionally and physically, and yet they are largely underestimated, underrecognized and underreported,” deplores Dr. Pascale AlloteyDirector of the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Research at the WHO. “Throughout their lives, and beyond motherhood, women must have access to a range of services provided by health care providers who listen to their concerns and meet their needs — so that they can not only survive childbirth, but also enjoy good health and quality of life.“

Women’s health: for better support

For the authors of the study, it is essential that health institutions and professionals take these common problems into consideration, “many of which occur after women typically access postnatal services”. They also call for the implementation of effective care throughout pregnancy and childbirth to prevent the risks of complications likely to lead to lasting health problems after childbirth. For them, greater attention must be paid to the health of women and girls after but also before pregnancy, and also to their social, economic and environmental conditions which can have an impact.

“The lack of attention to these fundamental issues partly explains why 121 out of 185 countries have failed to make significant progress in reducing maternal mortality over the past two decades”deplores the report.

“Maternal health is not something we should only start worrying about when the mother-to-be’s belly becomes rounder.”adds Joao Paulo Souzadirector of the Health Sciences Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (BIREME) for’PAHO/WHO and one of the authors of the first article. “Many factors influence a woman’s likelihood of a healthy pregnancy, from the environment around her, to the political and economic systems in which she lives, to access to nutritious foods and the level of autonomy she has in her life — all these factors must be taken into account to improve one’s health, alongside access to quality health care throughout life.“