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‘You feel so sexless and dirty’: the women living with incontinence after childbirth
One in three women have trouble controlling their bladders or bowels after giving birth. Others must deal with tearing or prolapses. And when help is available, it’s often too little, too late
Commuters to London’s Liverpool Street were treated to a taboo-busting billboard last week, featuring a mother of two weightlifting, while leaking actual liquid. The ad is part of the “leaks happen” campaign, from the women’s health brand Elvie, aiming to raise awareness of a common, but largely obscured, problem – postpartum incontinence.
Claire Hackett, the Alliance party rep for Mid Ulster in Northern Ireland, can testify first-hand how women are suffering in silence, and says that openness is exactly what’s needed. When she returned to work 10 months after the birth of her third child, the impact of injuries following all three births continued to complicate her life. “I can remember the sweat and the fear of ‘Oh my God, what might happen if I don’t get to the toilet’. It’s things like this that you don’t really want to talk to people about.”
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