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APPEAL: Antenatal Prophylactic Pelvic floor Exercises And Localisation Programme

People Involved

Project Description

Antenatal Prophylactic Pelvic floor Exercises And Localisation (APPEAL) brings together a programme of research to prevent poor health linked to pregnancy and childbirth-related urinary incontinence. The aim of APPEALis to increase the number of women doing pelvic floor muscle exercises during pregnancy and ensure that they are doing them ‘properly’. This should reduce the number of women who suffer with symptoms of incontinence after birth. There is excellent evidence that pelvic floor muscle exercises, when done correctly during pregnancy, halves the risk of urinary incontinence after birth. We also know that many pregnant women do not do these exercises. Midwives are the best placed health professionals to advise and teach pregnant women how to perform pelvic floor exercises and because of this the Royal College of Midwives and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists have joined together to highlight their importance.

We asked a group of women if they did the exercises during pregnancy and even though half remembered being told to do them they did not do so because: they forgot; their benefit was not clearly explained; or they were not sure if they were doing them correctly. We will continue to ask women for advice throughout APPEAL; their help is essential to making this programme work.

Project Acronym APPEAL
Status Project Complete
Funder(s) National Institute for Health Research
Value £11,634.00
Project Dates Nov 27, 2017 - Sep 30, 2022

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