Urinary incontinence (UI), a complaint of involuntary urinary incontinence experienced during the bladder storage phase, is more common in women than in men. The incidence of UI increases especially during periods of rapid hormonal and physiological changes such as pregnancy. The most common type of urinary incontinence in pregnant women is stress urinary incontinence and its incidence increases in the advancing trimester. It is stated in the literature that approximately half of the pregnant women experience UI. UI is not a life-threatening condition, but compared to other diseases, it can have a negative impact on health-related quality of life, including physical, psychological, and social well-being. Knowing effective coping methods with UI is important for solving the problem in the early period and increasing the quality of life. However, in a study conducted with women in different groups, it was found that ineffective coping methods were frequently used and therefore they were late in seeking professional help. There is no study in the literature on the frequency of use of non-drug coping methods with UI in pregnant women. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of use of UI and non-drug coping methods in pregnant women and to examine the relationship between them and their quality of life.

This research is descriptive and relation-seeking type. This study was conducted with 320 pregnant women over the age of 18 who applied to the obstetrics and gynecology outpatient clinics of a private hospital between 01.09.2022 and 01.02.2023. The data were collected by using the "Personal Information Form", "Use of Frequency of Non-Drug Coping with Urinary Incontinence Method" and "International Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-SF)", which was created to determine the descriptive characteristics of pregnant women. The data were analyzed in the IBM 22 package program. The normal distribution of the data was evaluated with the Kolmogorov-smirnov test. In the analysis of the data, independent t test, One way Anova for normally distributed data, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests for non-normally distributed data were used. In addition, Chi-square tests were used. The Pearson correlation analysis was performed to establish the relationship between the scales.  Multiple logistic regression was applied to examine risk factors of urinary incontinence during pregnancy. The Pearson correlation analysis was performed to establish the relationship between the scales. Significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Ethics committee approval (no: 2022-724, 26.08.2022) and written permission from the relevant institution were obtained in order to conduct the study. Written informed consent was obtained from the pregnant women participating in the study.

The mean age of the pregnant women included in the study was 30.41±4.19 (min:21; max:46). The frequency of urinary incontinence of pregnant women is 45.3%. 52.4% of pregnant women with urinary incontinence started to experience urinary incontinence for the first time in the second trimester. Within the scope of the study, it was found that pregnant women who gave birth before, had a vaginal delivery, had a family history of UI and had UI before pregnancy experienced urinary incontinence more (p<0.05). There is a strong relationship between the current urinary incontinence of pregnant women who had UI before pregnancy (OR=7.111, 95% CI=3.807-13.284), and the presence of UI in their family history (OR=3.116, 95% CI=1.92-5.078), birth and birth. form (OR=2.798, 95% CI=1.41-5.56) and previous delivery status (OR=1.688, 95% CI= 1.083-2.631). Within the scope of the study, the mean scores of pregnant women (34.00±11.56) with primary education level of using non-drug coping methods with urinary incontinence were higher than the mean scores of women with other education levels, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The ICIQ-SF median score of pregnant women with vaginal delivery was higher than those who delivered by cesarean section, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The median scores of the pregnant women with mixed UI type and the frequency of using non-drug methods of coping with urinary incontinence were higher than the pregnant women with the other urinary incontinence type, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). There is a moderate positive correlation (r: 0.354; p<0.001) with the Frequency of Use of ICIQ-SF and Non-Drug Coping Methods with Urinary Incontinence. There was no correlation between age and the Frequency of Use of ICIQ-SF and Urinary Incontinence and Non-Drug Coping Methods (p>0.05).

According to the results of this study, it was found that approximately half of the pregnant women (45.3%) experienced UI and their UI complaints started in the 2nd trimester. Experiencing UI before pregnancy, family history, vaginal delivery and previous delivery are risk factors for UI. Pregnant women with a primary education level and mixed type UI have a worse quality of life compared to other pregnant women, and the frequency of using non-drug coping methods with urinary incontinence is higher. The quality of life of pregnant women who had a vaginal delivery before is worse than those who gave birth by cesarean section.

Considering the fact that the incontinence status should be questioned especially from the 2nd trimester in the follow-up of pregnant women by physicians, public health nurses, midwives and other health professionals working with individuals with incontinence, it may be recommended to include preventive practices (kegel) and information from urinary incontinence in pregnant education programs. It is important to question this situation in the follow-up of pregnant women, especially since the limited increase in the quality of life of women with non-drug coping methods may cause the problem to be overlooked and the problem to become a bigger problem. Questioning women's non-drug methods in different studies in different populations will contribute to the development of preventive approaches for the solution of urinary incontinence.

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