Role and availability of postpartum physiotherapy in women’s opinions

Abstract

Introduction and Objective. The aim of the study was to assess the role and availability of postpartum physiotherapy in women’s opinions. Material and methods. The study included 112 women aged 37 ± 7 years who gave birth at least once. The research tool was an online questionnaire. Results. Eleven of the surveyed women (10%) who had a consultation with a physiotherapist in the hospital after childbirth rated it at 7 ± 3.74, on a scale of 0-10, where 0 meant that they considered the consultation to be definitely unnecessary, and 10 definitely needed. Women who had no contact with a physiotherapist in the hospital after childbirth assessed the validity of such consultation at 5 ± 4.70. After hospitalization, 25 women (22%) consulted a physiotherapist. Among the women who did not (78%), more than a half (57%) did not know that there was such a possibility. Among the women who attended childbirth classes, 34% (n=15) were informed about the possibility of consulting a physiotherapist after childbirth. Conclusions. Women’s awareness of the competence of a urogynaecological physiotherapist should be increased, e.g. during childbirth classes and during hospitalization after childbirth. Solutions should be sought to enable women after childbirth an early access to urogynaecological physiotherapy, at least of an instructional nature. It is advisable to conduct further research aimed at determining the barriers in access to urogynaecological physiotherapy for postpartum women.