Ulrika stands up for post-birth incontinence

Well, Ulrika Jonsson is back in the news with her views on being a mum and post-pregnancy weight loss. This time, however, she reveals 'the most embarrassing' and intimate of health secrets that affects many women post-birth: light adult incontinence (LAI) or postpartum urinary incontinence. As a result of having four children, as she says, it's no wonder that the muscles supporting her pelvis were weakened. Laughing, sneezing or coughing are all triggers for the leaking of a small amount of urine. Women who give birth vaginally are less likely to have urinary incontinence as opposed to women who have caesareans. In Australia, women comprise over 70% of people affected by urinary incontinence.

As most women suffer in silence, Jonsson has decided to speak out:

"I can't bear the thought of women suffering alone, in silence and feeling so alienated by this condition through absolutely no fault of their own. I mean, there is nothing adult about panicking every time you laugh or sneeze and feeling that you're losing control, so it's so easy to understand the stigma.

At the time, it did make me feel self-conscious, to say the very least, although my minor leakage problems after going to the toilet were alleviated by using the right protection and were not extreme enough for me to be caught out. But I do remember wondering whether I would have to suffer the side effects of childbirth for the rest of my life.

As an independent working woman I felt a bit stupid: what, I couldn't even control my own bladder - something you normally learn to do around the age of three?"

She says the only way she got her continence problem under control was through weight loss (she put on 5 stone in her last pregnancy) and doing pelvic floor exercises religiously.

If you suffer from urinary incontinence as a result of childbirth, here are some resources:
Urinary incontinence explained
Continence Foundation of Australia
Always Envive: Sense & Sensitivity Campaign UK

Does anyone have any thoughts? Is urinary incontinence affecting you? What did you do to strengthen your pelvic floor?

Source: Ulrika reveals her most embarassing health issue

Ulrika Jonsson hates her post-baby boobs

It was only a few weeks ago that Swedish mother of 5, Ulrika Jonsson was railing against the skinny post-baby bodies of her fellow celebritiy mums. She claimed she was not going to worry about losing weight and was proud of her stretch marks. Today she written that she hates her huge post-pregnancy breasts and is planning to have them reduced:

"In my first pregnancy in 1994 when I was 27, I went from a D up to an FF-cup. When I moaned about this to my dear friend Vic Reeves, his eyes lit up and he asked whether the double F stood for ' F***** g Fantastic'.

I set a record this time when I was pregnant, though - I eclipsed all physical possibilities, I thought, when I had to order an I-cup over the internet. Marks & Spencer goes up to a J-cup but its best seller is a 36C.

I was truly repulsed by my breasts and I think my husband, Brian Monet, was stunned into a nine-month silence. I likened myself to a fat, ageing porn star.

Standing in the shower, I could not see the rest of my body when looking down. And don't even get me started on the backache and the painful red grooves the bra straps left on my shoulders.

Which brings me to the post-pregnancy bust. If anything could be less desirable than bloated, humongous 'mummy bags', it's a deflated pair.

You see, I know what's coming over the next few months. Not unlike a tyre with a slow puncture, they will gradually diminish and I will, before you can say the word 'mammoplasty', be left with what can be described only as two ping-pong balls in bin liners."

I've conflicted about this. I think women should be able to make choices about what they do with their bodies. One person's decision to have plastic surgery has nothing to do with me. But, at the same time, it makes me uncomfortable that she frames her justification for wanting a reduction around whether or not her husband would approve. She also says she is not doing the surgery for 'self-esteem' reasons like other women who want to have bigger breasts so they can feel more 'womanly'. Well, of course she is?! If she is uncomfortable with having large breasts and is constantly trying to hide them, I'm not sure how that isn't a matter of self-esteem.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/5z872p

Ulkrika Jonsson weighs in on bouncing back

TV presenter Ulrika Jonsoon is 5 stone heavier since she had her 4th baby a few weeks ago and she has written an essay for the Daily Mail about the scrutiny of her weight gain and the pressures to bounce back. She's written a very honest account of her weighing more than her husband, the enormous praise lavished upon Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry for their washboard abs a few weeks post-birth, and the struggles she's had with fighting to be skinny throughout her life:

"I remember thinking at the time that if I ever got pregnant again, I'd be one of those gloriously slender Yummy Mummies, driving my immaculate family around Chelsea in a vast and shiny 4x4, laughing mockingly at all the fat mums-to-be passing me by. Some chance. My body shape has changed more this time than it did in any of my previous three pregnancies, when I managed to notch up just a measly three stone".

A refreshing read: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1042408/Ulrika-Jonsson-Im-stone-heavier-Im-proud-post-baby-body.html