Being involved in an everlasting fight--a life with postnatal faecal incontinence. A qualitative study

The prevalence of women suffering from faecal incontinence as a complication to childbirth has been estimated to 0.6-6%. The aim of this study was to elucidate the life situation and the psychosocial processes of women suffering from this injury and to find out how they cope with being in that situation. Nine women were strategically and consecutively selected from a surgery outpatient department at a hospital, to be the participants of this study. Data collection and analysis were made according to the grounded theory approach. In the analysis a core category Being involved in an everlasting fight was identified. Three main categories Fighting to be like others, Fighting against attitudes and Striving for confirmation with six sub categories depict the constant struggle to not only keep up an appearance of a normal, healthy person, but also to feel like one. The women described feelings of shame and marginalization and expressed a strong need of support and confirmation from husbands and private network in order to cope better with their lives.

Health care professionals must inform women at risk about the effects of the injury and inform them about treatment in case of future problems in order to prevent physical, psychological and social suffering. They should also, as a routine, question the patients with regard to problems with incontinence of urine, faeces and flatulence.