Objectives: This study aimed to explore experiences of women with anal incontinence following a childbirth injury, and to identify areas of missed opportunities within care they received.
Design: This is a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews.
Setting: Participants were recruited via five hospitals in the UK, and via social media adverts and communication from charity organisations.
Participants: Women who have experienced anal incontinence following a childbirth injury, either within 7 years of sustaining the injury, or if they identified new, or worsening symptoms of AI at the time of menopause.
Main outcome measures: Main outcomes are experiences of women with anal incontinence following childbirth injury, and missed opportunities within the care they received.
Results: The following main themes were identified: opportunities for diagnosis missed, missed opportunities for information sharing and continuity and timeliness of care.
Conclusions: Anal Incontinence following a childbirth injury has a profound impact on women. Lack of information and awareness both amongst women and healthcare professionals contributes to delays in accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Copyright: © 2023 Parsons et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.