Pelvic Floor Health After Childbirth

July 19, 2008

St. Luke’s is leading the nation in offering a comprehensive program to evaluate pelvic floor health following childbirth. The program focuses on prompt assessment and effective intervention for pelvic floor disorders. It is the only one of its kind in the country to utilize a new scoring system, which takes all of the known risk factors that can limit pelvic health into account, to evaluate patients for their unique risk of developing pelvic floor disorders in the future.

The initiative was piloted at St. Luke’s Center for Pelvic Health by urogynecologists Heather vanRaalte, MD and Stephanie Molden, MD, of the Institute for Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery.

A multidisciplinary team, including obstetricians, midwives and nurses at St. Luke’s are participating in the program known as OPTA (Obstetrical Pelvic Trauma Assessment) “By creating this scoring system to determine individual patient risk, patients carrying a significant number of risk factors for the development of pelvic floor disorders will be easily identified and offered appropriate counseling, follow-up care and possible intervention,” Dr. van Raalte who developed the scoring system says.

The program launched on Mothers Day and currently all women who deliver at St. Luke’s Hospital are being assessed and appropriate education and referrals are being given.