Women frequently experience urinary incontinence (UI) particularly throughout the pregnancy, when they experience various physiological changes simultaneously, and more than half of pregnant women suffer UI .Literature review revealed that the number of studies examining the toileting habits and knowledge level of pregnant women on urinary incontinence are really limited. For this purpose this paper aimed to determine the correlation between the knowledge level of pregnant women on urinary incontinence, prevalence of urinary incontinence and toileting behaviors.

This cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted with 263 pregnant women. Research data were collected using the “Personal Information Form” developed to determine the descriptive characteristics of pregnant women, the “Incontinence Severity Index (ISI) Scale” aiming to determine the severity of urinary incontinence, “The Toileting Behaviors: Women's Elimination Behaviors (TB-WEB) Scale” and the “Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-UI Short Form)”.  Data were analyzed with IBM SPSS v23 (Chicago, USA). Summary statistics were presented in number of units (n), percentage (%), mean±standard deviation (mean±(SD)) values. The conformity of the data to the normality assumption was calculated with “Kurtosis” and “Skewness” coefficients (± 2).  Independent t-test, One way Anova were used for the further analysis of the data.  Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine and explain the relationships between variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors for urinary incontinence.  The statistical significance level of the tests was accepted as p<0.05.The ethics approval to conduct the study was sought and granted by XXX University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee (No: 2024-229, Date: 29.03.2024) and institutional permission was sought and granted by XXX University Health Research and Application Center (Decree No: E-15374210-044-2400087999, Date: 07.05.2024). Written consents were obtained from the pregnant women who participated in the study.

The mean age of the pregnant women included in the study was 29.89±4.40 (18-42). 17.9% had experienced UI before pregnancy, 33.5% experienced UI in their current pregnancy, 47.7% of those who suffered UI had stress urinary incontinence and 77.3% of the pregnant women suffered urinary incontinence in the 2. Trimester.
A positive however poor statistically significant relationship was determined between the results obtained from the Urinary Incontinence Short Form and the premature voiding sub-scale of the Toileting Behaviors: Women's Elimination Behaviors (TB-WEB) Scale (p<0.05).  A positive however poor statistically significant relationship was determined between the results obtained from the Incontinence Severity Index and the premature voiding, straining voiding, position preference for voiding sub-scales of the Toileting Behaviors: Women's Elimination Behaviors (TB-WEB) Scale (p<0.05) 
Gestational week, having suffered urinary incontinence before pregnancy and premature voiding are determined as statistically significant explanatory variables for urinary incontinence (p<0.05).

The increase in the incontinence severity of pregnant women is concluded to be further triggering the attitudes of premature voiding, straining voiding and position preference for voiding. The increase in the knowledge level of pregnant women on incontinence further triggers their premature voiding attitude. As urinary incontinence is a common problem encountered during pregnancy, it is recommended that nurses, midwives and physicians working with pregnant women should assess their patients for UI.

Urinary incontinence is  diagnose  in approximately one third of pregnant women. The increase in the incontinence severity of pregnant women further triggers the attitudes of premature voiding, straining voiding and position preference for voiding. The increase in the knowledge level of pregnant women on incontinence further triggers their premature voiding attitude.

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