Mum sets up company to reduce incontinence

A Fareham woman has set up a company to teach people exercises to help reduce urinary incontinence through exercise.

Nikki Caputa launched UK Hypopressives with the help of her business partner Richard Peterson to teach men and women exercises to help reduce and even stop urinary incontinence.

UK Hypopressives aims to teach people, through breathing and postural exercises, how to reduce symptoms of incontinence.

As well as this, they work with healthcare professionals such as chiropractors, obstetricians and physiotherapists to train them to teach others hypopressive exercises.

They currently hold around six training sessions a year, during which they train 80 healthcare professionals.

But co-owner Nikki says this isn’t enough and hopes to expand their clientele to ten times what it is now, so people all over the UK can receive hypopressive training.

Nikki, 50, who is a personal trainer, launched the company after struggling with incontinence after having twins.

She said: ‘I suffered in silence for many years with stress and urge incontinence. Before the twins came along I loved to go to the gym, to play sport and walking.

‘For 12 years I suffered and had almost given up hope as I had tried all the conventional treatments such as pelvic floor exercises given to me by my GP.

‘Hypopressives literally changed my life in a very short space of time. My symptoms went completely and I was able to live a normal, active life as I was before kids without worrying about wetting myself.’

Since training in hypopressives in 2012, Nikki says she has helped hundreds of women gain control of their bladder and some have even been taken off surgery waiting lists.

The company aims to eliminate the need for surgery, which uses a mesh to solve incontinence problems.