diff --git a/src/mysql_capi.c b/src/mysql_capi.c
index c8839a8..78d2eb9 100644
--- a/src/mysql_capi.c
+++ b/src/mysql_capi.c
@@ -1217,11 +1217,11 @@ MySQL_connect(MySQL *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 #else
 {
     char* c_password;
+    PyObject* u_password= NULL;
     if (PyUnicode_Check(password))
     {
-        PyObject* u_password= PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(password);
+        u_password= PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(password);
         c_password= PyString_AsString(u_password);
-        Py_DECREF(u_password);
     }
     else
     {
@@ -1229,6 +1229,7 @@ MySQL_connect(MySQL *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
     }
     res= mysql_real_connect(&self->session, host, user, c_password, database,
                             port, unix_socket, client_flags);
+    if (u_password != NULL) Py_DECREF(u_password);
 }
 #endif