Pregnancy health

Minor health issues
Stretch marks | Weight gain | Morning sickness | Tiredness | Swollen ankles and fingers

Serious health issues
Hyperemesis | High blood pressure and pre-eclampsia | Cholestasis | Symphysis pubis dysfunction | Vaginal bleeding | Gestational diabetes

Constipation and piles

The hormonal changes pregnancy brings affect your intestines - ie slower transit time - so you may feel you're going through the equivalent of giving birth every few days.

Mumsnetters recommend:

• Dried apricots, and if you can raise your feet when you 'go' eg by putting them on a step stool that helps enormously. Piccalilli2
• A couple of teaspoons of linseeds worked for me (couldn't go for over a week in trimester one, was awful, I looked about six months pregnant instead of ten weeks!) and got things moving more easily. You can sprinkle the linseeds on cereal or something like that. TarkaLiotta
• I meditate on the toilet - visualising everything moving smoothly and efficiently (sorry if TMI) and also massage the small of my lower back - doing sweeping down movements. And it really, really helps me! Orissiah

Try to prevent constipation by drinking lots of water and eating foods with plenty of fibre in them, such as wholemeal bread and pasta, fruit, vegetables, and beans and lentils.

All the straining on the loo plus the weight of your growing baby may lead to piles (haemorrhoids), which are actually varicose veins in your back passage.

"Unless you've suffered from piles, it all seems a bit of a snigger, but there are few things as painful. It got to the stage where I was crying with them, so forced myself to drive to the doctor, whilst attempting to hover above the seat. Heavily pregnant and obviously in pain, the receptionist took one look and assumed I was in labour. All hell broke loose. With the whole of the surgery looking on, I had to explain that I wasn't in labour – I had piles. Anyway, lots of Anusol cream and suppositories did the trick." MarmaladeSun

Sufferers also recommend witch hazel gel ('kept in the fridge'), cold compresses, cypress oil in a warm soothing bath, and using soft wipes instead of loo roll.

Do everything you can to prevent constipation and try to take the weight off the tender area by sleeping on your side, sitting on a rubber ring, not standing or sitting for too long, and, when you have to go, "you might find it helps to rest your feet on a stool – no pun intended – or a pile of phone books when on the loo", advises one mum.

If there's bleeding, consult your doctor, as what you have may be an anal fissure, rather than piles.

But what happens during labour, you may be thinking?

"The piles won't explode," says a Mumsnetter who is a midwife, "but your midwife might cover them with a sterile pad at the time of delivery if necessary. Consider delivering on all fours, to take some of the pressure off."

They tend to get worse after pushing in labour, but most disappear not long after you have given birth.

"Mine were unbelievably big post-delivery. But once all the weight was gone - ie the baby - they slowly started to shrink and I don't notice them anymore." Fefifofum
 

Minor health issues
Stretch marks | Weight gain | Morning sickness | Tiredness | Swollen ankles and fingers

Serious health issues
Hyperemesis | High blood pressure and pre-eclampsia | Cholestasis | Symphysis pubis dysfunction | Vaginal bleeding | Gestational diabetes