OK for women to shit themselves 7 months post partum?

Please also look into getting a RADAR key- https://www.bladderandbowel.org/help-information/free-radar-key-home-delivery-service/ . I don’t use mine anymore but I take it everywhere with me, like a talisman.

Also I’d recommend anyone who’s interested in running with prolapse to look up Sophie Power. She’s an ultra marathon runner who has one and there’s an interesting documentary about her. The Why Mums Don’t Jump podcast and book is also great.

We shouldn’t be told that we can’t do high impact exercise after having babies. Avoiding resistance training is just storing up musculoskeletal issues for the menopause. I do get on my soapbox about this because I feel so strongly about it. It’s a huge political issue that we go to our GPs with our organs falling out and we just get shoulder-shrugs and get told it’s normal and we have to limit our activity. It’s common, it isn’t normal.

You could have had a missed third degree tear. I went to a third degree tear repair training day once and the consultant running it was showing ultrasound images of women’s sphincters who’d been told they had second degree tears or even intact perinieums. Months or even years later they were having issues with fecal incontinence. You definitely need to see a decent gynaecologist. I’d go back and push for a referral and yes see a women’s health physio as well while you’re waiting for the gynaecologist. Could just be a pelvic floor/prolapse issue but even so you need seeing.

YANBU that women’s health is terrible but this was something I was warned about when DC1 was breech so I’m surprised you weren’t given more information given you had a specialist team. Was the team a private one by any chance that were financially motivated?

Unfortunately I think your GP is probably right that the damage post breech birth is something that means you need to accept an occasional accident might happen - it doesn’t mean anyone should have to accept it but that is the reality and why so few women intentionally opt for them when given the full post birth reality.

A women’s health physio can help but again, they can only do so much.

I always found running made any pelvic floor issues worse, to be honest. You can burn off the same calories with a brisk walk (particularly with an incline) anyway without bouncing your innards around. I'd recommend walking and yoga or pilates.

One - taking immodium just so you can go running is a really bad idea. That stuff is for very occasional emergencies only (eg need to travel home when you've an upset gut).

Two - any sort of incontinence, bulge etc where it shouldn't be is bad news and shouldn't be a thing. Get a referral and a repair. Be prepared to fight for this. If a man turned up at the doctors with faecal incontinence and something bulging where it shouldn't you know he'd be on a hospital waiting list before you could say boo. As you can tell, I get enraged by the idea that women should just have to live with the aftermath of birth injuries and put up with this kind of crap (no pun intended).

Sorry you’re going through this. Runners’ trots can be normal, but probably not the next day. You have a rectocele from what you’ve described- the poo gets trapped there and it can cause problems. If you get a referral to women’s health physio there’s things that can be done. For the time being, could you try an exercise that causes a bit less intra-abdominal pressure? I love reformer Pilates and swimming. The GetmomStrong app also has some really good sweaty workouts for postpartum women. You’ll want to get your pelvic floor sorted out before you fo anything jolty. I’m 18m pp with a cystocele (like rectocele but the front) and am only just starting to run again after intense pelvic floor rehab and a cube pessary. (Don’t let anyone tell you you can never run again though because you can :).)
When you see the women’s health physio ask for your bum to be checked as well in case you’ve had a missed 3rd degree tear. They will be able to feel if there’s a defect. Sometimes it can be hard to see in the post-birth car crash whether it’s a bad second or a third.
Please insist on that women’s health physio referral. Consider private if you can afford it-somewhere that offers Mummy MOT would be good.
I’ve had my own journey since having my son and have been extremely surprised by how content some health professionals are to just leave women pooing themselves. Even at very good hospitals with decent reps for obs and gynae.

My GP said she thought my issue was thrush.
I went private - was diagnosed with prolapse.
I no longer run but I do pilates everyday.
And I take stool softeners so I never get constipated.

With a massive tear you can have torn muscles, not just rectocele. Then kegels do nothing at all. Some injuries can be repaired with surgery, but not all. In any case you need to see a specialist, someone who is an expert on pelvic floor and injuries from childbirth.

How sure are you that shitting yourself was related to the running? Next day is quite a long time after.

i have ibs and this sort of thing is unfortunately quite common for people with ibs.

tmi but could it have been a stomach bug or food poisoning or similar?

obviously you should see a women’s health person anyway. GPs generally not the right people for this sort of stuff.

Did you not realise till you were back? Or are you saying the movement brought on a er movement that you were unable to hold off?

I have rectocele that I didn't get looked at for 2 years post partum due to the pandemic. I had specialist physio (private). I did originally think I would have surgery to fix it but now I don't see myself doing it unless things get worse. The consultant and physio I saw told me NOT to run or do anything high impact as it would make it worse. I took that seriously at first but having done lots of strength work (slowly built up) I now feel more or less normal (except it is difficult to get a poo out without putting pressure on my perineum) so I would not feel too disheartened if they tell you not to run.

Nothing to do with having a baby, but I'd shit myself if I felt the urge to poo and decided instead of going to the loo, I'd clench and go for a run. That's obvious, isn't it?

That's not to say that you don't need further investigations re the bulge or that women's healthcare isn't woefully neglected.

But clenching and going for a run rather than visiting the loo when feel the urge to poo is likely to end badly for anyone, surely?

Could be either/Or. Women focussed health care is indeed shit (pardon the pun)

But running does induce a laxative effect on many people, so in 7 months that is the only time you've had any issues it's fairly understandable that the GP thought as a one-off it wasn't indicative of anything serious.

As pps have said, day 2 of c25k is mainly walking so she probably expected that if there was an issue it would have been evident before now. If you'd gone in saying "ever since I've given birth I've struggled with needing to poo if I walk more than a few metres/or at a fast pace, I've now started jogging and have shat myself every time" then she probably would have taken that more seriously.

By all means if it continues go back again, tell her it's life limiting and you want investigations etc but I don't automatically think she was being dismissive by not doing all those things immediately if its only happened once.

I second everyone saying that you need a physio assessment . A friend who had a hysterectomy this year got way more help from the physio than anyone else she saw and the lady she saw really explained stuff well . Hope you get it sorted .

Came to say the same thing. You need to be seen by a gynae the GP is talking rubbish.

Also, did the midwife know it’s breach and let you give birth? Were you informed about the dangers of giving birth to breach babies?

You can have an endoanal ultrasound via the colorectal team to check your sphincters if you are having problems after the birth of your child. I have had two and they were not bad at all.

The bulge you feel is a rectocele and cannot be repaired without surgery. I know because I've had one. Once muscle and ligament tissue get separated, no amount of physio is going to put it together again. Although physio definitely helps with recovery.

I remember after my midwife checked over my 3C tear, she said so very casually "one more millimetre and you would have been feacally incontinent". Apparently I was 'lucky'. Ten years later and I'm still not right down there. Probably never will be. And ironically, HCPs don't seem to give a shit.

Of course, most of this could've been avoided if my birth hadn't been a 36 hour monumental clusterfuck, but that's a topic for a whole other thread.

YANBU. Women's healthcare is in the gutter.

Running does encourage bowel movement, but at the time of it, not a day later, I’d not have clenched all the way round though but found a loo.

however that wasn’t when the accident was, it was the next day you had the accident? So what were you doing that day and in the lead up to it ie in the hours before.

@someepeoplearenice I know, I have done couch to 5k, and I am not saying it's normal. I am just saying that exercise, running, can encourage bowel movements and you should not attempt to continue and hold on to it. The OP should seek further help with what sounds like some kind of prolapse, as I said.

Did the GP do a pelvic exam? It’s not their specialty and they need to refer you for a gynae physio appointment.

Go back to your GP and demand that referral. Make a complaint to the practice manager as well as the GP should have done it purely based on the bulging feeling you experience, let alone actually having an accident.

Women’s health will never be a priority unless we make it a bigger problem for them to ignore it, but putting in complaints every single time.