During labour.......

[zipzap456]

Hi.

I am due to give birth this week & was talking to my friend whose an ex midwife, she said its really common for women to have their bowels open during labour & women arnt usually aware of it.

This is my 4th baby (the 1st with my new partner) and I dont recall having them open before. I would be soooo embarrassed if I did.

Was she joking or telling the truth? Wish she hadnt told me cos now I am panicing, my partner will be there all the time and I dont want him to see!!

I am a nurse & very used to dealing with pooh and other bodily substances so perhaps its just me getting nervous about labour

Yes, it's totally normal and nothing to worry about. I pooed during the pushing stage both times, it's entirely logical if you think about it.

Please don't worry, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Chances are you pooed in your previous labours, MWs are very discreet about cleaning it up and with all that's going on down there you would have been unlikely to feel it. It's usually only a tiny bit, most women poo loads (on the loo) as labour gets started.

I think it's pretty common for ladies to have their bowels open during the pushing stage as you can't really be selective about which hole things come from!

I wasn't aware either time if i had my bo or not - if I did, the mw cleared up very discreetly.

Keep your partner up at the head end and he shouldn't see a thing!

Yep, I pooed 1st time round - and apologised to the MW. 2nd time round I was having a poo on the toilet and the baby popped out!!

It is true, but i've never experienced it, or if i did, i didn't know about it!

TBH, the midwives will have seen it all before and you'll be too busy to worry about it!

It doesn't tend to be much, either - mild diarrhoea is often a pre-labour sign, and most of us don't feel like eating much in early labour, so by the time the issue arises it's just a bit of waste that can be whisked away easily.

If this is your fourth, I'd be very surprised if it's not happened before.

Thanks for your replies

I feel a bit better about it now. Perhaps it has happened before but I was blissfully unaware. Still wish she hadnt told me though!!

According to the MW I did (I asked her afterwards) but DH didn't notice and neither did I. I did she was holding a pad/tissues when DD2 was crowning so I assume she whipped it away, but I would have had no idea.

I did but didn't realise until after.

I remember saying something like oh no!! something bad is going to happen (In other words I was going to shit myself!!!) and the midwife said ' Nothing to worry about, there all gone!'

I didn't think about it until I was alone later and then I blushed!!!

The midwife, I have to say, didn't recoil in horror or anything!!

My aunt's a midwife and quite cheerfully informs me that more do than don't.

I know that I didn't (two day labour preceded by quite productive upset stomach and then no food for two days). But I had an em cs in the end so can't tell if it would have happened if I'd managed a normal delivery.

I think your desire to get the baby out overrides everything at the time so the fact that you haven't noticed with your other dc just confirms the fact that it's not important in the grand scheme of things.

I was so worried I was going to poo in labour! I had quite a fast labour and was already pushing when I got to hospital, as soon as I got into the delivery room I shouted "I'm gonna shit myself"! When the midwife took my knickers off she put them straight in the bin so I'm pretty sure I did! I did another one when I was pushing and apologised profusely but they cleaned it up quickly and didn't bat an eyelid. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really bother me, the mw who delivers your baby will have seen hundreds of women shit themselves before, they really won't care!