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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Original poster

pooing during child birth... can i stop it :/

88 replies

ghostspirit · 14/12/2015 10:48

embarrassing but i dont care going to say it anyway. when i gave birth to my son and my daughter before that. i pooed like mad like a pooing machine its very embarrassing. so is there anyway to stop it. i get really badly constipated during in pregnancy. so do i need to get that sorted and maybe then was i wont poo when im giving birth :/

any advice/suggestions thanks

OP posts:
stairway · 16/12/2015 10:52

I pooed all over my dads car on the way to hospital.. It stunk but was just the beginning of the humiliations

whatdoIget · 16/12/2015 10:56

Stairway wins the thread Shock
Was your dad understanding?

pizzaeatingmonkey · 16/12/2015 12:25

But why no enemas?

BessieBlount · 16/12/2015 12:45

It's def not 100%. My early labours mainly constitute me almost constantly pooing for a few hours. I need to be within a few seconds of a loo as it really is sudden and virtually constant. Towards the end my body still tries to poo but nothing comes out as I am well and truly empty. I'm also sick in early labour so I guess my body just feels the need to expel everything possible. I actually discussed this with the mw at my second labour. She confirmed I hadn't pooed but that I was very much in the minority. She said almost all women do but a small minority won't- usually women like me whose bodies decide to get rid of all stomach and bowel contents in early labour.

On a bed nobody notices. In the pool it's more noticeable but just part of childbirth and those MWs working in the active birth units or covering home births with a pool just do it all day so really no big deal. Good luck but do try to take something to help yourself be more regular. Constipation and straining in late pregnancy is a sure way to piles.

stairway · 16/12/2015 13:18

Whatdoiget ..yes he was amazingly kind despite normally being precious about his new car. I don't know how he managed to get the awful smell out of it.
With water births I know they can fish the solid poos out , but don't runny poosake it all cloudy ( more authentic though)

stairway · 16/12/2015 13:19

Oh for Poosake! Poos make.

alltouchedout · 16/12/2015 13:25

My last birth, I was hands and knees on the bed and a midwife was crouched down on the floor behind me. I kept telling her I was about to poo, she kept telling my I wasn't and I needed to push. This was my third child, I bloody well knew what I was feeling. Anyway. I did the most enormous, giant poo ever, inches from her face, and once I had finished I snapped in the grumpiest voice imaginable "I fucking told you I was going to do a fucking poo". To which she did not reply :)

Pooed during the pushing stage with the first baby. With the second, I had diarrhea at that start of labour and there was, thankfully, no pooing during the birth. The second was my best birth in sooooo many ways.

PourquoiTuGachesTaVie · 16/12/2015 13:28

An enema seems unnecessarily medicalised just to deal with something that isn't actually a problem. I'm glad they don't do them any more, as well the shaving.

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 16/12/2015 13:33

I had a big poo the night before (tmi?) but still squeezed out a tiny bit during labour. If I were you I would use gentle laxatives to make sure you're as clear as possible so you only poo a bit if at all

CarbeDiem · 16/12/2015 13:39

No VB do not 100% mean poo.
I've given birth V 3 times to whopper sized babies and have never pooed.
I know this as fact.
My body, as soon as it is ready for labour, makes me empty repeatedly for around 12 hours before.
Good luck op, hope you find something to help.

Original poster
ghostspirit · 16/12/2015 16:06

if i dont know that im pooing then i dont care... but i know people will tell me and go on and on about it.

OP posts:
magpie17 · 16/12/2015 16:15

Somebody who goes 'on and on about it' would be very unkind indeed!! Me and DH joke about it sometimes, but I usually always say 'I didn't poo though did I?' and he says 'oh no love, definitely not' but I know I did, he's just being nice. Anyone who was mean or went on about it would be getting a kick in the nethers themselves, especially if they have never experienced the pain and outright indignity of childbirth!

Also, as somebody else said - if pooing during labour is the worst thing that happens then you have had a very good birth.

BlackGirlAndRobin · 16/12/2015 16:28

Ah misty poo coloured memories......

I remember shouting in my final stages of labour "oh no, I'm shitting myself" over and over again, oh the indignity! I still cringe when I think about it.

Mrsfrumble · 16/12/2015 16:37

If your potential birthing companions are the sort to "go on about it", then I think you need to choose different birthing companions!

Although I'm sure I didn't poo giving birth to DD, I may well have done when I had DS. I had an epidural so wouldn't have felt it, but if I did DH has never mentioned it and never would. Just like I never ever mention the time he shit himself while he was having chemo; because neither of us could help it and you don't deliberately humiliate people you love.

Original poster
ghostspirit · 16/12/2015 17:27

yeah i dont mind a little joke about it. but not for it to be the high light of giving birth. my mate was with me then and she was going on about it a bit.. but also she would go on how i did not shave my legs that day.... hopefully it will be boyfriend there is time. he will probably just generaly piss me off anyway. i will probably send him somewhere to get cake or something and be just me and midwife... ha sorry rambled

why did they used to shave people? thats odd.

OP posts:
magpie17 · 16/12/2015 17:36

Yeh your 'mate' sounds quite immature! Just going by this thread alone it seems like about 95% of people do poo during a vb so you're in good company and anyone making jokes or making you feel bad about it just needs to grow up. Of course we would rather it didn't happen but my view is that my body did this incredible, amazing thing and so if it also did a poo then that's ok with me.

Original poster
ghostspirit · 16/12/2015 17:53

very true magpie :)

OP posts:
BessieBlount · 16/12/2015 18:14

Yes, goodness, most husbands don't go on about it. As I said, I had already emptied to virtually nothing but I had prepared DH for it happening before labour. He was pretty cool about it saying he wasn't surprised everything got so squeezed considering the size of a baby's head. Most men are mature enough to know that childbirth ain't pretty. Shame your friend wasn't.

SunnyDays1987 · 17/12/2015 09:31

I didn't poo but I'd had pre eclampsia and they'd been giving me codeine for the pain so I think that bunged me up!

Spudlet · 17/12/2015 11:23

I'm almost hoping I do, it will the first decent one I've had in ages Grin

goodnessgraciousgoudaoriginal · 17/12/2015 12:02

I'm in Lyon, and over here we are told in our ante natal classes to take a suppository when we are in early labour before going to the hospital.

It isn't compulsory by any means, but they give us the name of a couple of brands and tell us that's what to do if we want to avoid shitting.

Original poster
ghostspirit · 17/12/2015 12:18

haha spud i think i will poo 9 months worth

the suppository sounds ok. i dont think i would get time though

OP posts:
Dumbledoresgirl · 17/12/2015 12:28

I am Hmm at the declaration that vb = 100% chance of pooing.

I have had 4 vb. Dh present at all of them. He told me I did not poo. And I think I would have known anyway as I did once wee when pushing and dh made a little wordless squeal which the MW quickly hushed over. Not that it mattered one way or another. I knew I was weeing, I could feel it, and it really didn't bother me at all.

I do feel for you OP though. It is clearly a problem for you. I was constipated throughout my pgs too - lactulose might help you?

jamtartandcustard · 17/12/2015 14:09

I have absolutely no idea if I poo'd during any of my labours. If I did the midwifes just dealt with it and dh has never said that I did but tbh, he might not have been aware if I did. I'd like to think he was more supporting me looking at my face then staring at my bum! And in the midst of amniotic fluid, blood and everything else, poo probably wouldn't be noticed. Birth is a bit messy after all.
But I'm sure a midwife reacts and deals with poo in the same way a carer deals with an elderly patient or a nursery worker deals with a babies nappy. It's part of what they signed up for

araminem · 17/12/2015 14:40

I was given an enema before I was induced. The pain from that (and the vomitting! And stomach pains!) were worse than labour. Argh!

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