Pooing in labour

[shalaa]

Please tell me i'm not the only one with a fear of pushing really hard and delivering something other than a baby

shalaa - do not worry about it at all. We midwives have no problem discretely clearing anything away without batting an eyelid. Nature often encourages your bowels to move before labour starts in earnest. If it is a big concern to you, and you think you might need to go, you can ask for a small enema when in early labour.

I did poo and i did care!!! As everyone else has said, the midwife was very professional.They have paper sheets under you and they just whisk it away ..... but I was very embarassed. Dh just ignored it.

I did too, knew it was happening ( or had happened) happhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

contribution from little hana there

but really didn't care. DH takes great pleasure in reminding me at the most inopportune moments! really hope it doens't happen this time!
eeeee

I did with dd2. God, in retrospect, the shame, seeing the shocked look on dh's and midwife's face!!! Think it was all runny (sorry if TMI). At the time tho, couldn't give a shit!

wasn't too bothered beforehand - i.e. took attitude if it happens, it happens - and lo and behold it did - what shocked me was it was more than once don't do what I did and ask DH each time if I had or not! the midwives make no fuss, and clean it all up. was so taken up with 2 hours of pushing that it didn't rate as more than mild annoyance/embarassment.

But you see, I think the 'not caring' is really even worse than pooing yourself. That seems to indicate that you have totally lost control and aren't yourself anymore, which is an absolute horror for me. I cannot imagine anything worse than forgetting to care at all about my personal dignity...especially while completely sober! But then I'm totally horrified by the whole birth process...

I really shouldn't snigger at the use of the term 'number two' should I? No, clearly not...

My midwife said anything further south than the baby's head would come out whether I liked it or not... and it did. Remember feeling mortified at the time but in the grand scheme of things it didn't really matter. Also remember being desperate to wax my bikini line before I went into hospital as I couldn't possibly let anyone see me looking minging! Soon realised when labour started that midwives couldn't give a toss about unkempt pubic hair !

Hi Shalaa,

I used to be a midwife and believe me when I say that this happens alot less often than you think.

This didn't stop me from worrying that it would happen to me when I gave birth though. The best I can tell you is that in the event that it does occur you probably won't care as much as you think you will.

Hope it all goes well and that the only thing you deliver is a baby

Mandy.

I do understand the worries voiced here but I don't agree that the majority don't care, although it does tend to be overlooked at the time. In retrospect of course I was embarrassed but at the time it was just not my main focus of events. It is, after all, an involuntary action and to fight it is very difficult as the whole urge to push is not readily resistable.

Leogaela, in Switzerland they would readily offer you an enema beforehand to try to avoid this situation, probably more fervently if you plan a water birth. Where do you expect to deliver ?

aloha, I don't think it's a case of being too out of control to notice/care, it's simply that your mind and body are focused on one thing - delivering that baby - and thus all your usual inhibitions go out the window (after all I don't usually lie with my legs apart, no pants on and yelling either! or at least not in front of an audience...).

I did, both midwives AND dh cleared up after me - I had more important things to worry about (and so did they so they didn't mind either). I thought beforehand it would be disgusting, now I just think of it as part of the process (quite a lot of giving birth is disgusting, let's face it, but it's also amazing and beautiful).

I know for lots of women it is beautiful....but it appalls me - yup, the no pants on and yelling is also absolutely horrific to me. I had a section for medical reasons first time round so never had even to think about it. But the more I read and see and hear about birth the more horrified I am. Thank God for the section! I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm the kind of person who when they read someone else's birth story, I ALWAYS think, 'oh, how awful!" no matter how much the woman involved enjoyed it.

Interestingly the thought of a section terrifies me! The monitoring, things stuck in my spine, not being able to feel my feet. Urghhh! makes me shiver!! Obviously, always knew it might have to be an option but glad it didn't happen for me.

Basically, like everything else with having kids, there's no right way and wrong way, is there?

I think everyone worries about it, untill like everyone else has said, the time comes. It is amazing just how much you become focused on having the baby. I felt guilty because I wanted it to be a special time between me and DP but everything happened so quickly and so intensely it just didn't really happen like that. He laughs because instead of giving him abuse during labour I continually apologised! I felt the need to go to the toilet really badly, at the same time as needing to push. This was before they examined me. I had had a huge bowel action the night before, but couldn't pass anything the next night when I was in labour. DP went down 'tother end to watch all the gory bits. I have thought of asking if I did or not, but frankly think I am better off not knowing.

Really Aloha, Shalaa, your body is designed to do what it needs to do. That is all you can think about. And as everyone else has said too, the midwifes won't think twice about it.

I worried about this and don't think I did. Poo, that is. Wasn't my first question. But now, I genuinely couldn't give an, ahem sh*t.

It's difficult to put into words without sounding glib, the fact that during childbrith you "lave your dignity" at the door. There are many things we have ALL worried about dignity-wise before labour (looking your best, hair being done, toenails painted, bikini lines waxed, whether you will poo or wee, whether you will make strange noises!!!)

All I can say is that giving birth is the most primal thing you'll probably ever do (other than how you probably ended up in the predicament in the first place! ) You don't have to try to give yourself over to the experience because mother nature does that for you. You do retreat within yourself, and your body takes over. I know it sounds ridiculous to you now to hear everyone saying "you don't care" and possibly afterwards you WOULD feel embarassed knowing - but because everything else involved in this situation is an emotional rollercoaster, a very beautifully intimate experience at the same time, and with such a HUGE reward at the end of it, I can promise you that these comments will all make sense once the deed is done.

And yes - I pooed with DD1 despite having such an ENORMOUS poo beforehand I thought I would be safe - but didn't to my or DHs knowledge with DD2 despite NOT having the evacuation previously!

I didn't know about it though. Too "within" myself to notice.

BTW - that's why birthplans are also important. Because you need your DH and the midwife to know your feelings on certain things, because you might not be able to vocalise at the time. And your DH might be practising backrubs, massages, and breathing techniques with you but my DHs main role was to do the smalltalk with the midwife when I couldn't speak anymore! Just moo-ing!

Would echo catberts comments about your body taking over, to be honest pushing a baby out feels like doing the biggest poo of your life.

DP said I did do a little poo towards the end the midwife dealt with it and in his words "it got lost with all the gunk coming out"

I like to think of it as it happens it's natural and if you have to do it to have a beautiful babe then so be it - it's well worth it. I was terrified of having a section but was screaming for one at 10 centimetres dilated. About half an hour afterwards I got up and went for a shower, that day I was walking around the supermarket thinking at 4 this morning I was having a baby it was surreal.

Oh and as I was sitting in the bath post birth, beside 2 other delivery rooms, listening in turn to 2 other women mooing, shreiking and grunting and then a newborn crying and everyone else crying with joy - I kept bursting into tears again and again at the "beauty" of those noises!

don't worry about - if it happens , it will have happened before and you will be too preoccuppied to be embarassed. I know I did it on both occasions - although I am embarassed thinking about now I was not then.

I was V worried about it beforehand, but luckily, as my contractions started all I wanted to do was poo/wee, in my own home in my own bathroom, so there was nothing left 'in there' by the time I got to hospital.
I am a nurse and believe me I don't even think of poo as anything other than a normal bodily function, but saying that, the thought of someone having to clean my poo was not appealing. The midwives see it every day. They will probably wipe it away and you won't even know about it.

Good thread aloha, and thanks for all the encouraging comments others.

I too was a bit worried about pooing, but having developed killer piles in the last week (not very glam when midwife examines me), and now being a week late, I just want to get on with having this little one! I have already started to retreat into myself and can honestly say that I just want my body to do what it has to do to bring my little miracle into the world.

When are you due Aloha? You might find as it gets closer that you start to care less as others have said.

I was terrified about it, and it was almost more terrifying than the thought of giving birth. I too shaved my pubic region so as to not look horrible during birth. Looking back, I think, 'What on Earth...???', because it is all so insignificant. Dh says that he thinks I did not poo, but that he could not be sure, because it looked like, 'A car crash down there', what with the episiotomy and all.

Shalaa, if I ever have another baby, it will not be something I worry about. Hope this puts your mind at rest.

aloha, in labour you will lose control and not be yourself any more, but it's great, really primal and all that. It's like being on the crest of a big wave and waiting for it to crash on the shore. Gas & air helps, I found, you don't care about anything after a few gulps of that! Re pooing, I did with ds2, but didn't care. I had an enema with ds1, and it was horrible, by far the worst bit of the labour (I didn't quite make it to the loo in time, nuff said) and it was a pretty rough labour at that. I would just say go with the flow, say poo to the poo, and let nature take over!