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Childbirth

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

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Original poster

Avoiding 'floaters'?

66 replies

thebluenoser · 11/05/2008 20:31

I'm going for a water birth, but what about the whole poo issue? My widwife says it's quite amusing and you don't really care about it at the time, but my DH isn't convinced. I think he's worried he'll be given sieve duty!

Can you ask for an enema? Or any tips to avoid the dreaded floaters (or I suppose, depending on what you eat, sinkers!)

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

madamez · 11/05/2008 21:59

Well I didn't poo in labour but towards the end, insisted I needed to poo, leapt off the bed trailing monitor wires.... and waters broke all over the floor. So actually I may have shat in the wheelchair that was immediately produced to hurtle me to the delivery room, but can't remember.

Thankyouandgoodnight · 11/05/2008 22:02

I do remember DH trotting off to get the sieve and me growling leave it in an extremely threatening voice.

Original poster

thebluenoser · 11/05/2008 22:07

OMG, all this is confirming that I've made the right choice having a water birth! The whole business with the wipes on dry land... never thought about that the enema might be worse than the birth!! I guess I'll just have to tell my DH to get over it. I have to put up with extremely smelly farts, after all...

OP posts:

VanillaPumpkin · 11/05/2008 22:19

You can't avoid them. You just have to go with it. The fact they tell you to bring a seive kind of told me everyone does it. And my midwife was very very discreet bless her. The only bit really was when the MW asked us if we wanted our seive back and DH and I both hesitated (not really understanding what she meant being a bit busy with newborn dd) before twigging and practically shouting ooh no thank you. It is fine to bin that.
DD2 was born on land (induced) and again poo was very very discreetly cleared away. They only told me when I asked and insisted on being told (I just pooed didn't I? I did, I know I did? Did I did I? I did! Told you. In between contractions.) I needed to prove I still had some control ie I knew I had pooed even if I couldn't help it. Don't think it smelled though, but perhaps they were that quick I didn't know.

moondog · 12/05/2008 08:29

lol at thoguht of having sieve pack.
Making cakes would never be quite the same eh?

Also liking idea od babies born 'on landd.

belgo · 12/05/2008 08:33

I certainly knew about it, I felt it.

You can use an eneama in the earlier stages of labour - you can buy small ones that you can administer yourself without anyone knowing.

moondog · 12/05/2008 08:34

Apart from the person flogging it to you who would be thinking 'Aha, another pregnanant woman paranoid about shitting everywhere.'

belgo · 12/05/2008 08:42

well it worked for me, and made labour more comfortable without feeling constipated.

belgo · 12/05/2008 08:47

And I'm sure that pharmacists don't think anything much while selling embarrassing things. They are used to it.

FrannyandZooey · 12/05/2008 17:23

This subject came up at a friend's house today and my friend said she asked excitedly "is that the baby's head??"

her dh and the midwife kind of looked at each other

moondog · 12/05/2008 18:14

milfAKAmonkeymonkeymoomoo · 12/05/2008 18:18

My MW wiping my arse whilst I was contracting on the toilet was far more embarrassing than sieving the pool whilst contracting - I had the lights dimmed at this stage, can highly recommend this course of action for anyone remotely concerned about poo in the pool (or anywhere for that matter!).

MrsTittleMouse · 12/05/2008 18:22

But what if you're pushing so hard that it, um, isn't solid any more. Because that's what happened to me with DD's birth. I was just pushing so hard. As it was, it went down DH's legs (he was holding me in supported squat). In the pool... well, it doesn't bear thinking about really, does it?

tassisssss · 12/05/2008 18:22

very interesting thread

my local hospital will have a birthing pool in the next few weeks and i'm very up for trying...mind you thought that first time round when i was at a hospital that had one but someone was in...

was discussing this yesterday with friends and they reckoned the poo issue was enough to put them off...i'd never even considered this.

Eaglebird · 13/05/2008 19:26

I was more concerned about farting. I was induced on the Monday morning, and DS wasn't born til Tuesday night. All the meals I'd been given in hospital contained sprouts, turnip, beans or other farty foods. I was permanently hungry so I devoured every morsel.
When DP went to the toilet, leaving me & the midwife alone in the delivery room, I apologised in advance in case I farted in her face. She just laughed and said not to worry as they're used to it.
I can't remember if I did fart, or even poo. I just remember telling the midwife at one point, through a haze of gas & air, that I thought my bum was going to explode .

Turniphead1 · 13/05/2008 19:45

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Whizzz · 13/05/2008 19:53

this thread is so funny - Miriam Stoppard never tells you this in her books does she?

PrettyCandles · 13/05/2008 19:54

There is a school of thought that exposrue to the mother's poo during birth is healthy for the baby. Not just the bacteria, but also that there is Vitamin K in the pooo, which the baby needs of course.

I pooed in the birthing pool with my 3rd dc (pretty sure I didn't poo during the first and second birhts) and felt it was damn unfair as I had pooed at least 4 times that day and though my system was completely cleared out!

BTW, if you don't want him to see you pooing, make sure he stands at your head end.

thelittlestbadger · 13/05/2008 19:59

I definitely did, I was leaning over the bedhead with DH on the other side so he didn't have to know - big push, felt the midwives press a huge pad of paper towel to my bum and did an enormous poo. Luckily solid. DD arrived a second later.

I felt a bit but it was nowhere near as bad as when they were stitching me up afterwards and left me on the bed in stirrups for about 20 mins while they found everything and blood was everywhere [bleurgh emoticon]

Original poster

thebluenoser · 13/05/2008 21:24

I was telling my friends who don't have kids about all the hilarious responses to this thread... and they just looked a bit shocked. Thanks to all of you, I think I've overcome my poo paranoia. Though I think dimming the lights and making sure the DH stays well and truly away from the bottom end action are rather strokes of genius.

OP posts:

Original poster

thebluenoser · 13/05/2008 21:25

OP posts:

Original poster

thebluenoser · 13/05/2008 21:27

don't know why that posted twice...

OP posts:

fabsmum · 13/05/2008 22:17

Spidermama - I like the cut of your jib....!

Nearly five years on from DS2's chaotic, scary but ultimately fantastic homebirth (chain of events: baby stuck - shoulder dystocia, midwife falls backwards off the bed onto her arse trying to free him, bed base collapses), I still occasionally run my fingers over the poo stains on my hand stitched Turkish quilt - little reminders of that happy day.......

Spidermama · 13/05/2008 22:19

A precious and vivid reminder of those unworldly hours.

Spidermama · 13/05/2008 22:21

bluenoser I always found dh was needed at the top end. I needed his shoulders for something to dig into at the height of contractions. His rugby experience stood in in good stead.

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