Constipation is a form of mental and physical torture.....

[LadyTophamHatt]

especially when pregnant.

Just thought I'd tell you that.

Sludgy?!? I wish!

(re lactulose)

Not for me.

Well done LTH, whatever works for you I reckon - may it work again.

Bran flakes are dry, it's better to have fibre that's mixed with some moisture, hence fresh grapes etc being good, albeit in comedy quantities.

Running and walking really do help - the lack of walking is why hospital patients are always constipated.

I'm also suffering the same and have found Liquorice(sp?)helps.I'm also taking 30mls of Lactulose a day,but have found this useless.Apples are also meant to be good.

I found lactulose to be really good, but you have to really increase your water intake for it to work properly, especialy if pregnant as gut really slows down. Cooked carrots are good too.

sultana bran and lactulose helped me. dried apricots can contain sulphur (in some form that i can't exactly remember) so can make you fart up a storm, but fresh ones helped. you have my sincerest sympathies, i'd never had constipation before pregnancy and i couldn't believe how awful it was.

Put your feet up on a stool when your sitting on the loo as this is the correct pooing position and helps it out or summit,so my midwife said when i was preggie with dd2.
A stool for a stool.

oh yes, that does work too. i tried everything. you have to try to poo in a squatting position, or as near as is remotely physically possible.

Ooh, you have my sympathies I had it after dd was born (lots of lovely drugs for pain after my caesarean with constipation as a nasty side effect) and it was so painful I remember crying on the loo. Lactulose did work for me after a while.

Ok sorry to resurrect this gruesome thread
But I've got to the crying on the loo, giving up stage,
FFS I give birth quicker than this was my immediate and depressing thought
I am so uncomfy.
What can you take RIGHT NOW to maybe soften stuff as it were?
My diet is virtuous according to midwife and doctor, fruit, raw veg, juice, prunes, prune juice.

I could drink more water - about 1.5 litres a day atm and I will!!!
I go 3 days nothing then this nightmare
I alredy have had piles and sorted them, now the constipation is back again
is it worth doing the hideous fubogel daily for a while.
I'm desp I have to drive to pick up dd and go to Boots and I cannot sit down properly
this is grim ladies grim.

pooryou, presume youve tried the usual, prunes, suppositries etc etc

yep the issue I have is here and now as it were
The future I cna eat anythign to avoid this, take laxatives whatever
But I have an immediate problem
I think I ight go see the pharmacist.

you know what you should do as well, if you have something to grab on to for support - squat. It is the logical way to maximise dumpage and gravity.

Yeah, sure you are crapping on the floor, but put down loads of kitchen paper and plop the whole lot in the lav when you're done. Unless you want to save it seeing as how the two of you have been together for so long.

oh it gets better by the minute
I've tried some desperate things which for the sake of decency (and peoples elevenses) I'll keep to myself
I've rung the midwife she says lactuloose and glycerine suppository
I'm outta here
I need relief.

Oh this is horrible, poor you. Lactulose is the stuff, it might take a couple of days to work but it will.

I don't think 2 days is an option somehow
Argghh

Honey, I went through this even to the point of having an enema. Two days seems like an eternity, I know. But the lactulose will work (flippin enema didn't) and you will feel better. You can take fybogel too for an added boost.

I am soooo glad that my pg days are at an end!

Best of luck!

It's already been 3 days
Tomorrow we take ds to the airport where he is flying to NZ with his dad.
We first have to drive to inlaws for 2hrs to drop dd off. Lunch then drive to Heathrow (3-4hrs) Wait for flight
Back to PIL by 1am
Sunday big family aprty for FIL's 70th
I'm not evne going to eb at home and I HATE pooing at anyone elses house.
I'm so stressed
I've been told a glycerin suppository will do the job quickly and easily in half an hour
I'm pinning some hope on that I cna tell you.

Do you have a practise nurse who can put it in for you? IME they help a bit to relieve things but you still need the other stuff.

Poor, poor you. I can imagine only too well how stressed you are. And the problem is of course that once you start going, it tends to keep coming for some time.

Look - take a glycerine suppository: they are fantastic. After I had DD (C section) the nurses were whispering - you need to go before we can let you go home. So of course I said I had been. And I hadn't. Now when people post on here about their traumatic post birth stories I honestly feel like shouting "yes, but was your third degree tear as bad as my post-birth constipation?".

Anyway the community midwife or whatever came round, I fessed up and she gave me the glycerine thingy. Sorted it all out within about 30-40 mins. From the nurses whisperings I thought it was going to be awful, but it was absolutely fine - really, really fine.

Thanks Anchovy
I have the glycerol supps, am so scared of taking them, you know how it is.
Fear factor
I am going to do EVERYTHING to prevent it getting to this stage again even if it means surviving on prunes alone.
it is hideous

Do you have someone who can put them in for you? The practise nurse or mw can do it. It doesn't hurt.

I haven't eaten white bread or cheese since this happened to me, I eat whole grains and loads of vegetable soups and grapes.

No one to put it in for me - no way can I leave the house I'm in in no shape to be let out.
I'm settling dd down for something to eat in front of the tv and then will do the deed.

This is the thing I don't eat white bread, haven't for years
For brek I eat bran flakes, with chopped fruit (including 6 tinned prunes)and yoghurt
I drink one glass of prune juice
6 glasses of water a day
have salad sandwich for lunch - ham or chicken always on whole grain homebaked bread.
Snack on prunes/dried apricots and nuts.
Dinner is fish and veges, chicken and veg, always eat more than 2 veg.
It just seems so unfair!

I had the nurse come to me, do you have someone that can do a home visit?

It is unfair, I just think it's pg plumbing, my third baby was far worse than the others, and things still aren't back to normal - don't know if they ever will be - I feel like I'm about 80!

piffle- could the hating to poo at anyone else's house thing have anything to do with it? The function of the lower bowel is to absorb water, so if you put off a poo because you are not in the right place, it will get dryer and harder, and be more difficult to pass.

Nah I'm never far from home due to recovering from appendicitis and having back problems
I never have any probs normally and I am happy to go at PIL and stuff - was just worried about being there with laxative effect due on!
not pregnant I have no probs at all - am as regular as clockwork
this has come as an awful shock tbh
Any GS is in.
I'm waiting.