Apologies in advance - if anyone's just had a meal you might want to stop reading now. This is highly embarrassing, and I'm only posting here in the hope someone can shed some light/offer some advice, since none of the dozens of health visitors, midwifes, doctors, nurses or physio experts I've seen seem to be able to do that.
It's a big long winded (probably a bad choice of words), but I'll try to be succinct.
In the third trimester of my first pregnancy I became anaemic and was taking iron tablets. This made me very, very constipated and I was glugging Lactulose like it was Prosecco.
Because of various, unrelated complications, I was induced at 38 weeks. I spent 4 days in slow labour, during which time I was completely unable to go to the loo for a number two, despite all the lactulose I was drinking and the glycerine pessaries that nurses were sticking up my bum round the clock. By the time I was 6cm dilated, I hadn't been to the loo for pretty much a week. This meant my bowel was completely compacted with poo, but no amount of pushing budged it. I begged and begged for an enema, but the midwives refused, saying that they don't offer those anymore as it's "old fashioned". My biggest fears at this point were that I either had the weakest pelvic floor in the western world and that if I couldn't push out a hard poo, how the hell was I going to manage a 9Ib child? The other was that there was going to be a major poomageddon during the end stages of my labour and the midwives were going to be very sorry indeed that they hadn't done an enema.
Anyway, bottom line (another bad choice of words, sorry), not a single scrap of poo came out during all the ferocious pushing I did in labour. Two days post natal, my stitches bulging from the week's worth of poo stuck in my bum, I decided that I'd have to quite literally take matters into my own hands. To say that the manual excavation was agonising is an understatement, but the relief I felt afterwards was immense. Plus it really helped with the postnatal weight loss - I reckon I must have shedded about 3 pounds.
I thought/hoped that would be the end of it.
Unfortunately, for the next 6 months or so, I was unable to have a regular bowel movement. There didn't seem to be any issue at all with 'producing'. I just wasn't able to budge it. Sometimes, I felt like I really needed to go, but just couldn't push it out, and so had to manually excavate. Other times, I had no sensation of fullness, and so would have to regularly check whether I was full and on discovering I was, would have to do something about it.
During this period I was back and fore doctors and health visitors/midwives etc. I was told to do my pelvic floor exercises, which I did. I was told to take laxatives, which made no difference. One doctor stuck his finger up my bum very roughly, and asked "Can you feel that?". I meekly replied "Yes" (what I wanted to say was "You've practically got your entire arm up my backside, of course I can bloody well feel it you fool"). To which he replied: "You're fine then" and sent me on my way.
After about 6 months post labour, thinks slowly started going back to normal. It was a bit stop start, but before long I was able to go again the normal way.
However, I then fell pregnant again, and pretty much straight away the problem came back. This made me think it was less a pelvic floor issue (I've never had incontinence or anything like that), and that it was hormonal? Anyway, either way, I've spent my entire pregnancy having to manually excavate. Same issue: I either feel full but can't push, or I can't feel that I need to go until I go check what's going on up there.
Knowing what I know now I'll make sure that before this baby is due I'll have a good clear our before labour. I'm convinced that the reason I needed ventouse intervention with my first is that the birth canal was effected by the fact my bowels were so full and not budging. Obviously I don't want that again.
So, there you have it. I am desperate for some reassurance that I'm not the only one out there this has happened to and that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm really hoping I don't have another 6 months of this after my second delivery. It's a truly horrible way to live.