Constipation and anal fissure

[Hann376]

I’ve had constipation and painful bowel movements / bleeding for the past 5 months since childbirth. Doctor has diagnosed anal fissure but on 3rd round laxatives and it improves while I take the laxatives but never fully heals.

i have the highest fibre diet (flax seeds, chia seeds, bran flakes, lots of beans and fruit, veg, everything wholemeal etc - literally couldn’t eat anymore fibre haha) and drink lots of water

but wondering if breastfeeding is making me constipated ?

has anyone else experienced this and how long did it last? Did it get better when you started weaning or had to fully stop breastfeeding? I really want to carry on breastfeeding but I’m worried will never heal otherwise!

I’m two months post partum and worried that I have an anal fissure. I’m planning to stop breastfeeding in a month. I hope it will go away after that. Following for advice!

worth getting it checked out and getting some laxatives if so (and make sure you take them til it’s completely healed) :)

I’m almost 15 weeks PP and still on regular laxitives and no one can tell me why. Uncomplicated birth so no explanation there, they just surmised maybe due to BF, but I drink loads and also eat lots of fibre same as you!

I’m a bit worried about taking laxatives because some of it filters into the breast milk and gets to the baby. Do you recommend any laxative that didn’t seem to affect your baby?

@RainJacket sorry to hijack, but I’ve been taking 1-2 laxido a day with no effect on my EBF baby (who actually also suffers with constipation😩) so would recommend that!

I have EDS and gut dysmotilty so I am permanently constipated with fissure/s. When I was PP I went three weeks between poos. My body seems to get v shocked from childbirth.

IME you need to be on laxido/movicol for weeks and weeks. You needs to play around to find the sweet spot of no diarrhoea but v soft stools and then keep up for at least 6 weeks to give it a chance to fully heal.

Commiserations, it is such agony

Oh poor you that sounds so tough! Childbirth really does put a strain on our bodies :( Thanks maybe I need to give the laxatives longer to work as have only been doing them for 2 weeks max

I’ve also been taking movicol / cosmocol which doctor said is safe to take while breastfeeding :)

It can take a long time for these to heal fully. Over a year. You just have to keep taking the laxatives and keep everything moving. The only other option is surgery which has risks and can be v painful.

Thank you!