And ways to avoid!
Currently nursing my 20 day son and thought I'd put my time to other good uses and share some tips on avoiding piles in pregnancy...! As I learned, loads of people get them, get them for life and no one gets any kind of warning about them, so if this helps anyone I'd be delighted!
Pregnancy can cause trapped wind, constipation and the weight your body puts on puts extra pressure on other bits of your bod. So it's easy to find yourself straining. Unfortunately this stands a reasonable chance of creating haemorrhoids, either internal, external or both. They're apparently v difficult to get rid of and the ops on offer are no fun at all and apparently don't always work.
I'm slim, reasonably fit and eat pretty well but in my first trimester I got trapped wind and constipation. I developed mild piles then, then with the third trimester they got a lot worse as the trapped wind returned and my body was carrying the weight of our growing baby.
The doc in the MAU checked them and concluded I'd have to have an operation to get rid of them then the colorectal surgeon she discussed it with said they wouldn't operate before the birth as pushing a baby out could make it loads worse.
In my desperation I did a lot of research and managed to reduce them slightly and they became no worse during birth in spite of having a fast and furious pushing stage. They protrude a bit which feels deeply unsexy so if you can try to avoid getting 'em in the first instance!
Here's what I did which I recommend doing as soon as you start to get the probs I had:
Pelvic floor exercises - they're not just for your vajajay! They're for your back passage too - I began doing X3 exercises per day, 10 60 sec reps followed by 10 quick reps each session. Literally takes 5 mins out of each of your morning, lunch and evening... I could feel my problem getting better with them. Look up how to do them online.
Diet - I gave up cow's milk in my cereal because it can cause inflammation inside the body, replacing it with kefir, a bio live yoghurt drink, amazing for the gut and far more digestible. I mixed it with a bit of water or sometimes made a frozen berry smoothie which I used to moisten my cereal. I gave up processed cereals - apparently these 'high fibre' foods can cause MORE constipation and I can personally vouch for this having made the swap. I swapped for:
Oats
Ground flaxseed (high in omega 3, great for baby's brain)
Crushed walnuts (as above)
Dry mulberries (substitute for raisins - much lower sugar)
Chopped fruit OR freshly made smoothie
Water and/or kefir
Hardly a big effort and will save you a lot of pain, hassle and embarrassment!
And of course, not everyone gets them so don't get too freaked out, but just be aware this is a real problem that you can manage with the right approach :-)
Happy pregnancies everyone. X