Constipation at 36 weeks pregnant. Help please :(

[tiredandpregnant]

Hello, I'm a bit embarrassed by this...

I'm 36 weeks with DD2 I had this issue until I literally gave birth last time and I feel it made my whole first labour even more uncomfortable!!

I was constipated until I gave birth last time (sorry tmi). I don't want to go into labour and feel the same this time!

Thing is all the 'usual' things like eating certain foods and lots of water just don't help.

What else can I try?? I feel so heavy anyway and it's very uncomfortable

Glycerin suppository! It's probably too late for food/water to change what's already um, almost at the exit. You need to clear that first before anything else. Pick a quiet time when you're relaxed and won't be interrupted, lie on your left side on the bathroom floor, lift your right leg and insert slowly, while deep breathing. Then clench and stay there for as long as you can bear...

Then, when you've popped the cork: stewed apple (skins on), partially rehydrated dried apricots, dates, prunes, raspberries, beans on brown toast, hummus, water water water, lactulose.

Senokot Max Strength is really good

Consultant suggested lactulose to me.

lactulose and prune juice - and even when you think it's better don't stop taking them!!! I'm 37 weeks and it's seriously ramped up now

Lactulose and keeping taking it until you have given birth, makes the first postnatal poo so much easier

Thank you! I've been to the chemist and purchased the lactulose!!

Hopefully it will work and I'll take it up to birth as suggested!!! My whole labour last time was consumed with me not thinking about the fact I was having contractions but the fact I really needed to poo and couldn't, then as I pushed baby out the inevitable happened!

Lactulose! They absolute life saver. Just buy it over the counter in Boots. Last time my piles (caused by constipation) were nearly worse than the birth so snapped up a bottle as soon as I was pregnant! Follow the measurement guidelines though. I stupidly just did a very large swig first use and gave myself horrific diarrhoea!

It can make your tummy pretty churnny so I take before bed and usually all sorted by the morning.

If the lactulose is not helpful, then move onto Movicol/Laxido and make sure your are drinking plenty, having a good breakfast with fruit, oats not bran, (coffee if you like it).

It is worth getting some if for after.

Glycerin suppositories are really good for breaking up and moving the bottom end out as it dries up and you get a hard plug which is difficult to pass.

You can use your diet to help, once the above has kicked in.

There are 3 ways laxatives wokrk on the bowel/stool and, for some people, one may work better than the others.

Lactulose doesn’t absorb well in the gut so, when you take it, it ends up coating the stool making it easier to pass.

Laxido/Movicol/Cosmocol - these are powders you add to water and drink; the dose depends on how constipated you are but can be up to 8 sachets twice a day!! They work by drawing liquid into the stool and making it softer and easier to pass.

Senna/Ducloax/Ex-Lax and that sort of laxative work by irritating the bowel to expel the stool. Microlax enema and Fleet enema work in a similar way to these by irritating the bowl and forcing the stool out.

You may find you need a combination of the different types of laxatives rather than just one. I would try the second type first perhaps along with a glycerine suppository to get things going.

Good luck xx

If I use a glycerin suppository I'm running ro the toilet after 30 seconds! That should work OP