Constipation in pregnancy... it's not pretty

[TeacherFarmerWife]

Ok ladies (and possible gents),
I've tried the daily glass of prune juice, I've tried the pint glasses of pure orange juice with bits, tablespoons upon tablespoons of lactulose, bowls of All Bran each morning, lots of grapes and green apples throughout the day, I drink 2/3/4 litres of water a day depending on my nausea levels. Nothing is helping!
Yes I do "go" the odd day, probably every 2-3 days. But it's not "satisfying", I still feel very clogged up.
I'm at a complete loss.
HELP ME POO!
Anyone else in the poo struggle army here? I'm losing my mind 🥵

Senna + lactulose (scrap the tablespoon - just fill the lid and take it like a shot) . And be thankful you can't leave the house!

You have my every sympathy , I struggled horrendously with it in my first pregnancy and again now. It's not glamorous and I'm wondering where my glow is

Glycerol suppositories!!
Pick them up in Tesco or local chemist.

Stick one in. Lay on the sofa for 30 mins watching trash and ya good to go.

TRY IT !

Yes, I have no advice just empathy. I am watching this thread for any brilliant advice :)

This is gross, but I resorted to wrapping my hands in loo paper (back in the day when you could get loo paper...) and pressing on the bit of skin between vagina and anus when trying to poop. Leaning back slightly on the toilet seat and pressing here seemed to encourage the mass to move along.

I am so sorry. For both my description and for your current state. Every sympathy.

I feel for you. It's bloody horrible.

Never been pregnant but if I don't drink about 2 litres a day by god I'm bunged up and even resorted to having to "pull" the offending turds of stone out by hand (wrapped in loo roll)

Recommend Quitthat method as well.

OH gets bunged up very badly as well (had bowel issues all his life) and for him Glycerol suppositories are a gift sent from the bowel baby jesus!! Only thing that helps him when he gets badly clogged up as it helps loosen up the offending rock hard poos (everything else just piles on top of the cork poops and makes it worse for him!)

Dulcoease stool softeners are excellent

Might take a day to work but they are nice and gentle

I am having such a laugh at these 😂 if you didn't laugh you'd cry though! I'm seriously at the point now where I feel "gaggy" and just want to go make myself throw up.
My stomach is rock hard and gurgly as if there's a lot of trapped wind.
I'd like to think I eat a very balanced diet but clearly it's not good enough for the oul' iron-filled pregnacare tablets. Lactulose just makes me windy to the most embarrassing degree.

@Quitthat I enjoyed your comment 👏🏻 all dignity is out the window when it comes to solid poos.... you get to the point where it's that bad you'll try anything!

So basically...
Shots of lactulose
Butthole tablets (the bowel baby Jesus kind)
Push my taint
Pull the lava rocks out by hand

Beautiful

I did the Lactulose gulp from the bottle.. takes about two days to kick in but you'll certainly hit a mine field all of a sudden and feel equally as awful 😀😂

Good times!

@TeacherFarmerWife , when you sum up it our options sounds just awful

You need senakot tablets. Also are you still able to go out for exercise? Exercise does help get things moving. I find I’m so much more bunged up at a weekend if I’ve been lazy and not left the house. Appreciate right now opportunities for leaving the house are limited...

I take a daily sachet of fybogel to soften my poo or I don’t go for days sometimes and give myself piles. Not pretty. You can take a sachet twice a day if you need. I recommend, just makes things so much easier. I also now put my feet up to poo (have you seen the advertising video for the squatty potty? Elevating your feet into squat does help vacate as much as poss). Good luck.

As well as all the above mentions, if you have your bath close enough to your toilet, put your legs up on the bath. You’ll feel like a right tit but the elevated legs somehow helps. Or get a little stool so you can squat over the toilet.

If you can get hold of papaya it’s also a magic trick.

I would use medication for now to get the first lot out and then use all the above methods for the rest of it. At least you’re at home

@LH1987 awful options but also willing to try them all 😂

@Popskipiekin yes I live in the country so I'm able to get out for a 5K every day, also get a good walk about our farm in the evenings too so I'm pretty active! I used to do CrossFit before I got pregnant so I'm wondering if the sudden halt on this might have caused it too....
I might look into getting some fybogel!

@Nfblues omg yes!!! I do this! I'm so glad to see I'm not the only weirdo to do this 😂 my bath is right beside the toilet so it's more of a knees to my chin sort of job but it does the trick IF things go smoothly!
Adds papaya to shopping basket.

I was severely constipated 3 weeks ago and thought I had it sorted after taking a massive dose of lactulose and eating plenty of fibre but it seems I'm straight back to square one this week 🤔

Haha glad to know I’m not the only one! I found that in the beginning bit of my pregnancy I was pretty much constipated non stop and had to consciously keep on top of it. I took 2 sachets of movicol whenever it had been too long to do a clear out but had to do all the other stuff - bran flakes, bulking out meals with lentils, prunes etc - every single day to keep on top of it. By the time I hit about 18 weeks it got much much better and I’m a lot more normal now at 23 weeks. Hopefully yours eventually eases too!

@Nfblues thanks! I do "go" but it's not every single day, and even when it is I still feel like there's days worth inside me. I'm also scared of having to rely on the likes of lactulose or another medication for the rest of my pregnancy 😬
I'm not laughing and colonics now I'll tell you that!
Poo (or lack of) really does have such an effect on daily life 😂

Keep up the high fluids. At least 3l.
Oatmeal porridge and fruit for breakfast
Lots of fruit and veg
Some exercise helps. A daily walk of 45 mins.

fellow sufferer here, I feel your pain. I have tried literally everything. What works for me- daily smoothie of spinach, prune juice, dried prunes and I add berries to make it taste a bit nicer. Drink loads of water. Cant live without glycerol suppositories and macrogol sachets

Whatever you do, however tempting it is, don't strain! The last thing you need is massive piles on top of the constipation... 😬

Nothing worse OP I suffered so bad when I was pregnant and after having baby. Movicol / laxido / Cosmo col (all the same thing just different makes) are the best options IMO. It softens everything as long as you drink plenty of water and I'm saying this as somebody who'd not been in 10 days and was very heavily pregnant. My combo was lactulose, movicol and sitz baths.. Tbf just warm baths helped me with the horrible cramps if you don't have a sitz bath.

I was to squeamish to pull anything out!

Hope you feel better soon

@VioletVerity
I usually go straight to my reflexologist for any issues like such but that option is out of bounds these days. I might ask DH to massage the pressure points on my feet for bowels tomorrow, I can hear his complaining already 🙄
I might try some movicol, I took more lactulose this evening but again, it has just made me windy.
I agree baths really do help, however they too make me windy 😂

To be honest I'd ditch the pregnacare. The only things you need are folic acid and vitamin D, and then a proper iron supplement if (and only if) you're anemic. Then up your water in take. Sometimes less is more.

Eat lots kiwis or dried apricots.

Op can you stop taking pregnacare and just take folic acid x

Try taking a magnesium supplement, I take magnesium glycinate powder mixed in some juice and it helps. I also eat flax seeds on porridge in the morning for breakfast

fybogel is great too! And feet on the bathroom bin (or toddler step as I now use!). Baby 2 on the way and I’m suffering. Some interesting tips here 😂🙈

I had this terribly and had to go to the docs twice for enemas. I’ve always been prone to constipation and it just got unbearable during pregnancy!

I took a mixture of different types of laxatives daily; bulk-formers + stool softeners in addition to 20ml of fig syrup and a packet of prunes per day. I also stopped taking the pregnancy vitamins after the first trimester as the iron in them was making things worse. I had IV perfusions of iron as I was anaemic.

Good luck! 💩