Late pregnancy poo question

[MissingCoffeeandWine]

Warning TMI - Sorry to ask but wondering if anyone else in late pregnancy is struggling with similar - I’ve had piles since early first trimester, relatively controlled. Have been careful to avoid constipation - eating fiber, taking fibrogel daily, using spatone as a gentle iron supplement (required to avoid anemia for me), drinking water. Yet, in the last ten days it’s like my bowels have stopped working.

When I go to the loo, I try not to spend too long as it makes the piles worse: but when I go to pop them back up after an unsuccessful attempt; I can feel the poo! So it seems it’s there/waiting, but it doesn’t want to come out.

I’m not impacted as I’m managing to go daily ish - but it’s frustratingly time consuming. Am using a poo stool, taking baths...none of it seems to be making much of a difference to the pattern. It seems I still need several attempts before my muscles respond!

Help! Any tips for anything else I could do?

Last time I went into labour with really bad piles and I’ve really tried to avoid that this time. At 36+ weeks it feels like I’m at the last hurdle, and I’m desperate to avoid the same feeling of constipation and discomfort this time.

Ouch op!
Have you tried prunes? Hot fresh orange always helps me when I need things abit looser!

Prune juice. Tesco

Have you tried lactulose? I had to use it a lot when was pregnant with my DS and found it so helpful.

Prune juice is also really effective.

As @Teakind said, you could switch your laxative to lactulose or a macrogol based product such as Laxido or Movicol (you can buy these over the counter at a pharmacy and are safe for use in pregnancy). You have the option of adjusting the number of sachets you take a day which I find can really help.
I take half a laxido sachet each day because I'm now on iron tablets and they works wonders just to keep everything moving! And if I hadn't been for a couple of days I would just take a full sachet instead.

Hope you manage to find something that suits you, I know the feeling!

I had nasty piles after my first pregnancy. I had a glass of prune juice everyday with my second and had no problems. It tastes vile so I'd just knock it back whilst holding my nose. It really is the business though for this pregnancy problem.

All bran clusters for breakfast