Birth | Pregnancy | Blog

I know it can be embarrassing, but it is a fact of life for many people and something that is quite common during pregnancy too. Constipation, you know, that awful feeling of needing to … poop, and not being able to for some reason. So what do you do about it?

What to do:

There are a few things to try.
• First off though, don’t get stressed out or worked up about it. That will only make things worse.
• Secondly, get to the root of the problem before treating the symptom. This is very important for any illness because you may only cause more problems if you aren’t treating the source of the problem.
  What have you eaten? What are you drinking? Are you stressed about something? Have your bathroom habits been regular or interrupted? Is there any pain associated? The answers to the questions can slowly help you rule out reasons for the problem.

Remedies:

Now it is time for the third step of what to do, remedy the source.
• Something that can only help is WATER, WATER, and more WATER. Perhaps you’ve only recently gotten pregnant or maybe you are close to you due date, either way, you may be tired of having to pee all the time, but TO BAD. For your own sake and your baby’s, water if a life line, and I don’t mean the flavored stuff either. The purest most natural water you can get. Your body needs to be well hydrated at any time, and even more so when you are pregnant.
• Next, I know I have said it before in relation to other things, examine your diet. A balanced diet is your best bet to a balanced body. If you are feeling bound up though, you might want to increase your intake of natural fiber by eating more fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, and bran.
• Lastly, I suggest to you to relax. Take some time someplace quiet, even if all you can get is two minutes on the toilet, take some time alone to close your eyes, breath deeply and slowly, and relax your entire body as much as you can. This is good practice for childbirth anyway.

Still?

If you are still having problems after a few days, everything that I have heard or read says you should consult your physician.
Avoid taking laxatives unless you and your physician agree together that it would be best. Reliance on laxatives can sometimes actually cause constipation.
As gruesome as it may be, it’s important to tell your physician all the details associated with the problem, so don’t hold back. They don’t know your body as well as you do so they are relying on what you tell them to help you the best they can.

Now go kick that constipation, in the butt!
-Sheilah

Popularity: 64% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: pregnancy, Constipation, Remedies:

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 1:10 am and is filed under Child Birth, Post Partum, Pregnancy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.