I know that these days we are a bit eschatological with the issue of childbirth, after explaining last Thursday that it is normal to vomit in childbirth and that it can be to some extent beneficial, but it is something that can happen and that is why we want to explain it, so that Women take it into account when giving birth.
Today we are going to give one more twist to childbirth in this regard, offering a recommendation that goes, especially, for women who suffer constipation during pregnancy: on labor day, make sure you have "pooped" before.
Not to "poop" during labor?
The first forgive me if you think I could have used some other term to refer to feces. "Belly" is said a lot, but I never liked it. "Aguas mayor" sounds too old. "Shit" too vulgar. "Poop" too childish. And "feces" too correct. So I keep the "to poop", which seems to me a rather colloquial intermediate term and acceptable for the occasion.
Perhaps there is someone who thinks that I am recommending that the day of delivery be given birth with the intestines and especially with the rectum empty before the possibility of pooping during delivery. Nothing is further from reality. For a time all women who were going to give birth were given an enema for that reason so that no feces left during delivery.
It was considered that in this way there would be less risk of infection (so that the baby would not come into contact with the mother's poop), that the mother would have a more satisfactory delivery, because it was thought that doing poop on them could be a nuisance ("What a horror, I'll poop on myself") and that the deliveries would be shorter.
In Babies and more? Training during pregnancy? Some tips to prevent itBut a review of studies carried out in 2008, which we talked about a few years ago, showed that:
- There were no significant differences for infection rates in either mothers or newborns. After a month of follow-up. There were also no differences in the incidence of lower or upper respiratory tract infections in infants or significant differences in the rates of neonatal umbilical infection.
- It was not appreciated that the women to whom an enema was applied they had shorter births.
- No significant differences were found regarding the satisfaction of women.
Come on, that after this review it was decided to withdraw this practice from the protocols and use it only if it was considered necessary. In the Clinical Practice Guideline on normal birth care in Spain, it was decided to make the following brief, but concise recommendation:
It is recommended not to use the enema routinely during childbirth
However, if you suffer from constipation ...
Now, one thing is that you have poop in the rectum and that it is pasty or relatively soft, that you can do in childbirth along with the contractions, that it comes out easily, and another that suffer constipation and you always need a good time of concentration in the sink to be able to release more or less large and more or less difficult balls. Come on, have hard poop.
In the second case, you could not only have problems pooping during childbirth, but the same delivery could be difficult, because these hard stools occupy a space in the rectum that makes it difficult for the baby to pass through the birth canal.
If you look at the illustration, the vagina and the birth canal are next to the rectum. During labor, the dilation is such that even reaches the sacrum, which moves a little backwards to leave even more room for the baby. The sacrum bone is behind the rectum and can only be pulled back in case the woman is not lying down (if she is lying down impossible, because the stretcher prevents it). Well, imagine now that inside the rectum there is poop, hard stools. Although the sacrum moves and although the birth canal is dilated, there will be an important space, that of the rectum, occupied, preventing the baby from progressing properly, or at least making it difficult.
If the woman does not have difficulty pooping, there will be no problem, but if there is one, if you are one of those who need time and sometimes even use a microenema, the worst may happen:Do not poop during childbirth, that the stool is hard and that the baby has a little more difficult to leave. Therefore, in such cases, it may be useful to try to poop before delivery, either naturally, or with an enema.
My wife and her constipation
My wife, who is one of those women who have serious problems with constipation, always says that the best part of her second birth was “when they gave me the enema” (well, the best after having her son, of course), because finally he could know what it feels like with the empty intestine.
The reason they put it on was that, after several hours dilating very little, a midwife made a vaginal touch, surprising her by noticing that she had, as she told him, “An amazing poop plug” which seemed to prevent the child's head from lowering further.
It was to put the enema, empty the intestine and, in a matter of half an hour, expand incredibly from 4-5 to those who arrived after several hours of contractions at 9 with those who said "come, you're going to give birth now."
In conclusion, the enema is not for all women, but yes for those who ask for it and yes, above all, to those who have a fairly pronounced constipation, because it could harm them in the dilation phase or in childbirth, if they are not able to poop on their own.
