hospital rules

Body: 

i wonder if the increasingly high number of women experiencing prolapse after pregnancy might be related at all to many hospitals' policy that new moms have a bowel movement before being discharged from the hospital. it's like they are encouraging you to strain right when your nether regions are at their most vulnerable! luckily they didn't demand that of me because i was backed-up for about a week after my 1st was born & feeling far too tender to try too hard! i just wondered if anyone else thinks there could be a connection.

--mary ann

Well that wasn't the problem in my case. I had a bowel movement without any strain and I still developed a rectocele. In my case I laid flat on my back and was "instructed" to push like I was having a bowel movement for almost two hours. I couldn't let my body do what it does naturally because I was uninformed at the time without any support and ended up getting an epidural. I would never do what I did then if I knew what I know now! But isn't that the case a lot of the time. At least I hope to not add to the damage this time around by having a midwife and hopefully gentle and natural delivery.

i'm struggling to put it all together. i just watched my two deliveries on tape. i was never told when to push per se. i would tell them when a contraction was coming & then it was "grab your legs & push that baby out!" i used hypnobirthing & was very comfortable moving around or lying in bed while laboring at home(and even making love then having a bath less than 3 hrs. before my 2nd was born!). i arrived at the hospital at 9cm with my first & 8cm with my 2nd & then pushed about a half hour or less with each. both drs. did instruct me to push like i was having a b.m. and i was on my back. i just don't know. i do know that i had zero interventions & no episiotomy or tears and here i am with my prolapses! given that my birth mother has prolapse & i had spent my teen thru adult years flattening my abs & tucking my pelvis i tend to think i was predisposed to this. i wish you great success in having a gentle, unmediated labor & delivery the next time around.

best regards,
mary ann

Hi Mary Ann

Yes, I remember that well. Fortunately I had no trouble passing a bowel motion effortlessly, once if eventually decided to come, but in those days you spent a week in hospital. These days of discharge the day after it is probably reasonably easy to escape the bowel nazis!

If you think about one of the main rules for not worsening existing prolapses, it is don't ever, ever strain for a bowel movement.

My reading tells me that many woman have prolapses straight after birth that clear themselves up over the following days, weeks or months.

My commonsense tells me that post partum you would be very vulnerable while all those pelvic tissues are still stretched. Wouldn't it be great if women were instead taught how to manipulate their diet and re-establish good posture post partum to ensure that constipation didn't cause them to strain on the toilet for the rest of their lives?

Cheers

Louise