Q&A: Pooping During Labor

It is common to have loose stools and a bowel movement shortly before your labor starts. This happens because your body releases prostaglandins that are going to help soften your cervix. Prostaglandins can also stimulate your bowels, which can cause loose stools or diarrhea. One theory is this helps empty your bowels prior to labor starting. What about having a bowel movement during your labor? For many expecting moms the thought of pooping during labor is terrifying and embarrassing, but it shouldn’t be. The truth is that it is not a big deal. This episode answers a question from a listener about pooping during labor, if it happens to everyone, and whether you can avoid it.

Thank you to Aeroflow for sponsoring this episode. Aeroflow is a company that helps you get a breast pump through your health insurance. There can be some hoops to jump through to get a breast pump through your insurance but Aeroflow does all of this for you and makes it so easy. All you need to do is fill out a form that takes just a minute and they will contact your health insurance company and work out all the details, then they will get in touch with you to help you choose the right breast pump. To get started on ordering your pump go to http://pregnancypodcast.com/breastpump/

Thank you to Zahler for their support of this episode. Zahler makes a high quality prenatal vitamin that has the active form of folate, that I refer after all of the research I have read on folic acid, plus it has omega 3s and DHA. This is the prenatal vitamin I take and the one I recommend. Zahler was very generous and gave me a promo code I can share with you so you can save 25% off when you buy a month supply on Amazon. To order them today go to http://amzn.to/2nOuFVB and enter the promo code PREPOD25 when you checkout.