Enema with second child to start labor after water had broken (and it works, too)…no poop.
Assisted at birth of daughter’s best friend’s baby…no enema, poop. What bothered me was why, when she had a lot more labor to go through, they didn’t clean away the little bit that came out…it didn’t bother her (she had no idea) but those of us down at that end could have used a break from the smell after a half-hour or so, and it wouldn’t have been that hard to remove the soiled blue pad and replace with another…
My wife has never accidentally taken a dump while pushing out any of our six children. However, she usually intentionally went to the bathroom earlier on in labor to clear herself of “foreign” sensations in that region.
No, no. I just thought that was amazingly descriptive and succinct.
(Nurses amaze me, your problem-solving and pragmatism. The only blogs I’ve bothered to read have been written by nurses, I find them fascinating.)
That’s just not right. Not only is it not right in a comfort and hygiene sense, it’s just not right in a medically safe sense. While feces isn’t a big deal, you do want to clean it up before the baby takes a literal nosedive into it upon exiting the premises, y’know?
In the births I’ve assisted, the midwife, a nurse (or me, if there’s no one else in the room) will discretely wipe away the “dookie” with some gauze or tissues while the mom is distracted and toss it into the bin where all the other bodily fluids end up. I’ve not met a mother yet who realized she had pooped on the table, even when I had first hand evidence, and honestly I don’t tell them, because I don’t want them to feel embarrassed or grossed out. The pooping part comes when you’re rather well occupied with other matters.
None with number one, but I almost hit my husband’s hand with #2 during the first really big push with number two (his hand was near because he was holding up my leg). I remember his surprise, and the midwife smiled and said, “birth is not a sterile process!” and quickly whisked everything away and cleaned everything up.
Yes, there was a part of my mind that was slightly embarassed, but the front part of my mind decided it didn’t care what came out as long as the cinder block working its way through my pelvis came out, too.
I’m pretty sure it happened to my wife during birth #2, but I have a strict policy of staring at my wife’s face AND NOTHING ELSE during delivery, so I wasn’t a witness. She told me later.
When I was in labour they told me to push ‘just as if you were moving your bowels.’ So I did, and I did, but by then, I sooooo far past caring who saw what…
I’ve been in the room for 4 births (3 as a witness, one as the birthgiver) and with 3 of the 4, there was definitely poop.
The thing about having a child is that you’re naked and covered in oogy bodily fluids and every hour or so someone’s sticking their fingers up your twat or poking at your belly. There’s only so much of that you can take before you lose all interest in what other people think of you.
I know I pooped … my husband knew to expect it, and watched out for it! I asked him about it afterwards. They just push it down into the big tub o’ nasty stuff under the end of the bed to be taken away after the birth.
Whynot- has your friend taken into account that as the uterus contracts the external anal sphincter opens involuntarily?
It’s not about pushing with the right set of muscles, you’ll be doing a valsalva with your analsphincter open…anything in you rectum is going to come out whether you want it to or not. Luckily, the hormones your body produces to trigger labour, often trigger diarrhoea as well, ensuiirng an empty rectum and faeces free delivery.
Obviously, if you’ve been eating curries/chilli or taking castor oil in an attempt to start labour, that will help too!
Well, yes, her point was that it’s *not *involuntary in the same way the internal sphincter opening is involuntary. We just think it is because we don’t push out enough babies to know how to do it without letting the anal sphincters open. Every day we “push out” feces, so when we hear “push!” or even “bear down like you’re having a bowel movement” the first thing we do is…well, bear down and push as if we’re having a bowel movement, which includes opening the anal sphincter.
The same thing was taught in my Lamaze class and my mother’s Lamaze class - that it’s not necessary to poop on the table, but most of us probably will anyway and don’t worry about it. We were encouraged to practice at home by placing a finger or two inside and pushing, so we could feel what muscles were actually useful and which were a waste of energy. Apparently if you practice beforehand enough, you can learn to push things out vaginally without opening the anus. There are even tools you can buy at sex shops that can help you learn how to do this. As **plnner **alluded to, this is a common form of…adult entertainment…in some areas. We’re just not very interested in developing prehensile vaginas around here.
Why would anyone wear a glove on their face?
Anyway bless ALL you women for going through the birth process so we can have families, and of course keep the human race going!
I can actually do this since converting to the DivaCup, as in bear down vaginally but not rectally. However, I don’t think I’d be able to focus enough to do so whilst pushing an 8 pound person out of my hoohoo.
