Today during our lunch break in the office we were discussing “life inside the uterus”, as one of my coworkers is pregnant. Among the topics discussed, hiccups, sleeping pattern, and how the baby drinks some of the amniotic fluid. So, someone said that sometimes before or during birth the baby would “poo and pee” inside the placenta and provoke the mother’s death, or at least put her in jeopardy. :eek:
Having not being pregnant, I have to admit that my only source of information so far has been books and Discovery Channelsup[/sup], and I have never heard of such thing.
Anyone can give me the straight dope on this? I would not like to bother the Perfect Master if can get my answers elsewhere.
The mother will not die when the baby poops while still in the womb. It is a normal process, in fact. I have seen (on video) a baby being born while it was “pooping” and the mom was fine. There is actually a special term for prenatal pooping, because it is not real poop. I forget what the term is though.
P.S. The fetus is not inside the placenta, but connected to it (the placenta is the food source. The fetus resides in the amniotic sac.
The meiconium itself is not fatal to the mother, and it is essentially sterile feces.
However, it is typically symptomatic of a fetus in stress, and this can indicate a number of different type of breech births or obstructed umbilical cords, which CAN lead to major problems for the mother, especially without the benefit of modern OB/GYN care techniques such as c-sections.
Meconium liquor can definitely cause problems for the baby apart from just indicating distress - in particular respiratory problems (when the baby takes it’s first breath, the meconium in the amniotic fluid present in it’s airways - up until then it’s lungs have functioned more like gills - can end up in it’s lungs). It’s one - but not the only - reason the presence of meconium in the liquor is taken as one indication to get the baby out fast.
Meconium definitely can indicate stress, and it also can cause respitory problems at delivery, but neither of those things are givens, when it is present.
Meconium was present with my first, and third pregnancies, and caused no problem, either time. The last time it was due to fetal stress, but quick action on my part, and the part of the doctor on call at the hospital saved my baby from future stress related problems.
With my first, it was merely because he was a week past due, at the time of his delivery, which is very common, and rarely causes any complications.
I’ll also second the fact that the fetus starts urinating in the womb, as soon as it develops a urethra. It regularly “swallows” amniotic fluid, and it passes through the system, just as water does us. I remember reading about that during my first pregnancy and thinking it was kind of icky, but hey, it’s normal, and what can you do about it? Nothing.
My younger son was also born with meconium in the amniotic fluid. At the time I was participating in an on-line pregnancy support group, and a number of the mothers reported “mec in the waters”. What was interesting was the range of hospital policies about it. In our case, the midwife merely increased external monitoring and suctioned totnak’s mouth and nose extra thoroughly as his head was emerging. At the other extreme, one mom was told that hospital policy required an emergency C-section.
The most likely reason that totnak couldn’t hold it in any longer was because of what’s called “transient fetal distress” - something happens that causes the uterus to get squished when the baby already has no room, the blood supply is disrupted for a moment, and the baby reflexively moves its bowels. I had severe nausea right up until the end, so the poor kid probably pooped while I puked. A bad coughing fit can do the same thing.
Meconium, by the way, is mostly decaying red blood cells, which explain its tarry color and consistency and, ahhh, memorable smell.
And after birth the baby’s first few bowel movements will still be of meconium, until mother’s milk or formula have worked their way through the digestive tract.