Pooping During Labor: Why There's No Need to Be Embarrassed

Pooping during labor

Whenever anyone mentions pregnancy, the image that pops in their head is these gorgeous, glowing women, big grins plastered on their faces, wearing the latest maternity dresses, and laughing with their sisters, mothers, and peers. From this image, you'd think pregnancy is all rainbows and butterflies. For many women, that may be the case until they go into labor.

Hollywood movies don't help either. Yes, they always portray pregnant women as these mega-hyper-stressed beings, just ready to crush anything because of the pains of labor. Hollywood may be right in conveying that labor is painful - but the real kind of labor is much, much different.

It's the kind you'll feel your whole body shaking from the pain. It's the kind you'll hold tight on to anything in hopes that doing that will relieve the pain. It's the kind that makes you think, "How do other women do this and decide to do it over and over?"

Surgery team doing gentle c-section | Image Source: iStock

That's the kind of pain you're going to experience when you go into labor. Very different from what movies show you. Do you know what else those movies don't show you? All the different kinds of fluids that come out of you during your labor and the delivery of your child. And, by fluids, I mean your pee, sweat, tears, blood, and even - yes, your poop.

You read that right. Poop is going to come out of you as you start pushing to get your baby out of your uterus. You might be wondering: is it normal to poop while giving birth?

The answer is yes; pooping is totally normal during the birth of your baby. So, your doctor, the nurses, the anesthesiologist - everyone in that room won't bat an eyelash when they see your feces shooting out or dripping off of your opening. The only other person that needs an orientation, apart from you, is your partner who will be in the room with you.

Before giving him an orientation, you ought to orient yourself first. So, read on to learn all about pooping during labour. Best if you've finished eating your breakfast, lunch, or dinner before reading the rest of the article.

Why you poop during labor

1. It's the hormones

It's as if those hormones haven't done enough already. Unfortunately, they may be one of some factors that cause you to poop during this very important moment in your pregnancy. You can continue to have this hate relationship with hormones, but you cannot deny that they have no purpose.

The release of those prostaglandins helps ripen your cervix for delivery. So, you can scorn them during delivery and thank them later when your baby gets out.

2. Your baby's position

Just like how your baby is pressing on your bladder and causing you to pee, they could also be pressing against your colon and sacral nerve, making you want to poop. Often this happens when they are in the occipital posterior position, or more fondly referred to as the "face-up" or "sunny side up" position. That means their backs are leaning against your spine. So, their head is pressing against your colon.

Unfortunately, there is no way to move your baby's position from the occipital posterior position to the occipital anterior position. So, you'd just have to get over the fact that you will poop during labour or delivery no matter what.

3. You push for the baby and the poop

Precipitate labour

As you may have already seen in many movies, pregnant women will be asked to push when they're already ready to deliver. And you'll find your OB or your nurses telling you to push like you would when you poop because it's the same maneuver when you're trying to push your baby out.

Unfortunately, as you do this and liken pushing your baby out like you're pooping, you will actually poop too. But, the good thing is no one is going to judge you for it. Your delivery team has already seen much worse things at this point. Your poop on the table will not be a shock to them anymore.

Avoiding poop during labor

Though we've said several times already within this article, that pooping during labor is normal, you might still want to find ways to avoid that horrible thing from happening.

Traditionally, doctors would give pregnant women enemas, so they can already empty their bowels before labor. But much research has found that doing this practice does not avoid infection in the end nor does it prevent women from still pooping on the table. So, what's the point? For this reason, health practitioners have stopped giving pregnant women enemas.

Getting babies from the occipital posterior position to the occipital anterior position is another route that women think they could do to avoid pooping during labor. Some people advise women to avoid reclining positions or to always be on their knees. But further studies have confirmed that doing that exercise does not help turn a posterior baby into an anterior one.

Other concerns about poop during labor

1. The color of your poop

You might wonder: what is the color of your poop before labor? Apart from pooping during birth, the color of your feces is going to be another surprise. You might poop green during pregnancy. Often it's because of what you eat. So, if you like eating green vegetables like seaweed, kale, broccoli, and spinach - your poop is going to come out green.

Another cause of your green-tinged poop is your prenatal vitamins which are loaded with iron. Your OB will prescribe you some iron, so you can produce enough iron for yourself and your baby. And the other effect of your iron supplements is green poop.

2. The urge to poop vs. pushing the baby out

Some time in your labor, you might feel the urge to poop, because as said earlier, if your baby is in the sunny-side up position, they will continue to press on your colon and make you feel like you want to make a deposit.

Now, when you feel that urge, your nurse or OB will most likely check first if you're fully dilated before letting you go to the toilet. The reason being is that this urge may not be the urge to poop but the urge to push your baby out.

So, if they find that you're fully dilated, that means no more time to go to the toilet. It's time to get you to the delivery room. If your cervix has not maxed out to 10 cm, however, your physician might let you through the toilet.

Without that check, you might end up delivering your baby in the toilet. It's rare. But it has happened.

So, what makes labor and all of the ugly and painful things that come with it worth it? Seriously? It's that little bundle of joy.

You're going to fall in love in a way that you never thought was possible before. So, all of the unbelievable pain, the discomfort, the disgusting feces splashing all over your OB's table, you will forget everything about them once you see your little one.

When they finally hand your baby over to you, your legs still spread wide on the table, you're going to remember that question you asked yourself while you were having those contractions. How do other women do this and decide to do it over and over? Because what they get right after is a pure treasure worth all of that pain.

Republished with permission from theAsianparent Singapore

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