Enema before delivery?

I thought it was old fashioned and outdated to be given an enema before you deliver but at antenatal class a couple of days ago the midwife said that it's standard procedure....this BTW is the same midwife who I'm not seeing anymore because she was so awful to me and I have an idea that she's not very up to date with her birth info as she only does antenatal checks...then again I may be wrong.

What have you all found? Was it offered? Was it never mentioned?

I'm going to ask when we go for our tour of the delivery area just to find out. I've nothing against it really, I just didn't think it was so common any more.

Has not been done for years

Yep - never offered, never mentioned. Altho, I think someone may have asked at the classes now that I think about it.. and the midwife said they don't do it.

I guess if you -want- it done, there's nothing wrong with it.

Turned out my body did it's own evacuation naturally anyway, so I certainly didn't need one! hehehe

hehehe, they're the kinds of responses I was expecting. I swear that the amount of BS coming out of this woman is amazing! She's not been a delivery midwife since her training days and a lot of what she says seems really out of date!!

Geez is she for real?
Let us know what the midwives in the delivery area say!

Maybe the thinking is different over there?

I actually asked for one when I was having Erin, cause the Midwife asked me to go to the toilet and I said "NO, you are going to give me an enema, I simply cannot try to go to the loo during labour" Needless to say she refused LOL, told me it would be much better to go on my own.

Never mentioned....never asked!

They never mentioned it at my ante-natal classes. I didn't think it was common procedure anymore.

I gave birth to my son 3 months ago at a private hospital. When I was admitted to hospital, I was told that I was going to have an Enema to 'clean me out'. There wasnt any choice in the matter, it was simply the hospital's procedure - or so I was told. It was pretty gross from memory, especially as a contraction hit, and you are trying to hold it all in for the 15 mins.

Im not sure whether it was a good or bad thing because when I was at the pushing stage I really wouldnt have cared if anything happened to come out (sorry if TMI), but it was good to know (beforehand) that it was gone.

No enemas at my hospital. And I had been suffering from terrible constipation in the days leading up to birth. And the pre-labour diarrhoea just never arrived for me unfortunately - despite huge numbers of prunes, pear juice and everything else.

But during the birth - I couldn't have cared less - I was concentrating on other stuff. Surprising since I thought I would really have a big hangup about it. The midwives and my doula were really discrete and just kept me clean and tidy. Even my DH who is particularly poo-squeamish was fine with the whole thing.

it was mentioned at our pre delivery courses - but only because someone asked about it.

Like many others have said - my body pretty much got rid of anything before labour started anyway! the pre labour stuff feels like period pains and that is often enough to make your tummy and guts squirm and be squiggly and so on and so on.....

it was never mentioned, never offered to me..

I had the runs a little bit before I went into labour anyway, so that sort of cleared me out.

Even if you are told you'll 'have to have one' you certainly have the right to refuse!! What are they going to do, hold you down and give you one? I think not. Or rather, I hope not!
If you're concerned about this midwive's information being out of date, I'd be writing a letter to someone higher up at the hossy expressing your concerns.
Good luck!

Never mentioned to me with either of my babies....and if it was I would've told them exactly what they could do with said enema.....
After 18 and something hours of labour with DD there was pretty much nil risk of me doing anything by the end of that anyway :lol:

The only person who mentioned a Enema was my bloody MIL! Kept asking if they had done it yet. I was like NO & NO WAY will I be letting them!
It was never mentioned by the midwifes thank god!

OK, Now I am taking the opposite side here. Not out of want or desire though.

With Tehya I was so badly constipated that I pretty much had inpacted bowels. I was so damn blocked up it wasn't funny. I hadn't been for #2's in around a week !! I was pushing literally on and off for 2 hours before I was checked, as I wasn't having VE and was going with the pushing urge. Now, normally this would be fine, but when you are so badly clogged up and a baby is trying to move down it will give you pushing urges before you need them.

When I finally had a VE I was only 6cm. And that is when the poo was felt. They could feel it through my vaginal walls (sorry I know really TMI) but then I had to have a manual removal to get some out of the way and finally an enema. After it was all out, I layed down and rested for about 30 minutes, finshed dilating and pushed Tehya out within 15 minutes or so.

Ok, not a really nice story I know. And the enema wasn't used routinely, but you can see that sometimes they are a good idea. If I were to ever have another baby I would sure make sure my bowels were empty before hand.

Trish - I can relate... I was also really constipated before Hester was born but I had been taking heaps of prunes and pear juice and stuff to get things moving. I heard that constipation can inhibit labour. I think it is true.

Expat - unless you are constipated really badly - I think you can definitely go without.