A TMI question ( sorry )

okay here goes,
I have pondered as to weather or not I should ask this question and its not because its a bad question its just because I feel so embarresed by it,

well when I had DS no one told me that you can push out #2's as well as a baby I honestly had no idea and felt quite yuk about the whole thing but the midwife I had was wonderful he kept me clean and there was no issue at all no smell etc ( I warned you TMI hehe sorry )

With my DD the midwife was a cow she was really horrible and I literally wanted her gone but felt I couldnt say anything ( I know differently now ;) ) when I was pushing DD out she did not keep me clean infact even after I had DD the #2's were just left there for several minutes as were my legs in the air not a nice experiance at all, I was not covered or anything.

*warning even more TMI coming up*

The smell was not so pleasant and I just felt really expesed and embarresed and even now I just feel like crying that I was left in this state and made to feel well 'dirty' in a way, I know she had obviously seen this so so so many times and it wouldnt have bothered her but it bothered me.

anyway what I am trying to get at with my story and my question is that I feel like this is going to make me not want to push as hard because of the 'ick' factor and that I have such a horrid experiance in mind,

so do I ask for help to make sure I have empty bowles or do I just accept the fact that this happens often , and it is natural to poo at the pushing stage, I guess my 'real' problem is that no one has ever spoken to me about this so TBH I dont know if it is common or uncommon or if there is anything you can do about it.

Thanks for reading and for any responses.

Reality and common sence tell me this is 'normal' but a kind of fear I have now makes me really nervous and embarressed about it.

Thanks again

Hi Amy,

I know it's difficult - but don't be embarassed! It happens all the time. The second midwife did you a disservice. She should have wiped it away discreetly.

I was a support person for my best friend for the births of both her kids and she pooed both times. The first time the midwife took care of it and the second time was in the bath and again the midwife discreetly disposed of the evidence.

I am expecting my first baby in August and pooing is one of my fears, but with so much pressure built up in that area I suppose it really can't be helped!:redface:

Cheers,
Shontelle x

I did with my first and it was quickly wiped away. i had a huge fear of it but when it did happen i couldn't of cared less because i had other things on my mind obviously. With DS though it never happened.

Thanks Shontelle, it is a fear I think becuse of the midwife I had as I said with my first child it was dealt with discreeetly and I was none the wiser but with DD it really made me feel yuk and I think its because of that that I have developed a bit of a fear now, thanks for sharing that it happened to your friend that makes me start to feel a lot better as I said I have never been spoken to about this and have never asked anyone so I have never really known.

But yeah I think you are right with all that pressure its bound to happen one would think

I pooed constantly while pushing for 2 1/2 hours and was in so much agony I didn't really care! But they were very prompt in cleaning it away and reassuring me it was ok, and the second midwife you had sounds like she was negligent in this regard.

If I had had that experience, I would make sure to be up front at the beginning of future labours. You have time when you first meet the midwife to say, "This is what happened last time and I feel X about it, can you please make sure this isn't an issue this time?" Any midwife worth her/his salt will hasten to reassure you and also be very careful to do the right thing for you. Especially as it's the muscles you use to push the baby out that cause it to happen anyway, particularly if you've had a longish labour.

It happened to me - I pooed on the shower floor!! but luckily the midwife just cleaned it up discreetly.... It definately is totally normal and heaps of women do it so midwives would have to be very used to it.
Maybe you could ask at your next appointment if theres anything you can do, if its something that bothers you?

Oh, I SOOO didn't want to poo in labour! DH teased me about it all pregnancy because I had such a hangup LOL, and I was thinking that it would all be good because I had so much diahorrea (sp?) during early labour, but sure enough, I got on the birthing stool and had to poo (and the midwife got rid of it, and DH laughed at me!). I agree that you should bring it up now with your birth team. Are you writing a birth plan? Maybe you could discuss this with the person who goes through it with you (you don't necessarily have to put it down on paper!) so that you are assured that you won't be left feeling like you did last time.