One of the most common things that mums worry about when they're pregnant is whether they're gonna poo themselves during birth. So did our blog writer Ellie, read her story below.
You know when you worry about something and someone helpfully tells you their worst case scenario?Well, early into my first pregnancy my Mum (thinking she was being helpful) decided to warn me that I may poo myself when giving birth. Whaaaat??? I didn’t want to poo myself!
I went on to spend the nxt nine months scared to death of pooing myself. Pooing in front of my boyfriend. Pooing on my newborns head. Laying in poo. Having the midwife judging me for having smelly poo. Poo everywhere! I was obsessed. I'd ask everyone 'did you poo yourself when giving birth??'
I was obsessed! I'd ask everyone 'Did you poo yourself when giving birth??'
I had planned a water birth. I had been in labour for 2 days, I was tired, hungry and (most importantly) trying not to poo myself. I had my mum and partner with me. The exhaustion was making me delirious.
My mum was holding my hand in the birthing pool when I suddenly had a thought enter my head....'Omg I’ve poo'd myself!'. 'I've poo'd myself and my mum has tried to hide it from me. She has sieved out my poo and put it in her handbag. She has my poo in her handbag'.
I was angry, I was annoyed, I was disgusted. Of course I was wrong. She obviously hadn’t taken out my poo and put it in her handbag. At the time I was absolutely convinced though. 'Mum where’s my poo? I can’t believe you’ve got a poo in your bag'. Two days of labour had clearly made me delirious. In fact it turns out I hadn’t pooped in the birthing pool at all.
After all of that, I had to exit the birthing pool for an emergency section. In recovery I had this convo with my partner:
Babe I’ve pooped myself
No you haven’t darling
No I poo'd myself
No you didn’t and your mum hasn’t got your poo in her bag
No babe I’ve poo myself
Stop it! You haven’t!
Darling…. Look I’ve poo'd the bed
Oh god yeah you have. I’ll get a nurse. That stinks.
I spent 9 months (and labour) worrying about pooing myself. When I finally did, it turns out it didn’t matter at all.
Jokes aside, if you are worried you should know that you body is pretty cool and will normally empty your bowels just before or during labour. Also worst case and you do poo yourself, turns out midwives deal with this all the time and are pretty awesome about keeping it discrete. I mean, who knows.... if you've had babies before you may well have poo'd yourself but not even know it!
Ellie, Mum of Two boys
xxxx