What people don’t tell you about pregnancy!
Haemorrhoids! Everyone gets them, and nobody talks about them. Why? Because they are disgusting!
When I first went to meet my friends new born I was already 32 weeks. I had not experienced pregnancy haemorrhoids and was certain I had avoided them. I asked my friend all about her labor and wanted to hear all the details.
She asked me specifically how much I wanted to know and I said everything. “I pushed my insides out my bum hole!” She replied and I almost fell off my stool. This friend of mine had avoided any pregnancy complications for 9 and a half months. But when it came to pushing her baby out, she said all bets are off. Everyone gets haemorrhoids during the labour and there was nothing she could have done to avoid it (except getting a CSection)
Everyone Gets Them!
9 out of 10 women will end up with haemorrhoids during their pregnancy or after their labor. My midwife is certain that it is actually 10 out of 10 women get haemorrhoids, but that they lie about it.
You don’t have to talk about them either… Why would you, it’s yuck and your friends don’t need to know about this stuff.
The problem with not talking about pregnancy haemorrhoids is that it makes women feel worse when they find out they have them, like they are the only woman on earth to be that gross. So maybe mention them to your friends when they are pregnant and point them to this article to help them feel better about the whole mess.
There are all different kinds!
Some hurt, some itch, some bleed, some you can feel and some you can’t
They Heal!
Pregnancy haemorrhoids will heal themselves and your body (bottom) will return to what it once was. It takes a few weeks, but that really isn’t a long time. After a few weeks, if you have not seen any improvement, go to your doctor. You might need a little help healing downstairs, particularly if you had a difficult labor.
The reason you get them.
The reason you get pregnancy haemorrhoids is because of the pregnancy! The hormones in your body, especially around your bottom and vagina are working hard to relax your muscles, tendons and blood vessels. Everything downstairs is softening up in preparation for the delivery.
This means that your body is preparing itself to avoid damage. The softer you are down there the less damage you will do to your body in the long run. A soft perineum means less chance of tearing, stitches and infection.
The baby is also putting a lot of pressure on your pelvic floor muscles, anus, cervix and vagina. This downward pressure is causing your haemorrhoids. Other causes of haemorrhoids you can read on beyoung.co.id. When this pressure goes away, your haemorrhoids will have a chance to heal (and not before)
They will probably get worse during the pregnancy.
I can’t stress this point enough. You probably won’t be able to heal your haemorrhoids in any way until after the baby comes out. That is because the baby is causing this problem, not you. You have not caused this, and you are not gross.
What you can do to make life better…
These measures will by no means ensure that you avoid Haemorrhoids during your pregnancy. These measures are just to make sure you are comfortable and have as few problems as possible when healing.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Walk around whenever possible.
- Practice pelvic floor exercises, with a focus on your bottom.
- Take a stool softener (get doctor to recommend a pregnancy safe softener) when you need to.
- Don’t rush going to the toilet, give yourself plenty of time in there.
- Drink more water.
- Use special haemorrhoid wipes to clean and sanitise the area.
AFTER POST _
- Link back to what to pack in hosptial bag part 1 - where i mention wipes and stool softeners -