Does anyone know if there's any rhyme or reason to whether a woman poops during birth? My guess would having a BM in early labor would make it less likely, but other than that, I dunno.

Its because your pushing and it forces your bowels to force poop down your gi

That's what I kinda figured. The muscles are all going the same way.

(December 21, 2019, 10:13 pm)ilovepregnantwomen Its because your pushing and it forces your bowels to force poop down your gi

I was in the delivery room for all three of my wife's deliveries and she only pooped a little with the first one, nothing with the other two.  It was her longest labor (almost 24 hours vs. 12 hours or less with the others) and her longest time on an epidural.  When you have an epidural you can't get out of bed to go to the bathroom.  They put in a catheter so you don't constantly wet the bed, but there's not much that can be done about the other - it'll either happen or it won't.  So my guess is the longer you're stuck in bed, the less able you are to evacuate your bowels ahead of time and therefore you're more likely to shit the bed.

Also, women who are worried about pooping during labor can opt for a drug in their IV that will constipate them.  I don't remember if my wife opted for that, but my guess is she probably did each time.

Funny/gross story... a friend of a friend took his heavily pregnant wife out for Mexican food because of the old wives' tale about spicy food starting labor.  Then she pounded some castor oil before bed.  They'll never truly know for certain whether either of those - or the combination - was the catalyst for her labor (correlation != causation and all that) but her water broke a few hours later and they were off to the hospital.  When it came time for her to push, dude was so overwhelmed by all of the literal and figurative shit coming out of her that he puked and passed out.  Said it looked like a scene from a horror movie.

(December 22, 2019, 1:19 am)doubleintegral

(December 21, 2019, 10:13 pm)ilovepregnantwomen Its because your pushing and it forces your bowels to force poop down your gi

I was in the delivery room for all three of my wife's deliveries and she only pooped a little with the first one, nothing with the other two.  It was her longest labor (almost 24 hours vs. 12 hours or less with the others) and her longest time on an epidural.  When you have an epidural you can't get out of bed to go to the bathroom.  They put in a catheter so you don't constantly wet the bed, but there's not much that can be done about the other - it'll either happen or it won't.  So my guess is the longer you're stuck in bed, the less able you are to evacuate your bowels ahead of time and therefore you're more likely to shit the bed.

Also, women who are worried about pooping during labor can opt for a drug in their IV that will constipate them.  I don't remember if my wife opted for that, but my guess is she probably did each time.

Funny/gross story... a friend of a friend took his heavily pregnant wife out for Mexican food because of the old wives' tale about spicy food starting labor.  Then she pounded some castor oil before bed.  They'll never truly know for certain whether either of those - or the combination - was the catalyst for her labor (correlation != causation and all that) but her water broke a few hours later and they were off to the hospital.  When it came time for her to push, dude was so overwhelmed by all of the literal and figurative shit coming out of her that he puked and passed out.  Said it looked like a scene from a horror movie.

it depends on when the last bowel movement is. my dad works in healthcare and facts like this is discussed at the dinner table a lot. but it does happen quite a bit.

(December 22, 2019, 2:08 am)ilovepregnantwomen it depends on when the last bowel movement is. my dad works in healthcare and facts like this is discussed at the dinner table a lot. but it does happen quite a bit.

Your family must all have iron stomachs to be able to talk about shit while eating.

Not just about shit a lot of other crap gets talked at th he table. Hell skin a deer in front of me eating a burger I wouldn't hurl

.  Don't know how I missed this on the first page. It depends on how long you are in labor for my wife had very quick labors all 3 times (the longest was 6 hours from water break to placenta delivery) , never once pooped.   The doctor on our first did tell her if she had to pee to let it go.