Post-Birth question: fecal incontinence

Mamasaurus · October 2011

One of my books mentioned that some women prefer wearing adult diapers for the first few weeks after birth because of urinary and/or fecal incontinence. I never heard of fecal incontinence after birth and am a little freaked out! The book says it happens a lot when the baby is pushing on a nerve around the anus for an extended period during labor/delivery, and I would image this happens a lot when women have an epi and birth on their backs because they can't move to other positions. Is this something natural birth might help, then? Or do I just need to get used to the possibility of changing my own diapers for a little while in addition to changing my LO?

LindseyJW · October 2011

i've known hundreds of women who gave birth and have been on these boards for 6 years and i've never heard of someone suffering from temporary fecal incontinence following birth. i have heard of women who had to have medical intervention to correct birth related incontinence, but nothing like what you are describing.

this is not at all to say it doesn't happen, just to say that i wouldn't run out and buy adult diapers and get myself all psyched up about changing my own after baby.

actually, more often women suffer from the opposite affliction, constipation - or worse, fear of having a bowel movement because everything is tender and sore.

katcarls · October 2011

I never had any problems with urinary or fecal incontinence after giving birth. I'm assuming that's something that could get worse with successive births so I really hope I'm fine after this one too.

cros8380 · October 2011

I have been hanging around on this and other birthing boards for over a year now and I have never heard of this! Not to say that it doesn't happen, but maybe it's a rare issue, or only happens in extreme cases? How old is your book, maybe it's something that used to happen with older birthing methods?

chicsub · October 2011

One of my friends had her baby after me and ended up with a 4th degree tear and some issues like this. Not sure how long it lasted, but I would say it's rare.

gekeler6 · October 2011

The only thing I ever experienced close to this was after my second pregnancy. I didn't hear about it previously so I was freaked when it happened. I had moments for only a few days where I would pee without knowing it. I was wearing pads for bleeding so most of my urine was caught by the pad. I only peed unitentional twice after the birth, and I had no idea that I had to pee. My doctor said that its not uncommon and it should go away. It did go away and never had it happen again. Never did I have fecal incompatence, I never heard of that either!

madhatter2003 · October 2011

**lurking**

The only person I know that had issues had a 4th degree tear and needed surgery in the end. I think it's very rare.

abell77 · October 2011

So, I never considered it to be incontinence, but after the birth of my first son, there were a few weeks where, let's just say, it was impossible to "hold it". When I had to go, I needed to find a bathroom pronto, even if that meant going while simultaneously nursing my son (oh, the things we do...). I didn't have these problems whatsoever after the birth of my second son.

With both of my births I had a second degree tear, but with my first I pushed over two hours, and with my second I pushed six times total. So I think after my first the muscles down there were just so fatigued that it took a while to recover. Kegels work wonders.

LesRN · October 2011

I have a friend who was a L&D nurse. She was telling me there is some medication given by an intramuscular injection if you happen to hemorrhage after delivery that will give you massive diarrhea. She told me that many times the epidural hasn't worn off and if you get this med you'll most likely be laying in your poo and not know it. sounds like a pretty rare circumstance as well though...thank goodness!!

katiewhompus · October 2011

abell77:
So, I never considered it to be incontinence, but after the birth of my first son, there were a few weeks where, let's just say, it was impossible to "hold it". When I had to go, I needed to find a bathroom pronto, even if that meant going while simultaneously nursing my son (oh, the things we do...). I didn't have these problems whatsoever after the birth of my second son.

With both of my births I had a second degree tear, but with my first I pushed over two hours, and with my second I pushed six times total. So I think after my first the muscles down there were just so fatigued that it took a while to recover. Kegels work wonders.

This happened to me as well, though I had a 3rd degree tear that included the sphincter which aggravated issues. I feel like that got better around the 5 week mark when my muscles weren't quite so beat up.

I wouldn't worry too much about it though. If it happens it happens.

pixieprincss · October 2011

I have been in pelvic PT for months, so I get lots of nitty gritty from my amazing PT about the cases she's seen and research she studied. (I had nerve damage to my pelvis from my extremely long labor with a baby who was OP and then OT during labor.) Fecal and gas incontinence are associated with higher degree tears, which are not common--though they certainly happen. Fecal incontinence is very rare. Gas incontinece is a bit more common and urinary incontenince is much more common.

With all of the other fluids coming out, you might want to plan for heavy pads anyway, but I wouldn't stress about long-term issues.

Mamasaurus · October 2011

cros8380:
I have been hanging around on this and other birthing boards for over a year now and I have never heard of this! Not to say that it doesn't happen, but maybe it's a rare issue, or only happens in extreme cases? How old is your book, maybe it's something that used to happen with older birthing methods?

It's from 2008. My other book doesn't mention this, but the one that does is the official ACOG book.

Glad to hear it maybe isn't that common!

Texas77again · October 2011

LindseyJW:

i've known hundreds of women who gave birth and have been on these boards for 6 years and i've never heard of someone suffering from temporary fecal incontinence following birth. i have heard of women who had to have medical intervention to correct birth related incontinence, but nothing like what you are describing.

this is not at all to say it doesn't happen, just to say that i wouldn't run out and buy adult diapers and get myself all psyched up about changing my own after baby.

actually, more often women suffer from the opposite affliction, constipation - or worse, fear of having a bowel movement because everything is tender and sore.

this x 1000.

always "this" when Lindsey posts.

tinydancingqueen · October 2011

There is a great book that discusses fecal incontinence - "Ever Since I Had My Baby: Understanding, Treating and Preventing the Most Common Physical Aftereffects of Pregnancy and Childbirth" by Roger Goldberg. It happens, but usually the prolapse that causes incontinence it is a side effect of childbirth that begins to set in a few years after you have kids and progressively worsens as you age. Most women have some type of the urinary/fecal incontinence eventually because of issues related to childbirth, it just usually doesn't show up until years or decades after pregnancy, and by then the connection to muscle injuries, weakness or nerve trauma sustained during childbirth is not obvious. If your worried about incontinence now or later in life, read the book and learn what you can do during childbirth and afterward to protect and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles -- I already had urinary issues pre-pregnancy, and plan on doing pelvic floor rehab after childbirth to protect and strengthen the muscles so my condition doesn't worsen or progress over time.

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