Colace before C/S as prevention?

JustHyr · June 2012

Speaking of Colace... I thought I read somewhere that people recommended taking 1-2 colace a day starting a week before their scheduled c-section to keep things more regular and back to functioning quicker and with less pain afterwards. Is this true?? I'm having a CS in exactly a week and will ask my OB tomorrow at my last appointment, but I wanted to see what the experience on the board is.

becketts · June 2012

I took Colace throughout pregnancy to keep things running smoothly. I think it would be a fine idea to start it prior to your c/s as a preventative measure.

nosoup4u · June 2012

If you're not constipated right now, I wouldn't take them beforehand.

tawillers · June 2012

I'm interested in what you doctor said.

The bowels get backed up because of the pain medication. I can't imagine colace is strong enough to counter balance.

Pooping after the c/s wasn't painful to me. For some reason I thought it would be, but it wasn't. It was scary to sit there and wonder. It was just another thing I had to get my body used to doing again.

Also, I took colace in the hospital and kept taking them after I got home 3 days later and I still didn't poop until 5 days after my baby was born.

mandapie · June 2012

I am also interested in hearing the docs response. Aside from the pain meds my doc told me that just having major abdominal surgery slows things down. I'm normally pretty regular (once in the a.m., sometimes in the evening) and let me tell you... that first pp poop was... not comfortable. The nurses were impressed that I managed to go before I went home (I was in for 5 days). But I was also on a stool softener with all my post c/s meds. I think it was also b/c I needed a strong iron supplement due to blood loss during the surgery.