Post-Delivery Bowel Function

One of my biggest fears immediately after delivery is going to the toilet.  Between the piles from hell and my stitches, I couldn’t bring myself to poop until the doctor gave me something to soften my stools.  Technically, if you aren’t constipated, you should be able to apply enough force to poop without tearing your stitches.  At least that’s what the doctor assures me.  Then again, he isn’t the one who has to sit on the toilet and push.

If you are familiar with confinement practices, then you are probably also aware that the confinement diet is not particularly bowel friendly.  There are a lot of good pooping foods that you can’t touch because they are considered “windy” and bad for the postnatal body.  However, I have discovered one thing you can have that works marvellously – prune juice.  It tastes revolting, but it works and it isn’t off limits for mothers in confinement. 

There are two types of haemorrhoids – internal and external – which are both fairly self explanatory.  The internal ones occur inside the colon and need to be treated with suppositories.  The external ones occur around the anus and are treated with topical cream. 

There were several things that were given to me to reduce swelling – heat lamp treatment, some pills (which I forget what they were called), and Xyloproct cream.  I don’t know if it is the combination treatment or the Xyloproct, but I only started applying the Xyloproct today and it feels as if the swelling has gone down tremendously since applying the cream.

With the reduction of the swelling and having three glasses of prune juice a day, I can finally poop without assistance.  Hooray!