Constipation during pregnancy is said to occur if an expectant mother is having difficulty passing stools and or doing so infrequently.
Most people open their bowel from as much as three times a day to as rarely as no more than three times in a week. Any deviation from what is normal for an individual is termed constipation. This will also include the passage of hard painful stools.
So, if you are pregnant and ...
Passing stools infrequently
Stools are hard and sometimes painful
Feel a sense of incomplete emptying of your bowel after stools (called tenesmus)
Passing small hard pellet-like stools or even large hard ones,
You are experiencing constipation in pregnancy.
Symptoms of Constipation During Pregnancy
Apart from the above listed symptoms of constipation in pregnancy, other symptoms suffered by mothers to be who are constipated includes:
Abdominal Pain
Nausea
Bloating
Poor Appetite
If you are suffering with any or all of the above symptoms, accompanied by a change in your usual stools habit, it is likely you have constipation. Please see your doctor.
Causes of Constipation During Pregnancy
Wondering what might be causing your constipation in pregnancy? You may have nothing to do with the cause. Even though many research fails to link pregnancy as a specific cause of constipation, the following are known causes of constipation during pregnancy:
Hormone Changes
Progesterone is one of the steroid hormones produced during pregnancy.
It is originally meant to relax the wall of the uterus and help protect and nurture the baby as it develops in the womb.
It also causes the muscles on the wall of the bowel to relax. This leads to the slowing down of the movement of the remnant of digested food material down our bowel and giving more time for water to be absorbed from the undigested food material as it passes downwards, thus forming hard stool, difficult to pass.
Exercise and the eating of fibre rich diet would help to overcome this
The Uterus
As the uterus or womb grows in size, it gets to a point where it literally presses on the large bowel, thus preventing faecal material passing down easily, leading to constipation during pregnancy.
Regular exercise would help here.
Medication
If you are on certain type of medications, these can cause or worsen constipation in pregnancy. These medications include:
Iron Tablets - very commonly prescribed in pregnancy
Pain Killers like cocodamol, codiene, or morphine ... opioids in general
Medications used in epilepsy ...like carbamazepine (tegretol), phenytoin (called dilantin or epanutin),
Some medications used in heartburn or antacids
Most anti-psychotic and anti-depression medications
Some medications used in treatment of hay fever and allergies.
If you find your self to be constipated and you are on any medication, please check and read the leaflet that came with the medication and see if constipation is listed as one of the side effects. If it is, you may not necessarily have to stop the medication. Just see your doctor who may decide to reduce the dose, change the medication or prescribe a laxative to combat the constipation while you continue to take the original offending medication due to its perceived benefit.
This is so true as in the case of iron tablet or pregnancy multivitamin that has been implicated in constipation.
Diet This is an area you can work on to avoid constipation during pregnancy.
You need to select the type of food you eat during pregnancy. Make sure you eat food rich in high fibre, like fresh fruits and vegetables, prunes, figs, nuts, cereals and bread. Aim to consume up to 40grams of dietary fibre a day.
Again pregnancy predisposes one to developing piles or haemorrhoids. The discomfort from this after opening the bowel can make someone feel reluctant to go to toilet. This will lead to constipation during pregnancy, and then worsen the piles.
If you have piles during pregnancy, see your doctor as soon as possible for remedies to relieve the discomfort.
Anal Fissure
Another problem commonly found in pregnancy is tear in the back of the anus. This causes severe pain on defaecation with a tiny blood stain in the hard stool or in your nickers after using the toilet.
Expectant mothers who suffer from this problem fears defaecation. This worsens the problem, as the next bowel opening would be even more hard and difficult.
Anxiety, emotional upsets and worries of pregnancy can be grouped together as another cause of constipation during pregnancy.
Treatment of Constipation During Pregnancy
Are you suffering with moderate to severe constipation during pregnancy? The treatment of constipation in pregnancy is more or less similar to that in the non-pregnant, except the need to be very careful with the choice of medication (s) that will be used during pregnancy. The following have been found to be useful treatment of constipation during pregnancy:
Dietary modification, increased fibre intake (see dietary advice given above)
Mild to moderate exercises will help
Increased water intake. Drink up to 10 cups of clear fliud per day
Medications
Safe medications that can be used to treat constipation in pregnancy inlude:
Lactulose. Take 15ml two times a day
Movicol. Take one sachet of movicol dissolved in 125mLs of water once to three times a day, depending on severity of the constipation.
Macrogols can be used in place of movicol in severe chronic constipation
Senna tablets 7.5mg two times a day with movicol can be used in severe constipation in pregnancy
Most of these medications are available online from certified international pharmacies like Express Chemist.
Constipation during pregnancy is said to occur if an expectant mother is having difficulty passing stools and or doing so infrequently. 
