Question:
I'm six weeks along with my first and I'm wondering about straining during bowel movements. Can they cause any harm? I was very blocked this morning and sleepy (I'm still at that point when every morning I get to "remember" I'm pregnant), and I really strained before I realized I probably shouldn't. While I know this can cause hemorrhoids/etc. - it can't do anything to a healthy embryo, can it? Any reassurance appreciated. Sorry for the silly-ish question, I'm just nervous.

Answer: -Probably the only bad side-effect would be hemorrhoids which can get pretty bad towards the end of the pregnancy so if you start 6w I can't imagine what it'd be like at, say, 35w. If you're taking an iron supplement or prenatal with lots of iron, you might want to ask the doctor if there's one that won't cause constipation (I think time-release "slow-fe" is less likely to). -It's not a a silly question at all, the bathroom has become a mystery tour for me since I got pregnant! I had very very bad constipation from about wk 6-14, there are a couple of things you can do to help yourself... 1. check your pre natal vitamin, it could have too much iron for your system to cope with right now, I stopped taking it and went back to my old daily vitamin for a while - with doc approval 2. drown thine enemy, water water and more water, helps keeps things soft and moving 3. this was probably the best piece of advice I got - rick and roll baby - while on the loo rock yourself, slightly a lot whatever suits you, I found just rocking my hips sideways for a while helped, I'm not sure why or how it works but it does 4. try not to strain, I know I know it's difficult not to but it can cause hemorrhoids - believe me you do not want them! and in my case caused some vaginal bleeding at 14 weeks which sent me panicking to the docs office. 5. when you do manage to 'go' make sure you empty completely, take as long as you need (bring a book )you'd be surprised at how often there's a second delivery or even a third if you wait a while! -Start upping your fibre uptake now. A lot of people get constipated during pregnancy, and straining is really not good - you will have enough pressure on your nether regions and you should take steps now to avoid having to strain. Not only will you give yourself 'rroids, but you can make varicose veins in your labial area (sounds gross, but they do happen from the pressure of baby leaning on circulation, and you don't need to pop out anything down there more than it naturally already happens from being preggo). I never had a problem in my life until I had babies and oy, vey.