How to Manage Pregnancy-Related Constipation

You are awaiting your little one and you’re making sure that you eat healthily, stay fit, and disease-free to ensure the sound health of your child. However, during these 9 months, you may feel various discomforts such as anxiety, mood swings, constipation, and cramps, etc. It is obvious nobody likes having these things, however during pregnancy you may start to observe a few of these discomforts. So today we will be talking about one of the most common and annoying discomfort, constipation during pregnancy.

Why do pregnant women feel such discomforts?
It is not necessary that everything you feel is related to your baby kicking, due to changes in hormones, enlarging uterus, and changed eating habits you may feel some discomfort like constipation which every 3 out of 4 pregnant ladies are a victim of. The main reason being constant high level of progesterone, this hormone causes the bowel muscles to relax, and hence not enough movement is done for easy passage of faeces, in addition to a high level of progesterone the uterus also expands during pregnancy leading to the bowels to be pressed upon, thus slowing the ability to empty. Pregnant women may start experiencing constipation during the 2nd or 3rd month.

Managing constipation

• One of the first things you can do to get things started moving smoothly is drinking plenty of liquids. This will provide liquidity and hence it’ll be easier to let things out.
• Eating high fibre foods, aim for 25 grams per day. Some foods with high fibre are fruits, vegetable beans, and whole-grain bread.
• Start exercising lightly, walking is also good to let things move.
• Focus on eating smaller frequent meals rather than large traditional 3-time meals.
• Ask your doctor, gynaecologist, for some fibre supplements to mix fibre and water in your digestive system to ensure easy passage of faeces.

Over to you:
The fact that you’re going to get your little one is amazing and that’s what pregnancy is about, taking care of yourself and your little one growing inside of you, however during these 9 months you may start feeling some discomfort, one of the most common being constipation. It is reported that every 3 out of 4 women get pregnancy constipation. This may be due to high progesterone level which is responsible for relaxing the muscles of your bowel another reason might be the expanding uterus which presses upon your bowels thus making it harder to let out. In either case, you can manage your constipation by following the above-mentioned tips. After all, it’s all for the baby.