Embarassing question about constipation

Hi all, very embarassed about this post , but I have to ask - I'm 15.5 weeks and am sooooooo terribly constipated all the time. I'm only managing to go about twice a week. I am eating more kiwi fruit than I can bear, I've tried prune juice and kiwicrush also, right now I'd just about try anything. I can sit on the loo for ages and nothing happens, apart from my stomach starting to hurt.

Does anyone know of any natural or safe remedies.

Thanks in advance.

You need to get more insoluble fibre in your diet. Kiwifruit and prunes are high in soluble fibre, but it is the insoluble fibre that helps solids love more efficiently through your digestive system. They stick more effectively to the gut.

Also making sure you drink enough water during the day helps as well. Since you are in your second trimester, your water intake increases quite a bit. Not having enough fluid can make it harder to poop.

Also, are you taking Elevit or an iron supplement? These can also make you constipated. Thompsons Organic Iron is great, as it does not make you constipated. I know many women complain about Elevit and Ferrogard-C making them constipated.

Mrs_B - hehe, yes, I get bad bloating I feel sorry for DH, as I fart sooo much during the night, without realising it. He always says "do you realise that you fart at least 6 times a night"..... I just blame the baby kicking my bowels

But by morning, my stomach is back to its normal size.... I just find that after I have dinner, I get really bad bloating... doesn't affect me during the day.

I swear by bran on my cereal every morning! It's the only thing that kept me going during pregnancy...

My constitution is inclined that way anyway, and in the early days of my pregnancy I ended up severely constipated.

Have you tried eating kiwifruit and orange? For some reason I seem to find that the citrus combined with the kiwi is quite effective - it's now part of my daily diet. I usually have 2 kiwifruit and one orange in a sitting.

Along with prunes, dried apricots seemed to help while I was pregnant.

The dr tried me on metamucil and lactulose, but I gave up on both because they seemed to increase rather than decrease the problem. In the end I just had to do what I could and try to relax about it - the prob is that with constipation, the more wound up you are about it, the bigger the problem becomes.

Oh, and give yourself plenty of time when you pay a visit to the ladies room - sometimes it's worth taking a good book in with you so that you give your gut the time it needs! Be careful not to try to push too hard cuz it's not worth the risk of hemharroids (sp.?)

Hope this helps!!

Moochiecat, I feel so sorry for you. It's horrible.
There's little I can add to what's been said already. But do talk to you midwife.
Despite taking kiwicrush, lots of fibre, prunes, drinking heaps and regular excercise (oh and I did take the Thompsons organic iron) I got so constipated I started throwing up, had severe cramps and could barely eat for 4 days (just a few pieces of fruit) . My mw prescribed me lactulose (a laxative) that I took for several days to loosen things up.
I now eat 5 or 6 dried prunes (soaked in hot water for a few minutes) every morning before breakfast. I also switched to liquid iron (Floradix) and it seems to work. I have recently noticed though that whenever I eat meat I can't go the next day.

Oh I've stopped taking kiwi crush. I know everybody raves about it and I like the taste, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I tried it several times.

Good luck, I hope you feel better soon!

I had this problem at around 15 weeks aswell, it totally sucks . I just found lots of water and fruit and bran helped and like busymum said, cut out breads and pasta if you can cos they are bad for bunging you up.

Im eating heaps of prunes and dried apricots and trying to drink lots of water but think i might start nightly walks too to try help