How long does it take to defecate after a normal birth?

Although natural childbirth causes less harm to women's bodies than cesarean sections, and the recovery period is much shorter than that of cesarean sections, women's bodies may experience some problems during the process of natural childbirth, and most women will be unable to defecate independently after a natural childbirth. Therefore, many women who have just given birth are worried about how long it will take for them to defecate after a normal birth.

Generally, mothers who give birth naturally will resume normal bowel movements within 3 days. If they have not recovered after 3 days, this is a sign of difficulty in defecation after a normal birth, including difficulty urinating and defecating.

The dysuria after normal delivery is manifested by small amount of urine each time, accompanied by symptoms such as frequent urination, urgency, pain when urinating, and incomplete urination. Common in patients with cystitis. In terms of the causes of the disease, urinary retention is one of the common postpartum complications in obstetrics and gynecology, especially in primiparas.

Difficulties in defecation after normal delivery are mainly related to reduced gastrointestinal function, insufficient muscle contraction strength, delivery injuries, unscientific diet, lack of exercise and great psychological pressure. Some mothers do not have normal bowel movements after three days.

Causes of difficulty defecating after vaginal delivery

Difficulty defecating after normal delivery is one of the common complications in the early postpartum period of mothers. The main reasons are:

1. Reduced gastrointestinal function:

After giving birth, the new mother's body functions are in a weak state, the digestive system function is reduced, gastrointestinal motility is slow, the intestinal contents stay in the intestine for too long, the water is over-absorbed, and the feces are dry and difficult to excrete.

2. Insufficient muscle contraction strength

During pregnancy, as the size of the fetus increases, the long-term compression and stretching of the pelvic and abdominal wall muscles, coupled with fatigue caused by excessive force during normal delivery, will cause the muscles used for normal defecation after delivery to become weak. As the uterus grows in the late pregnancy, the rectus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles are stretched by the expanding uterus, and even some muscle fibers are broken. After delivery, the abdominal muscles and pelvic floor muscles relax, their contractions become weak, and abdominal pressure decreases. In addition, the mother is weak and cannot rely on abdominal pressure to assist defecation, so defecation becomes difficult.

3. Birth injury

During childbirth, mothers who give birth naturally will have some damage to the perineum and pelvic tissues to varying degrees. After childbirth, for self-protection, the nervous system will reflexively inhibit the movement of defecation.

4. Unscientific diet

After giving birth, new mothers are cared for by their families and seek high-nutrition diet. However, these foods all have a common disadvantage, which is the lack of dietary fiber that is beneficial to gastrointestinal function. The mother's diet in the first few days after delivery is monotonous and often lacks fiber food, especially crude fiber, which reduces the stimulation to the digestive tract, weakens intestinal peristalsis and affects defecation. Food that is too refined will be fully absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, and finally reach the rectum with only a very small volume, which makes it difficult to stimulate the central nervous system to form a defecation reflex, that is, there is no "urge to defecate", and the feces gradually "concentrates" during excessive retention.

5. Lack of exercise

From pregnancy to delivery, many new mothers have given up their previous exercise habits. After going through so much torture to give birth to their babies, they have even more reasons to stay in bed. Mothers often stay in bed for a few days after giving birth, which reduces their activity and affects their intestinal motility, making it difficult for them to defecate. It should be noted that exercise is an important promoter of physical recovery. Without limb movement, there will be no normal metabolism.