Enemas during labor or pregnancy

I was wondering how many women here had an enema when they were in labor? I'm 6 months pregnant and it's been on my mind. This will be my 3rd child and I was never even offered one with the other two. Is it especially uncomfortable during contractions? Do hospitals even give them anymore? I've never had one for any medical reason, only with boyfriend at home and just for fun.( and I Love them!) Maybe I should just have him give me an enema before we leave home.

Or maybe that will be the last thing I would want when the time comes. Any input would be appreciated.

I've never heard of this but can't be sure. I can't see it being that pleasurable if a baby is in the process of ripping your fanny apart.

Probably the easiest deliver I've ever done was for a woman who knew EXACTLY what she wanted. This was some years ago during my residency. She came in to Labor and Delivery in labor, and told the nurses that she wanted a soap-suds enema. Enemas are NOT routinely done anymore in L&D and haven't been since around 1950. Once the nurses were finished thinking she was nuts, rolling their eyes, etc, and after they cleared it with her OB/GYN (who was my teaching attending that night) she got her enema.

She emptied her colon, got back on the bed, and about 30 minutes later pushed out a term 8-pound-ish (don't remember exactly the weight) healthy baby. Minimal pushing on her part, no epidural, very slick. Twenty minutes later she delivered the placenta. There was no need for any postpartum repair.

For all the complaining and protesting women do during their pregnancies about what they do and don't want their "birthing experience" to be like - 99.9% insisting they absolutely do NOT want an enema - they could learn something from this very wise patient. She definitely taught this doctor something!

Standard disclaimer - your actual enema mileage may vary. No promises that YOUR delivery will be that smooth.. but it was one of the easiest deliveries I've ever done.

Doc

Well also being a male and not a doc I can give mine little contribute to this interesting arguments:

I have heard from a nurse ( now retired and best friend of my mother ) that worked at the hospital ( obgyn-ostetric department ) that there, at least in north Italy and some decades ago, was not so inusual to advise the women to do an enema before the labour.

She said that many women accepted and was really useful to avoid a mess during the labour.

M2000

After 15 hours of labor with my first child, the nurse asked if I'd like to try something to help the discomfort and make the birthing easier. I immediately said yes and was led to a treatment room that shared a bathroom with another labor room. Between contractions, the nurse got me comfortable on a stretcher, laying on my left side. She then opened the bathroom door and I not only could hear the woman in the other labor room screaming in pain but I also saw her in the bathroom, naked and suspended over the toilet with an enema hose attached to her rectum. She was being lowered onto the toilet to expell her enema during a contraction. I was so afraid for her and happy that I was not going to be given an enema. I relaxed and waited for the nurse to return. When she did, she had a very large enema bag in her hand with a rectal tube that looked to be an inch in circumference. I didn't have time to react....she lifted the sheet, greased my anus and inserted the rectal tube way up into my rectum. The bag emptied after a while and she removed the tubing, wiped me and told me to hold it as long as possible then use the toilet. M y contractions were very strong and when I did use the toilet I thought the baby was going to be forced out of me. The pressure of the contractions and the enema pressure were so uncomfortable that I was panting, moaning and crying when the nurse helped me off the toilet. I made two more trips to the toilet before I was brought back to my labor room. I still labored for another 5 hours so, I suggest either an enema at home or no enema at all.

I've heard that the cramping caused by the enema actually quickens the pace of the contractions. Does anyone know if that's true, or just something that's used as an excuse?

Our first child was born at home, common in that era unless complications were anticipated. My wife was given an enema when the midwife arrived. Whether the enema made any difference or not I can't of course say, but it was a trouble free birth and labour wasn't very long or distressing. I know that some can be.

When our second came along some 18 months later, also born at home, the midwife couldn't be woken by phone and the birth, without enema of course, was so rapid it was for me to catch the baby! Maybe that was because my wife had given birth before.

I guess the efficacy of an enema in labour, like the effectiveness of advertising, can never be accurately calculated but I'd suggest that the main purpose when such procedure was the norm was more to do with not defecating at the crucial moment!

Had enemas with first two of four children.

I've got to say that while I love enemas and have been doing them since I was a teen, these experiences were NOT good.

Trying to hold in an enema (large volume, quickly administered) while a contraction is racking every muscle in the area is not my idea of fun.

As for stimulating labor? Those were my longest labors (5 and 8 hours) after coming to the hospital after my water broke.

I told my husband to shoot anyone who even suggested an enema on kids 3 and 4. That would have been much more humane than what I would have attempted if anyone came near me with a bag.

Jinny, that goes along with what several girl friends told me. They loved my finger up their butts but associated enemas with childbirth and didn't want anything to do with enemas after that.

These Days they use fleet enemas for childbirt and you have to ask for it.

I know they do it in Europe to avoid a mess during labor so I believe I'll find out what it feels like when I get pregnant.

Nobody mentioned amything about an enema while I was in labor. I'm pretty glad for that too! Phew! I take it those things are optional now?

I ended up having a c-seciton and even after when I was a bit constipated there was still no mention of an enema...they did give me ducolax and milk of magnesia to help though....and help they did!

They used to be SOP in the US, but not anymore.

It's been long abandoned in the UK. Into the late eighties, the standard admission process was shave, oil (castor!), enema. Castor oil is considered to initiate or maintain the labour process. In fact, i remember my neighbour telling me that when she was a midwife, one of them would be allocated to the prep room, and spend the whole shift shaving perineums. The enemas always followed the 'high, hot and a hell of a lot' diktat. Now, thankfully, it has all moved on. I would hate my other half to go through that.

Unless we were playing of course...

In Italy in some hospitals do an enema before giving birth

When I had my daughter in 1984 I was not even offered the option of getting an enema. After I got home and was talking to my mother about the experience she was really surprised and told me that it was a standard part of delivery back in the 50s and 60s when she had me and my brother.

Enemas are not part of standard labor care in this country and have not been routinely done for a decade or more. If a woman complains of constipation she might get a Fleets.

Shaving has gone by the wayside as well. If a woman likes to be shaved she usually comes in already shaved.

My wife had a Fleets in '90 without asking (no doubt she could have refused it).

Those enemas in lador and delivery probably did more to turn-off many women to the simple pleasures of a gently administered enema than any other aspect of medical play. Thank goodness there are still a few who find some degree of relief, pleasure, or stimulation from the Big "E".

It's unfortunate for us guys who wish that all women could understand our rather unique interest and pleasure. Maybe now that they are far less common in L&D, fewer women will be turned away before they have a chance to experience a more relaxed and pleasurable indulgence.

Even today enemas are still given in labor. I admit not near as often, however I had two with my delivery. Didn't get shaved though, as I am always hairless there.

As I understand it, and I am a guy, so this is second hand data; there are two purposes why an enema may be given just prior to, or during labor (i.e. after the water breaks):

A) to get the pregnant person's crap (feces) out of the way so the mess is minimized, chance of infection reduced, embarrasment at crapping on the Dr., midwife is reduced or eliminated, and

B) to stimulate or intensify contractions of the pregnant woman. (This is why it might be wise to lay off giving one's pregnant wife enemas during the last month of pregnancy, you might just start something happening, and end up with a baby in your lap.) I guess a lot of teh muscles are used for both purposes... that is delivering baby, and expelling poo.

Reason A is just plain practical, and the reason why a pregnant person should definitely give serious consideration to accepting the service, if it is offered.

Once upon a time (40 years ago or so, 1960) it was a common practice at hospital deliveries.

When my wife had our daughter she didn't get an enema. She was induced and not allowed to eat during the multi-day process. She did fart for the first time in front of my while pushing, and that broke the ice a bit in a strange way.

I was never given an enema during labor. I would of considered one if it was offered to me.

They are not offered much anymore. They don't shave you either. It just isn't necessary. Medical advances, we know better these days.

Mashie

Enemas have been part of childbirth for longer than anyone can remember.they were given when all three of my kids were born, and my EX never complained.didnt stop my Mom from having Five kids. I think alot of women(and men) today look for the easy way out. I for one, dont like putting drugs into my body,and would opt for soapsuds which is expeled after ten minutes,over chemicals in my bloodstream, which ALWAYS have side effects,and get into the babys bloodstream.....

Manybags, with all due respect, you don't have a clue as to what you are talking about here. First of all, you have a penis, not a vagina, and in my opinion, you DO NOT have any right to even put the words labor, and "easy way out" in the same room, much less the same paragraph. I am a huge believer in not talking about things in which you have not experienced, have gone through, or are not educated in. And just because you happen to have produced offspring, and may have been in the same room with your then wife when she was giving birth, makes you neither a doctor, or one who's experienced labor.

If you were to have experienced what labor really feels like then you too would have looked for, as you put it, "an easy way out". I pray to God that one day you get the joy of passing a huge kidney stone out through your penis. It will be hours upon hours of red hot pain that will make you wish you were dead, and you will probably beg the nurses to put you out of your misery at some point. Then maybe you might know a little of what labor feels like, maybe...?

The beauty of medical advancements is that we learn more about how our bodies work, why they work, and how to fix them. If we are smart enough to prevent things such as pain, stress, anxiety, and other such things, then doesn't it make sense to do so?

If you were not a layman then you would know that enemas do absolutely NOTHING for a pregnant woman in labor except make her usually more uncomfortable than she already is and exhaust her. The only thing enemas do is maybe prevent the doctor from getting pooped on, and preventing the mother from embarrassment should said poop happen, which, at that point, she really couldn't give a shit, pun intended. Back when your wife was having her babies, and your mother as well, people didn't question the orders of the doctor, you did what you were told. Also back then, enemas were more common place than they are now. People didn't think anything about that sort of thing.

While you didn't come out and say it, I am going to assume that because you mention that your ex had 3 kids, and your mom 5 kids, then you go on to say the phrase, "easy way out", that you assume that if both of them could handle it, then anyone who can't must be weak. I may be putting words in your mouth here, but again, I have to say that these words could only come from a man, and a layman at that. Do you have any idea how many women and babies have been saved because of medical advancements during pregnancy, labor and delivery? Pain control for example during child birth helps a lot of women be able to endure the process and helps from keeping them from exhaustion. As a layman and as a man, you would probably not know that when the mother is stressed, the baby is stressed too, which can cause all kinds of fetal distress in a thousand different ways. And yes, chemicals can and do cross the placenta, but really, it's so little when the medication is given correctly and we are not talking about crack. Get real please.

In a nutshell it seems to me as if you just slapped almost every mother on the planet in the face by minimalizing labor and childbirth and all that we go through. To suggest that we are "taking the easy way out" by requesting pain medications or what not is very very wrong. And to suggest that we should just suck it up and take it as is, as nature intended is at best, inhumane. Again, when you get the chance to pass a huge kidney stone, I hope an ER nurse looks you in the face and tells you to suck it up, it's natures way. Then maybe she will tell you to remember your Lamaz breathing, focus on your happy place, and push through the pain. Remember, it's a medical fact that women handle pain better than men, that's why we have the babies. If we didn't, the human race would have died off a long time ago.

Mashie

..... I for one, dont like putting drugs into my body,and would opt for soapsuds which is expeled after ten minutes,over chemicals in my bloodstream, which ALWAYS have side effects,and get into the babys bloodstream.....

And soap doesn't contain chemicals? Not even butylated hydroxytoluene, or other compounds like ethylene diamine, tetraacetic acid, or glutaraldehyde, dyes, colourants, scents, and opacifiers, titanium dioxide, other basic chemicals like ammonium hydroxide and sodium carbonate and even ashes?

Maybe research a little before opining - and I go along with Mashie too - you're never going to get an enema whilst in labour or you'd find it was no 'easy way out'!

I gave my wife an enema at home as our first child was born.

Being an L&D nurse I have seen both ways...with and without enemas. As they are not standard practice anymore I would suggest your husband give you one before coming to the hospital but ONLY if you are very close to your due date and have had no problems with your pregnancy. Ask your OB doctor before doing it...mostly makes for a more clean, less pooping experience! I have seen enemas given and the woman goes into labor shortly thereafter. I had an enema at the hospital with my first child and did not have one with the other 3. All were fairly easy births but I was very lucky! I did try Castor oil with all four and it did cause my water to break with the first 3 but not the fourth. DO NOT do this if you are pregnant...it can be very dangerous! I wasn't a nurse when I had my babies so I didn't know.

I did not have an enema during labor, it wasn't even mentioned. The staff kept mentioning a catheter though, I finally got one.