Enemas Before Childbirth

Question here is do hospitals still administer enemas prior to childbirth or is this an optional activity based on the birthing Mother's preferences?

My daughters are 18 and 21. I didn't have enemas before either of them.

Delivery rooms do not routinely administer enemas prior to childbirth anymore. In the past the rationale was that they were supposed to hasten labor. This wasn't found to be true and the practice has been abandoned. Pubic hair is not routinely shaved anymore either.

I wasn't shaved then either, but I did have a short landing strip.

Liquidsky: What was the rationale for shaving pubic hair?

(I vaguely heard from females undergoing surgery 25 years ago that for a stomach surgery they would shave all the public area. Is this true?)

My brother was born in 1975 and I was born in 1980 and my mom said that when she gave birth to both of us they gave her an enema and shaved her down

MissAmy: Which country was that? US?

The rationale for shaving pre op is that hair harbors bacteria and thus could contaminate any surgical wound.

Liquidsky: And how about shaving before giving birth, which I read was common 50 years ago?

My wife did not get shaved before delivering our children, neither was she given an enema.

However, in the documentation given to her it was advised, should she feel the onset of contractions etc. indicating that she should go soon to the maternity ward, to take a glycerin suppository and have a bowel movement. I guess it's to avoid the embarrassment of having a bowel movement during childbirth...

In the UK IN 1974 I was both shaved and given an enema before our first son was born. The second birth, three years later, was an emergency caesarean in the middle of the night, because the cord had prolapsed. I can only assume that there was no time for an enema, and that I must have been shaved once I was out of it. I had a great surgeon. I asked him how my scar was so small - approx 3 inches vertically from the pubic bone. His reply; "I don't believe in post mortem incisions"!!! We were very lucky. Because I realised almost straight away what was happening, the baby suffered no damage.

I never dared ask my mom about this. I don't think she ever mentioned an enema, but shaving, perhaps indeed. Early 1970s.

I was born in 1947. My mom told me all about it. She didn't like it one bit. She said the nurse made her take far more of the enema than she wanted b

Liquidsky: I've seen Call the Midwife, and at some points the midwives give enemas - "hot, high and the hell of a lot", with lots of soap, to ladies about to give birth - including one who says she does not want one because "it's not dignified" and a fellow midwife who hopes she can be spared the indignity.

None of the pregnant ladies seemed to like it.

The whole thing was gross, because, due to the housing of the time, the enema was restituted in a chamber pot, to be taken out by the midwife or family...

So what was the motivation? Haste the birthing process by triggering contractions? Getting rid of poop to avoid poop during birthing?

It was a small volume, I assume, phosphate enema administered very fast. I was even faster getting to the loo!! It certainly worked fast.

Lavender Lady: So a disposable one containing chemicals?

I assume so. It wasn't what I was expecting and I wasn't impressed. I was expecting a colon tube and funnel, which was how the last hospital administered enema I'd had was given. The nurse seemed to roll up the bag very fast, which was a bit of a shock. It wasn't easy trying to move fast while resembling a beached whale, but it was imperative!!!

I was born in 1952. I have no idea if my mother was shaved or not, I don't think she was at the hospital long before I popped out. I doubt she got an enema, as what turned out to be labor she initially thought was gas pains. So she downed half a bottle of castor oil. With that in her, I doubt she needed an enema even if they were pretty standard..

I'll tell two stories told me by the del room nurses at UCSF when I was a student. One woman was given a large enema. The nurses heard s scream from the bathroom where she expelling. When they dashed in she had delivered into the toilet. Another woman was given an enema and was left in her room. When the nurses went to check on her they found her squatting over the very full sink. They went out to get housekeeping to clean up. When they returned they found a spotless sink and a grinning husband. Perhaps two reasons why they were done away with

Key words of OP's sentence "do hospitals still"....meaning present tense !! Some countries still rely on the practice pre childbirth but to what extent I've no idea.

China,Phillipines,Malaya,Thailand & possibly Vietnam amongst them.

Imagine OS holiday options that include hospital Enemas--travel package with bonus frequent flyer points...lol.

Australian, you make a very good point. Just because practices have changed in some countries, doesn't mean they have changed everywhere else. Some places there may be differences between urban and rural.

Here's a link. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0010611/

Pubmed is a prestigious site

Lavender Lady: Oh so it was not your first enema in hospital? What was the previous one for, if I may inquire/

I had polio as a four year old and spent nearly two years in hospital. Enemas were routine for constipation. Also pre spinal surgery. This was all in the fifties, so nearly twenty years before the birth.

Liquidsky: Even though enemas are now discontinued, my wife, in her "birth instruction package", was advised to take a glycerin suppository, wait a bit and to have a bowel bovement before leaving home for the maternity ward.

What is the rationale? Avoiding a trip to the bathroom or a bedpan later on? Avoiding poop during childbirth?

Pecan read the link I provided. It explains the rationale for doing enemas and how they fail to meet these expectations.

Liquidsky: In my wife's case, in the 2000s-early 2010s, it was not an enema but a glycerin suppository.

I think it's much less uncomfortable than an enema (especially a larger one or one containing chemicals). Plus, it was self-administered at home. She just took it, waited, and had a bowel movement. Nothing like what some women here mention in terms of unpleasantness.

I don't think though that anything mild like that could hasten labour. The only rationale I can think of is that it empties the rectum so avoids an embarrassing bathroom trip or bedpan use before labour, or faeces during labour.

(And frankly I can empathize with the pregnant women in e.g. Call the Midwife. The large hot enema with soap was probably very uncomfortable in itself, plus they had to use a chamber pot, perhaps in front of the midwife...)

When I had my daughter 30 years ago I was neither shaved nor given an enema. Later when I talked to my mother about the delivery she was absolutely aghast at both. Also remember that 30 years ago women did not shave their pubic area like they do today so I had far more hair than a landing strip.

When we were much younger, my wife would sometimes get into clinical childbirth story telling mode and recount things she had heard at the hospital she worked at. According to her, the bearing down during childbirth could provoke enormous bowel movements at times. She had these particularly off-putting stories about colleagues giving birth and having the best and most satisfying BMs of their lives while laying on the delivery table.

I found that all in somewhat bad taste and I suppose delivery teams did too ... so an enema before hand might spare the indignity and mess during childbirth ... I can totally grasp the rationale.

And isn't there some kind of Shakespeare quote about people being born amid 'blood, piss and shit' ? ... doesn't sound very hygienic ... if you can reduce at least one of the trio ...😢 😢