Hemroids that develop during pregnancy need to be looked at DIFFERENTLY to normal hemroids and treated somewhat differently as well. Pregnancy Hormones have been found to play a significant part in causing hemroids in females, as does the extra weight carried during pregnancy contribute to the development of hemroids. For the most part, most pregnant women decide to put up with the hemroids until after the baby is born. But why endure the agony of hemroids if you can avoid it? Below you will find many practical and safe suggestions for overcoming pregnancy hemroids and their related symptoms. If you overhear your doctor saying to an attendant nurse that you have a prolapse, chances are he is referring to internal hemroids that have poked through the anal opening. There are other types of prolapses that affect women during and and after the pregnancy, other than hemroids, and you can read about these othernon-hemroid prolapses here.

1.. HEMROIDS THAT DEVELOP DURING PREGNANCY

Pregnancy hemroids

If you would like to see a photo of an external hemroid caused by pregnancy and child birth, just click.

Pregnancy hemroids are a frequent condition that pregnant women suffer from, and many mothers-to-be wonder why.

Why is it that, in addition to swollen ankles, constant back ache, and having the turning radius of a blue whale, pregnancy brings hemroids, too? Wasn’t it bad enough before? Well, while some women may have problems with hemroids during pregnancy, that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do.

Pregnancy hemroids – why do you get them?

First, it helps to understand why some women get hemroids specifically during pregnancy and right after labor.

Most women gain two pounds of weight from increased blood volume alone, which increases blood pressure throughout the body. Such increases in blood pressure can directly cause the all-to-well-known pregnancy hemroids.

Many pregnant women also get varicose (swollen) veins on the thighs, and hemroids are akin to varicose veins in the anal region. Due to the large amount of connective tissue in the anal region, any swollen vein usually inflames surrounding tissue, as well, which is why hemroids don’t look the same as varicose veins in other parts of the body. Because the veins of the anal region are made to swell and shrink naturally, it is easy for them to get stuck swollen, especially when there’s more blood in the closed circulatory system.

In addition, the second stage of labor usually involves pushing and muscular contractions in the area for hours on end, so it should be no real surprise that hemroids can persist for a little while postpartum as well. Such straining puts a lot of pressure on vein walls, and this can directly cause hemorrhoids.

In addition, the growing uterus puts pressure on the pelvic veins and the inferior vena cava, both of which drain blood from the entire pelvic region back to the heart. The inferior vena cava is the really large vein on the left side of the body that brings all of the blood from the lower limbs back up directly to the heart, so when it is constricted by a growing baby trying to occupy the same space, it can start causing both hemroids and varicose veins, sometimes in the strangest places.

And, just to make conditions perfect for the formation of hemroids, the female body produces a large amount of progesterone all throughout pregnancy, which brings a double whammy of simultaneously relaxing vein walls and slowing digestion down.

While progesterone can lead to trouble, there are two very good reasons that your body does this to you.

• The first is that while the vein walls are relaxing, so are your tendons and muscle walls, which allows your body to grow and eventually makes giving birth easier.

• The second is that your body needs to drag every bit of nutrition it can out of your food, so the fact that your digestion is slower allows your intestines to do just that. However, the combination of all of these effects make conditions just perfect for hemroids to develop.

The downside of this is that pregnancy hemorrhoids become more likely as ligament support to the veins in that area of your body is then lessened, allowing the veins to more readily swell and stay swelled + with the slowing down of digestion, constipation, another cause of hemroids, is more likely to be experienced.

Pregnancy hemroids – symptoms and treatment

However, the good news is that given a proper diet and lack of other contributing conditions, pregnancy induced hemroids usually go away on their own shortly after birth.

However, if your hemroids bleed or have a bluish or purplish tinge to them, you need to see a doctor immediately.

Both can indicate a serious problem that cannot be treated at home.

However, as long as neither of those conditions is present, home treatment is the best treatment for practically all hemroids. At least there’s one thing you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to medically treat.

Pregnancy hemroids and gaining relief

While the hemroids that develop can range from unnoticeable, to merely itchy all the way through to miserably torturous, there are many, many things you can do to get relief.

• Hot and Cold Treatments

Many women find relief from alternating hot and cold treatments. For warmth, take a sitz-bath in plain, warm water for twenty minutes at a time two to three times per day. Right after getting out of the bath, wrap an ice pack in a towel and sit on it directly.

• Toilet Paper

In addition to this treatment regimen, do be sure to only use plain, soft, white toilet paper or premoistened wipes. Many women use wipes soaked in witch hazel, which has a soothing astringent effect.

• Footstool

You may find it helpful to take the strain off of sitting by using a footstool, especially on the toilet.

• Control Sitting

Never sit on a toilet for too long trying to make something happen, that will only make the hemroids worse.

In fact, never sit or stand for too long for any reason, as both sitting and standing puts strain on the area in question.

• Laying

When sleeping, resting, or watching TV, laying on your left side helps immensely, as this position takes the weight and pressure off of the inferior vena cava and the rectal veins.

• Light Exercise

Regular, light exercise, such as walking for twenty minutes three times per week, also helps immensely with both pregnancy and hemroids. However, do check with your doctor before starting any exercise regimen, and be careful near the end of pregnancy.

Most women feel the intense need to walk during labor, and some women start walking unconsciously and compulsively right before birth.

In other words, near the end of pregnancy, don’t walk so far that it would be problematic if you started to go into labor.

• Kegel Exercises

Kegel exercises, which basically are sets of pelvic muscle contractions, also help with both birth and hemroids. Doing three sets of ten contractions and releases two to three times a day increases circulation in the area, gets the appropriate muscles ready for birthing, and speeds up recovery time after birth.

• Diet

Maintaining a proper level of fiber and water intake in your daily diet is essential to control pregnancy hemroids.

Fiber is most easily added from fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beans.

Yes, along with all the other special stuff you have to eat, you need to swallow twenty to thirty grams of fiber and eight glasses of water per day as well.

Some of your required milk intake might count for the water, but you’ll want to ask your doctor about that to make sure.

The reason for all the fiber and water is to avoid constipation of any kind, which is miserable in and of itself, and also makes hemroids worse.

Remember when doing diet changes to do them slowly, at about the rate of one new food per week. Changing your diet more quickly can make you miserable with the bloating and gas that your intestinal tract will inflict on you while it adapts.

• Fiber Supplements

However, once you have integrated as much fiber as you can get through normal food, if you’re still not able to get enough, there are fiber supplements that can help. Most of them are either ground-up psyllium husks or ground flax seed, and they come in several different forms.

There are some in pills, some you suspend in water and drink, and some in wafer form, so you’ll probably want to consult your doctor or pharmacist to find out what is available in your local area and what is best for you.

• Hemroids Pills, Creams and Lotions

Unfortunately, while there are plenty of hemroids creams and medications on the market, being pregnant or breastfeeding you can’t take a single one without consulting your doctor.

That is because most medications are never tested on pregnant or breastfeeding women, it being considered unethical to do so. After all, it’s blatantly impossible to get a consent form signed by a fetus, in addition to which a medication that works fine on a fully formed child can have a seriously negative impact on a developing baby.

While a topical medication, like a cream, seems to stand little chance of affecting an unborn child, you absorb topical medications through your skin into your bloodstream, which may affect the baby through the placental barrier.

Therefore, you have to ask your doctor if it’s safe to take just about anything on the market if you’re either pregnant or breastfeeding, even if it seems utterly silly to do so.

There is one company the has come out with a whole range of products for babies and pregnant mums.  They claim there products are tested and safe.  If you are interested in checking them out, these hemroid lotions are available here.

• Emotional Support and Understanding

On the bright side, this should make you the object of vast amounts of sympathy from practically everyone you know. Ok, it’s not a great bright side, but it’s something.

Keep in mind that hemroids may still persist if you are breastfeeding, as the body continues producing high amounts of progesterone during milk production.

However, as much of the other pressure is taken off, breastfeeding hemroids should be much easier to deal with and clear up quickly.

Pregnancy hemroids conclusion

Hopefully, you have gained enough from this article to assist in getting relief from and eventually minimize or eliminate pregnancy induced hemroids.

However, if the symptoms persist even after using these tips, feel free to inquire of your local practitioners, which includes doctors, pharmacists, and midwives, for more help.

While pregnancy-induced hemroids may seem inevitable, there is no reason to remain in misery when there is so much help available.

Research and main write by Loni L. Ice, editing by D. S. Urquhart.

2.. An ointment you may be able to use for hemroid relief during pregnancy, plus an online hemroid medication you may be able to use to get rid of them during pregnancy:

Hemroids Ointment/Suppository

During pregnancy, your doctor may suggest a hemroid ointment which contains live yeast cell extract plus shark oil. This hemroid ointment is considered safe during pregnancy.

The ointment works by reducing the hemroid symptoms of pain, of the burning sensation and of irritation.

This pregnancy hemroid ointment is also thought to heal hemroids and reduce the size / swelling of hemroids.

The hemroid ointment is applied 3, 4 or 5 times per day – especially after each bowel movement, at the start and at the end of each day.

The pregnancy hemroid ointment can also be taken in suppository form, if preferred this way, and used on the same time schedule instead of applying the hemroid pregnancy ointment.

Online hemroids medication

There is an online merchant we found, that claims to have hemroid medications suitable for use during pregnancy.

They are selling a solution of essential oils that are dabbed onto the hemroids to get rid of them.

Reasonably priced with a money back guarantee, you can start checking them out by clicking here – you select the pregnancy safe version in the check out procedure.

3.. HEMROIDS AFTER THE BIRTH:

After the birth, the hemroids will more than likely go away of their own accord – my wife had to endure with hemroids during her pregnancies. I wish my hemroids had gone away so easily as hers.

Remember though, it may take your body a little time to recover from the birth and for the hemroids, pain and discomfort to go away. A more aggressive treatment for the hemroids can be pursued after the baby is born, if required.

You may find our hemroid relief information in the Home Remedies for Hemroids section of some value. Please remember to always check with your doctor about the safety of any intervention during pregnancy or while breast feeding.

Remember to double check everything you read here or elsewhere with your doctor!