Fecal incontinence was definitely not on your bucket list. It’s about the most embarrassing condition you can imagine. But here you are — still wiped out from childbirth and new-mom responsibilities — and now you have to change … your own diaper?
If it makes you feel any better (and it probably won’t), you’re not alone. Up to 25% of women who bear children experience fecal incontinence at some point in their lives, usually as a result of injuries sustained while giving birth.
You also may have developed fecal or urinary incontinence during pregnancy. The weight of a developing baby can stress the pelvic floor muscles and make it difficult to retain urine and feces.
Our experts at Colon and Rectal Surgeons of Greater Hartford are dedicated to helping you regain control of your bowels so you can focus on yourself and your new baby. At our offices in Bloomfield, South Windsor, and Plainville, Connecticut, we determine why you have fecal incontinence and design a treatment plan.
What can you do to regain strength in your rectum and anus to stop fecal and flatular leakage? Read these tips.
You may be told by well-meaning people around you that you should expect changes in your body after childbirth. This could include some fecal incontinence and urinary incontinence, too.
However, we don’t believe you should struggle with your everyday tasks or wear adult diapers or panty liners for life. Most of the time, you can retrain your muscles or undergo simple procedures to resolve your problem.
Childbirth puts tremendous stress on your pelvic floor muscles, the sling of tissue that supports your bladder, rectum, and other organs. During the process, the following things might have occurred that led to your current incontinence:
Some women give birth with relative ease. However, you may have a smaller pelvis or other physical attributes that make the process extra stressful for your body.
When you come in for a fecal incontinence evaluation, we perform a physical exam, as well as neurological tests, to determine what structures and abnormalities contribute to your problem. We may evaluate the function of your nerves and muscles with anal manometry. A balloon expulsion test helps us determine how well you can evacuate your bowels.
We may also do anal endoscopy to look inside your anal canal and rectum. Other imaging tests could include ultrasound, MRI, and an endoscopic ultrasound.
To help you have more solid stools that are less likely to leak, we may first advise that you change your diet. If you add more high-fiber foods, that can improve digestion overall and also create better formed stools. To avoid diarrhea, cut out or cut back on:
We also recommend exercises and training to strengthen your pelvic floor. You may work with a physical therapist for a while so that you learn how to do Kegels and other exercises correctly.
You may also benefit from bowel training, in which you train yourself to hold feces for longer and longer times. Medications may help, as well.
If these more conservative measures fail to resolve your problem completely, we may then perform sacral nerve stimulation with the Axonics SNM System™. Axonics stimulates the nerves that control your bladder and rectum. Two years after Axonics, 87% of patients had a reduction of more than 50% of fecal incontinence episodes.
Do you want to focus on your baby, not your bowels? Phone our expert team at our office nearest you (Bloomfield, South Windsor, or Plainville, Connecticut) for a fecal incontinence evaluation today. You can also contact us online.
