Sunday 13 March 2016

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Pregnancy

This is my personal experience with IBS during both my pregnancies. I was diagnosed with IBS in 2008 and was quite sick with the usual symptoms which for me were constipation/diarrhoea and painful stomach cramps.
I fell pregnant with Master J in May 2010. My symptoms from the IBS improved greatly and left me only dealing with constipation (from the pregnancy itself )and morning sickness which lasted all day every day for fourteen weeks. Also prior to this pregnancy I had been following a pretty restrictive diet that was also gluten free to try to control my symptoms with some success.  However during the whole nine months I was able to also enjoy gluten as much as I wanted with no reaction at all. However two days after Master J was born I was unable to consume dairy and gluten again without experiencing stomach cramps and feeling really unwell.
In 2015 I fell pregnant with Master T. By this time I wasn’t consuming dairy due to having a really bad reaction in 2013 which left me with stomach cramps and diarrhoea which lasted most of the day and left me with a very sensitive stomach for the next 3 days and because of this I didn’t want to possibly harm the baby by going through this and possible dehydration. To make sure I was getting enough calcium for myself and my growing baby I was taking a calcium supplement and having soy milk in place of regular milk. During this pregnancy I again was able to have gluten so I ate a lot of bread especially near the end. However after Master T was born I’m able to eat a small amount of gluten without any extra problems.
I’m still continuing to learn about irritable bowel syndrome and the treatments available. The problem with this condition, the symptoms and the possible treatments will differ with each person.

It’s worth noting that this is my own personal experience and IBS affects everyone differently.


Signing off for now
Kelly




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