Doctors on Why Pregnancy Gas Is Good

Scientists with unusual research priorities have demonstrated that couples who fart together tend to stay together. That’s good news. The better, stinkier news for expecting parents is that pregnancy gas is real — and no, you can’t blame the baby kicking. Along with weird cravings, constipation, and a few suitcases’ worths of prenatal vitamins, pregnant women get gas. Thanks to hormonal and physiological changes, women wind up farting for two. So if you’re left wondering “why am I so gassy?” let us reassure you that gas during pregnancy is common, healthy, and nothing to be ashamed of.

© Provided by Fatherly

“A number of factors contribute to flatulence during pregnancy,”  Dr. Michael Cackovic, an obstetrician-gynecologist at The Ohio State University, explains. “Increased progesterone concentration plays a major role in decreasing the activity of colonic smooth muscle.”

The average person farts up to 20 times a day, passing anywhere from 500 to 1500 milliliters of gas, but for women, this number inflates when they get pregnant because their bodies produce more progesterone. Progesterone causes the intestine muscles to relax to make room for a growing baby. However, these relaxed muscles make it much easier for farts to slip out. As the fetus grows it puts extra pressure on the abdomen. This contributes to pregnant women not just farting more, but farting more often on accident in inopportune places like at work, with the in-laws, or during an exam from an obstetrician.

Relaxation also makes it harder to push waste through the GI tract, slowing digestion. Prenatal vitamins contribute to further constipation creating a perfect gas storm. Bloating, burping, and farting inevitably follow.  

“Pregnant women often complain of abdominal bloating and constipation likely caused by hormonal changes that affect small bowel and colonic motility,” Cackovic says. “Additionally, the pregnant uterus can cause a mechanical slowing of bowel transit and this certainly could worsen as pregnancy advances into the third trimester.”

Video: As Pandemic Continues, CDC Says Nearly 20% Of Children In US Are Obese (CBS New York)

As Pandemic Continues, CDC Says Nearly 20% Of Children In US Are Obese

Click to expand

• Nearly 30% of office workers will take less time off this summer
  Summer comes soon but unlike past summers, this season will certainly be different for workers due to COVID-19. Veuer’s Mercer Morrison has the story.
  
  Veuer
  

• How to pop a pimple yourself, according to Dr. Pimple Popper’s tips
  Insider producer Celia Skvaril video chatted with Dr. Sanda Lee, aka Dr. Pimple Popper, to get her professional advice on how to pop a pimple at home. While Lee doesn’t recommend that people pop their own pimples, pimple popping is a habit that many struggle to quit. With much of the world staying at home, people aren’t seeing their dermatologists and estheticians regularly and may be fighting a higher-than-usual urge to pick at their skin. Lee offered her tips on how to best minimize the risk of scarring and further infection when popping your own pimples, like attempting to pop only superficial whiteheads and properly sterilizing the pimple and tools both before and after popping. Following Lee’s tips, Celia attempted to pop her own whitehead at home. For more from Dr. Pimple Popper, visit: https://slmdskincare.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drpimplepopper/
  
  INSIDER
  

• How to explain a coronavirus-related layoff on your resume
  If you’ve been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic and are on the job hunt, you’re probably wondering how to explain it on your resume.
  
  Buzz60
  

UP NEXT

Finally, pregnant women’s diets can further contribute to excessive pregnancy farts, but it’s not necessarily strange cravings for pickles and ice cream that do it. Rather, healthy dietary changes brought on by having a baby, such as eating more fruits and vegetables, can increase gas — especially if women were eating carelessly prior to pregnancy.

Pregnancy gas is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Farts just are. But, for pregnant women, build-up can become harmful. If pregnant women are experiencing abdominal pain or constipation for over a week, they should contact their doctors. But otherwise, excessive gas passing is nothing to worry about and poses no danger to a growing baby. That said, moms-to-be can reduce some of their gas pains or discomforts by drinking plenty of water, getting enough exercise and sleep, and limiting dairy, pork, and processed foods, which can make flatulence worse.

As powerful and plentiful as pregnancy farts are, they’re ultimately a symptom that the pregnancy is progressing in a healthy way. So they should be welcomed with plugged noses and open arms. Small adjustments might offer relief, but nothing helps more than having a supportive partner farting by their side, Cackovic adds.

“Reassurance over the temporary inconvenience and support are the keys to getting through this.”

Related Articles:

The post Healthy Pregnant Women Fart: Doctors on Why Pregnancy Gas Is Good appeared first on Fatherly.