Does your facility still give enemas ?

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · May 17, 2013

The hospital where I did midwifery clinicals and where I'm going to be working as a new midwife (yay!) offers them to patients to help progress from early to active labor. They are not routinely given upon admission. This hospital doesn't admit laboring patients until they're 4 cm, generally, so sometimes moms will come in way too early and we offer them an enema, to walk around, to see if that gets things moving. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, but a lot of the patients seem to want to "clean out" before labor, instead of during pushing, so they do it for that reason as well.

klone, MSN, RN · May 17, 2013

Goodness, no. I've given one enema in my years in OB, and that was for a woman who was so constipated that the stool could actually be felt through the lady partsl wall during exams.

caregiver1977 · May 17, 2013

If everything goes well I plan to deliver at a hospital I have not delivered before in December. The hospital policy is to do them on admission. I was surprised. I don't know if this is something I should go along with or not. I wanted to hear you guys pros and cons.

squidbilly · May 17, 2013

As an RN and an expectant mother I would take one if it were offered to me upon admission for two reasons. First, anything to progress labor! Second, anything to avoid pooping while pushing! Sounds like a swell idea to me.

As I recall from my OB rotation, which is at the same hospital I will be delivering at, they did not routinely do enemas on laboring mothers.

klone, MSN, RN · May 17, 2013

The thing is, enemas don't prevent pooping during pushing. It just increases the likelihood that the poop is going to be runny and liquidy.

Women poop during second stage. It's a fact of life, most women do it, and it's not a big deal.

klone, MSN, RN · May 17, 2013

Keep in mind that you do not have to be forced to do anything you do not want.

Upgrading_Status, BSN, MSN, RN, NP · May 18, 2013

I actually gave one a few weeks ago to help stimulate labor.

caregiver1977 · May 20, 2013

The thing is, enemas don't prevent pooping during pushing. It just increases the likelihood that the poop is going to be runny and liquidy.

Women poop during second stage. It's a fact of life, most women do it, and it's not a big deal.

OMG That is what I was thinking. I would think in that respect enemas would be a horrible idea. I did know I nursing student who told me about a lady that did not get chance to expell the enema before her contractions skyrocketed and she ended up pushing out the enema with the baby. The doctor ended up bathed in enema contents. I think that may be one of the main reasons why my friend left nursing school!

I don't understand why OBGYNs, who deal with fetal demise, copious amounts of blood (sometimes), deformed fetuses, cysts, and tumors are so bothered by...a turd!

But I am not totally against enemas because I think they could be helpful to stimulate labor. I just don't want to end up embarrassing myself by accidently losing the enema all over the bed or floor.

My new OBGYN swears that she has never had anyone poop while pushing since they give enemas.

Thank you for all your answers. Wonderful insights. Keep them coming if you have them.

monkeybug · May 21, 2013

At the last hospital I worked in (where I also delivered my baby), enemas were offered. A couple of the older doctors were insistent, but ultimately it was up to the patient. When I started working there, I thought it was just awful. Blah, blah, blah, natural part of laboring process, but then I got used to not having to deal with poop while patients were pushing and I began to think it was awesome. When I would admit patients I would put it to them this way: I don't care if you have a bm while you push. It happens, and I won't say a word to you about it, I'll just clean it up and go on. BUT, if you think it will bother you, humiliate you, or you think it might cause you to not want to push hard, then you might want to choose the enema. Most of them chose the enema. I chose the enema when I went into spontaneous labor (as many of the older nurses put it, you shouldn't, um, poop on your friends).

monkeybug · May 21, 2013

The thing is, enemas don't prevent pooping during pushing. It just increases the likelihood that the poop is going to be runny and liquidy.
Women poop during second stage. It's a fact of life, most women do it, and it's not a big deal.

Honestly, we rarely had patients poop while pushing after they had enemas. Before I worked with routine enemas, I thought it really wouldn't make a difference, but in my experience, it really does prevent it.

monkeybug · May 21, 2013

OMG That is what I was thinking. I would think in that respect enemas would be a horrible idea. I did know I nursing student who told me about a lady that did not get chance to expell the enema before her contractions skyrocketed and she ended up pushing out the enema with the baby. The doctor ended up bathed in enema contents. I think that may be one of the main reasons why my friend left nursing school!
I don't understand why OBGYNs, who deal with fetal demise, copious amounts of blood (sometimes), deformed fetuses, cysts, and tumors are so bothered by...a turd!
But I am not totally against enemas because I think they could be helpful to stimulate labor. I just don't want to end up embarrassing myself by accidently losing the enema all over the bed or floor.
My new OBGYN swears that she has never had anyone poop while pushing since they give enemas.
Thank you for all your answers. Wonderful insights. Keep them coming if you have them.

We never gave enemas if the patient was beyond 4 or 5 cm, but only because we didn't want to be fishing the results of a precipitous labor out of the toilet. And they weren't holding on to the contents. We gave it and they could get up and go to the bathroom immediately if that's what they felt like. Sometimes we would have someone who didn't need to go immediately, but it was rare.