Talk to your doctor before using any laxatives. Senna is a plant with medicinal properties. The leaves are used for constipation. It is considered a stimulant laxative because it irritates your intestinal wall to stimulate bowel movement. Sennosides are the active substances responsible for its laxative effect. The U.
Food and Drug administration assigns categories for drug safety during pregnancy. The FDA has classified senna as category C. This category is for substances that lack well-controlled human studies, but have demonstrated adverse health effects on the fetuses of pregnant animals. Talk with your healthcare provider before making any changes in your medications. It is important to consider the benefits of treating constipation during pregnancy.
Constipation may cause pain and other health problems in pregnancy such as cramps, hemorrhoids, and breakdown of the anal tissue. Treating constipation will help reduce the risk of these problems. Dietary changes such as increasing fluids and eating high fiber foods such as whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables can help prevent constipation.
Regular exercise can also help. Although occasional constipation is common in pregnancy, talk with your healthcare provider if constipation becomes an ongoing problem. Your healthcare provider may want to confirm the diagnosis of constipation and see how dietary and exercise changes can help before discussing medical treatment.
Does taking laxatives in the first trimester increase the chance of birth defects? This is called her background risk. Few studies have looked at the possible risks from using laxatives during pregnancy. However, the available studies show that when used in recommended doses, laxatives are not expected to increase the chance of birth defects. Talk with your healthcare provider or contact a MotherToBaby specialist to discuss your specific laxative medication.
Drink plenty of fluids 6 to 8 glasses a day while you are taking senna or your constipation may get worse.
If you forget a dose of senna, do not worry, just take the next dose the following evening. Never take 2 doses at the same time. Never take an extra dose to make up for a forgotten one.
You may get stomach pain and diarrhoea but this should ease off within 1 or 2 days. Like all medicines, senna may cause side effects in some people, but many people have no side effects or only minor ones. Common side effects, which happen in more than 1 in people, are stomach cramps and diarrhoea. You are particularly likely to get stomach cramps and diarrhoea with senna if you have constipation related to irritable bowel syndrome.
Your pee may turn a red-brown colour while you are taking senna. This is normal and returns to normal after treatment has ended.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if the side effects bother you or do not go away. A very rare but serious side effect of senna is a severe raised, red, itchy skin rash on any part or all of your body. If you get a severe skin rash, stop taking senna and call your doctor straight away. In rare cases, it's possible to have a serious allergic reaction anaphylaxis to senna.
These are not all the side effects of senna. For a full list see the leaflet inside your medicines packet. Constipation is common at the end of pregnancy and just after having a baby. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, it's better to ease constipation without taking a medicine. Your doctor or midwife will first advise that you eat more fibre and drink plenty of liquids.
You'll also be encouraged to do gentle exercise. If dietary and lifestyle changes do not work, you may be recommended a laxative. Laxatives are usually safe for pregnant women to take because most of them are not absorbed by the digestive system. This means that your baby will not feel the effects of the laxative. However senna is partly absorbed by your gut. Your doctor or midwife will usually only recommend senna if other laxatives have not worked. Lactulose and Fybogel are safer laxatives to take during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
For more information about how senna can affect you and your baby during pregnancy, read this leaflet on treating constipation on the Best Use of Medicines in Pregnancy BUMPs website. There are some medicines that do not mix well with senna and can change the way it works. Apart from liquorice root preparations, there are no known problems with taking other herbal remedies and supplements with senna. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you're taking any other medicines, including herbal medicines, vitamins or supplements.
Senna is known as a stimulant laxative — it stimulates the muscles that line your gut, helping them to move poo along your bowel. Take senna for a few days only and certainly no longer than a week. If you take senna for longer, your body can start to rely on it, rather than your bowels doing the work on their own. If you are still constipated after taking senna for 3 days, talk to your doctor.
Although uncomfortable, it is generally not harmful to the mother or baby. Pregnant women should ensure that their diet is high in fibre and that they drink plenty of liquid from early pregnancy onwards.
Fibre is found in fresh fruits and vegetables, wholemeal bread and wholegrain breakfast cereals. Prunes or prune juice and regular exercise can also help prevent and treat constipation. By following this advice you can hopefully avoid needing to take medicines to treat constipation. If your constipation has not improved after trying these suggestions your doctor may advise you to take a medicine laxative.
As is the case for many medicines, there are too few scientific studies to prove that medicines for constipation laxatives are safe. However, several medicines have been used in pregnancy for many years without any known effects on the developing baby. This leaflet summarises the scientific studies relating to the effects on a baby in the womb of medicines that are commonly used to treat constipation. It is advisable to consider this information if you are pregnant. For some women, treatment with a laxative in pregnancy may be considered necessary.
It is important to avoid using laxatives for long periods of time during pregnancy as this can lead to dehydration and unbalanced levels of salts and minerals in your body. Make sure you speak to your doctor or healthcare provider before taking any medicine in pregnancy.
Bulk-forming laxatives Bulk-forming laxatives e. Use of bulk-forming laxatives during pregnancy is common and has not been linked to any problems in the unborn baby.
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