Laxatives and pregnancy

Ok. First of all, I am not pregnant and am not planning on getting pregnant any time soon; however I was just thinking lately that if I ever did want to try to get pregnant (it's years away yet) - would I have a problem???

Let me explain - I have had colon problems on and off for the past 2 or 3 years, where I get very easily constipated. While I lived outside HK, I had a pretty good diet and exercised a lot and was regular without too much help from laxatives; however after moving to HK (about 1 year ago), I have been using laxatives everyday, simply because I work so much and don't have time to exercise etc now, and my diet in HK is not as good so I really can't "go" without a lot of aid. I guess I have been using laxatives full time for about 14 months now, and before that on and off for a couple of years.

Will this eventually have any effect on my ability to fall pregnanat and safely and successfully have a baby in the future???

pregnancy does constipate you even more - if you can imagine. So trying to figure out a natural way for you to deal with this would be ideal. Have you tried foods with laxative effect? I found that eating 2 kiwifruit a day very helpful. When desperate (happens at time) I resort to prunes or prune juice. I would say that as much as possible avoiding laxatives would be to your benefit while pregnant - so trying to find natural alternatives now would be to your benefit.


Laxatives are also addictive - your body gets so used to it it REQUIRES it to go - so perhaps weaning yourself off in the meanwhile could be beneficial as well? Lots of water, and fiber rich fruits and vegetables - I know veggies may be hard with your work schedule, but tons of fruits would be manageable?

Yes organising to cook and eat veggies maybe hard - but have lots of fruits - like kiwis, oats porridge in the morning sweetened with prune juice and with prunes, drink industrial quantities of water and see how it works.

waffle_hk, were you still using laxatives when you fell pregnant??

Also, if I am still using laxatives during a pregnancy, will it have an effect on the baby?