When thinking whether constipation can be a sign of pregnancy, you should know that this is one of the earliest symptoms of pregnancy.
The sign is caused by the pregnancy hormones that slow down the digestive tract. The feelings that women experience vary from one woman to the other.
Some of the women could experience bloating and they could have droppings that look like the rabbit droppings. In other cases women could have problems with bowel movements. It is said that women suffer from constipation if they have bowel movements less than three times per week.
Slower process
If you are affected by constipation during pregnancy this means that the levels of the hormone progesterone are higher than usual.
It is possible that you are eating only small amounts of food during one meal and you still feel bloated. The cause of the high levels of hormone is to relax the muscles of the uterus.
This way the body makes sure that the baby remains in the womb as long as it needs to get entirely developed. The downside is that the muscles of the uterus and the gastrointestinal tract are very similar so the hormone acts on both of them.
Although you may think that this symptom is quite annoying, you should also see the good side of it: food has more time to be absorbed that is important for the nutrition of the baby and of the mother.
How to handle the problem
There are a lot of different reasons that could support the appearance of the problem, such as having a poor diet, not being well hydrated, diseases, and hemorrhoids. To make the problem of constipation while being pregnant better you should try to have more exercise, drink more water, take vitamin and mineral supplements and maybe try some kind of laxative that is approved by your doctor.
