Contractions caused by diarrhea, how?

[proudmumof2boys]

When I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest son, I was hospitalized because I was throwing up and had diarrhea.
They had me stayed in the hospital to check on me and my baby because I was contracting every 5 minutes
(I don't felt anything at all, except, the urge to throw up) and the staff was worried of my contractions.
I stayed for 3 days, and they gave me medication (Isoxilan) to help me and my baby. And after that everything was well.

My question is, How does diarrhea has something to do with contractions? Is it really the diarrhea?
I have read something about it in a baby book, that one of the signs of labor is diarrhea. Please explain some for me. Thanks!

[ljmarsden]

That must have been a very scary experience for you.

Some women do experience diarrhoea during the early stages of labour. However, what you are describing is that possibly the diarrhoea was starting to cause the contractions (rather than the other way round).

This is something which was covered on my antenatal birth preparation cause. The teacher was talking about natural ways to induce labour. She advised us not to use castor oil (this was used in the past as a way to induce labour when you were full term). The castor oil would cause diarrhoea cramps in the intestine and these cramps would then become present in the uterus which would increase the prostaglandin levels which could induce contractions. Our teacher advised against this induction method as she said it was difficult to know how much castor oil would give an individual a certain amount of diarrhoea. It wouldn't be fun going through labour whilst experiencing severe diarrhoea.

I was wondering if the diarrhoea you experienced could have set off a similar chain of events to the castor oil (resulting in the contractions)? I suppose the surprising thing is that it happened when you were not full term.

This was just my thinking - let's see what everyone else thinks too.

[5Homebirths4Kate]

I'm right there with Laura Jane. My guess is that the diarrhea could have caused the uterine contractions. Anyone else have a thought?

Kate

[proudmumof2boys]

Hi,

I never heard of castor oil to induce labor. And never used it.

My diarrhea must have been from the food I ate- bacon. I guess it was the oil that made my tummy to rumble and causing all the trauma (it was my first pregnancy and my hubby was away to work overseas) since I was all by my self (and of course my little baby in my tummy) in the hospital.