pregnancy

Bec Judd's 'biggest fear' about giving birth is an all too relatable one.

Considering what a magical experience it’s said to be, there’s a lot about childbirth that isn’t all that pretty.

Bec Judd knows this all too well – she’s given birth to four children, after all. In fact, her biggest fear around the birth of her children related to something entirely common, but also a little gross.

The mum-of-four and her KIIS FM 3pm Pick-Up co-host Kate “Monty” Diamond confessed to listeners on Monday that ahead of each of their births, they were afraid of one thing above all else: pooing themselves.

Listen: A birth photographer tells us what women ask for with regards to birth photos. (Post continues.)

Monty said that when chatting to her friends she told them “my biggest fear out of anything was pooing”. But the mum-of-two wasn’t alone – it was a fear shared by all her friends.

Bec, who also was worried about pooing while pushing out her first two children Oscar and Billie (her twins Tom and Darcy were delivered via c-section) shared how normal it was for women to have a bowel movement during birth.

“You know how common it is? Ninety per cent of women poo,” the she told Monty.

#thisistom

A post shared by Rebecca Judd (@becjudd) on

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Embarrassing as it may feel for mums, the TV presenter was told birthing staff will discreetly “pick it up and throw it in the bin”.

However, the anxiety around poo doesn’t end with the birth, Bec previously shared.

Speaking on Mamamia‘s pregnancy podcast Hello, Bump with midwife Cath Curtin, the 34-year-old said she, like many mums, felt nervous about her first post-birth poo.

“You’ve just pushed this thing, this baby that’s the size of a watermelon out of your vagina, and a lot of the time you’ve got stitches in there, you might have had an episiotomy [a surgical cut in the area between the vagina and the anus],” she explained.

“You feel like your insides are going to fall out of your vagina, or you feel like your insides are going to fall out of your c-section scar. Every time you stand up you can actually feel your insides kind of drag, and it is so painful.

Listen to Bec and Cath’s discussion on The Bump here. (Post continues.)

“After I had Oscar, I couldn’t even sit down. I couldn’t sit on my bottom because it hurt so much. Then, you’ve got to do a poo, and you’ve got to push that out of your stitched up vagina. Because it’s all the same muscles, it’s frightening.”

Cath said new mums who feel terrified of re-tearing needn’t worry.

“And all you mums out there, you don’t. What you do need to do is take something that softens your poo, so it actually comes out soft in the first few days,” she advised.

Are you worried about pooing while giving birth?