Pregnant and suffering from bowel irregularity? Tell me about it. It’s a fairly common condition that many women face during pregnancy.

When you’re pregnant, your hormones relaxes your bowel muscles. Slowing down your bowel muscles also hampers intestinal movements. Hence, limiting your muscles’ ability to push food and waste down your intestines.

Here are some tips to keep your bowel movement moving along:

• Fluids, and lots of them. Drink more water regularly.
• Keep your feet up in an elevated position whenever possible. Preferrably when you’re lying down because sitting down too much is unadvisable.
• Supplement your daily cup of hot cereal with a dash of molasses or grounded flaxseed. Adding them to hot drinks if much preferrable to drinking it straight with a warm cup of plain water.
• Being pregnant doesn’t mean you are banned from exercising. Regular, gentle exercise like walking, swimming, stationary cycling, yog a or pilates (watched by a professional trainer of course) improves bowel stimulation. You’ll find your body able to digest food better. Kegels (floor exercises for pelvic) also benefit bowel movements by improving blood flow to the bowel area.
• Go whenever you feel the urge to pass motion. Don’t wait or you’ll risk having your stool become dry and hard.
• Certain fruits and nuts contain natural laxatives. Go with olive oil, watercress, soybeans, apricots, almonds, mangos and perhaps best of all: prunes.