1 The essence of the problem

Why can a pregnant woman get a black feces? There are several reasons for this. Some of them are quite harmless, others require immediate medical attention.

Normal feces are stained brown with bile pigments. But depending on changes in the body and food composition, the color of the stool can vary from white to black. Dark feces can occur after eating foods with intense color. But so are severe pathologies in the body. Color change is important for diagnosis, since in many cases it is associated with developing diseases or pathologies.

2 Non-dangerous causes of

The most common cause of staining of feces black during pregnancy is the intake of iron-containing drugs.

Iron deficiency anemia has recently been diagnosed in almost 80% of young mothers. The desire to be slim, the lack of a daily routine and adequate nutrition leads to the fact that even before pregnancy, many girls appear this condition. During child-bearing, it progresses, because the developing fetus consumes a certain amount of iron from the mother's body.

Anemia is a very serious pathology that can bring a lot of trouble to the body of a pregnant woman, and especially a future baby. Therefore, when diagnosing this disease, treatment is necessarily prescribed. Iron in the human body is not synthesized, it falls into the body only from the outside.

As this microelement from synthetic preparations is not fully absorbed by the intestine( maximum up to 50%), the residues will be excreted with feces. It is the iron-containing preparations that give the chair a black color and a specific smell. In some cases, there is a change in consistency. Most often, discrepancies in color, smell and consistency were reported by pregnant women who consumed Sorbifer, Ferrum-Lek, Tardiferon.

Sometimes, the body of a woman bearing a fruit, for whatever reasons, does not absorb the iron in the right amount. Then preparations with a microelement are appointed together with ascorbic and folic acids. In this case, too, the appearance of black feces.

Very often, pregnant women are prescribed complex preparations containing vitamins and trace elements, such as Elevit or Vitrum. Most of them contain iron. Thus, taking multivitamins can also cause black stool. In this case, there is no cause for concern. The color will recover within 2-3 days after stopping the intake of iron-containing medications. The same thing happens in case of taking pregnant activated carbon or drugs that include bismuth( De-nol, Vikalin, Vicair).

Bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract may cause long-term use of certain medications such as Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, Indomethacin, Nimesulide, Loxidol, Nise, and others.

4 Dangerous signs

In general, black feces during pregnancy is not dangerous in itself, if its occurrence is not accompanied by deterioration of well-being. Sometimes the appearance of an unpleasant condition is accompanied by symptoms such as:

• chills;
• increased body temperature;
• hypotension, weakness;
• dizziness, loss of consciousness;
• increased sweating;
• pallor of the skin.

In this case, you should immediately call an ambulance, as this may be symptoms of internal bleeding. It can be a consequence of exacerbation of pre-existing or acquired during pregnancy diseases. Black color kalu in this case gives the oxidized digestive enzymes blood, the source of which is in the upper sections of the gastrointestinal tract. With internal bleeding, when the biological fluid enters the digestive system, the feces change not only the color, but also becomes liquid.

This may be a bleeding from an aggravated stomach ulcer or 12 duodenal ulcer. In the first case, dark feces are accompanied by acute pain, which is aggravated when eating. The greatest danger is profuse bleeding, when erosion destroys the wall of the stomach or intestinal artery. In this case, for a short time the woman loses a significant amount of blood. As a result, a syndrome of multiple organ failure may develop, in which the entire vital activity of the organism is disrupted. This is a very serious condition, requiring immediate hospitalization.

Digestive hemorrhages are often accompanied by vomiting of cherry color. They can be symptoms of damaged polyps of the esophagus and other neoplasms in the gastrointestinal tract. The source of blood in the intestines can become varicose veins, characteristic of severe liver damage and cirrhosis. If the blood source is located closer to the rectum, the stool will contain impurities of fresh scarlet blood.

The appearance of feces with blood, accompanied by a general malaise, may indicate the development of serious diseases such as Crohn's disease, gastritis, ulcerative colitis, ankylostomiasis, acute form of lymphoblastic leukemia or histoplasmosis. Therefore, if black stools do not bind to the use of multivitamin complexes or iron-containing preparations, you should urgently consult a doctor. If it is not possible to find out the cause of the appearance of dark feces by collecting an anamnesis, then an examination of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract by means of CT, MRI, endoscopy, radiography is assigned. Biochemical blood tests are also prescribed. These methods will help to determine what pathological processes occur in the body, and to identify internal bleeding.

Dark green, almost black color of stool can be a symptom of dysbiosis. In this case, the stool has a sharp putrefactive odor. Dysbacteriosis in pregnancy carries a danger not only for a pregnant woman, but also for her unborn child. Severe consequences of untreated dysbiosis can be: infection of the fetus with pathogenic microorganisms, disturbances in its development, premature birth. Treatment of dysbiosis should appoint a specialist gastroenterologist after consultation with an obstetrician-gynecologist.

In any case, when a feces appear of a suspicious color or consistency, the pregnant woman must report this to the observing specialist. He can objectively determine why this happened, and prescribe an effective treatment. It is strictly forbidden to exercise independently during pregnancy. After all, a woman may simply not know that drugs that previously brought her relief, are capable of adversely affecting the health of the developing fetus.

3 Effect of food on stool color

The color of the stool is strongly influenced by the composition of food consumed in food. Black color can give:

• all varieties of black grapes, sultana;
• black berries( blueberries, blackberries, black currants);
• fruits of dark color( prunes, chokeberry);
• dishes containing liver;
• dishes containing animal blood( steak with blood, blood sausage).

Many food products can give a dark color to the stool. These are:

• leafy greens in large quantities;
• beet;
• tomatoes;
• garnet, kiwi;
• strong coffee.

Dark color of feces is imparted to artificial colors contained in finished products and liquids( for example, powdered drinks).When eating certain fruits( for example, bananas) in the feces, black inclusions in the form of strings or small pieces may be present.

To natural causes of staining of feces black in the bearing of a child can be attributed to a digestive disorder under the influence of the so-called pregnancy hormones. They are "guilty" of increased excitability, suspiciousness, nervousness of the future mother.