I'm at 22 weeks now and have noticed in the last 3 weeks my pouch has slowed down quite a bit. Things I use to get things moving such as coffee (decaf now), cherries, other fruits, probiotic, lots of water, etc. don't seem to help like they used to. I know that is normal for your system to slow down during pregnancy.

I told my doctor and he was concerned. He said that he is worried that having things sit in my pouch could help me to develop pouchitis (which I've only had once in 7 years)and that could lead to my cervix weakening and thus a too early labor.

I feel like an oddball on this site sometimes because I like things to move through me quickly but I read about all the people who like to have as few bowel movements as possible and try to thicken up their stool.

Anyone have any advice or experience with this while pregnant? I'm going to a GI specialist in a couple of weeks but until then I was just planning to stay away from breads and other things that could slow me down.

Women with colons often experience constipation during pregnancy, so perhaps you are having a similar experience...

One other possibility, you could have a partial obstruction. Though I have a perm ileo, I have a good friend with a j-pouch and we both had issues with obstructions during our pregnancies. Mine started around 17 weeks, hers around 20 weeks.

I would go easy on fiberous foods, as you plan, drink lots of liquids and keep an eye on things. Are you seeing a high risk OB? If not, you might want to get a consult at the very least so that if anything gets worse, you have someone on board who knows your situation.

I would also push to see the GI sooner.

I am almost 29 weeks along and have been struggling with exactly that issue the entire pregnancy (I thought I would be much worse off than I am, and am otherwise having a good pregnancy, so that's not a huge gripe, just an inconvenience). I've actually gotten "stuck" quite a bit, have over-strained, have had lots of bleeding from the strain, etc. Ugh, I know how it is. I also never thought "constipation" would be an issue for a j-poucher, but there you have it. I have a history of blockages--used to get a couple a year, involving hospitalization, so I can't believe I haven't gotten a blockage with the pregnancy, but this is definitely different from obstructions, even when I'm stuck.

I am now in an insanely gassy/more loose stool phase, so I stopped the treatments, but I was drinking metamucil every day, just to keep things flushed out and moving, drinking loads of water, and making fruit smoothies with a spoonful of flax seed. All of that helped. The doc. also suggested Colace, an over the counter stool softener. Who would've thunk WE'D ever need stool softener? Doesn't necessarily work as it does in other folks, but the getting stuck was so uncomfortable, I got to the point of rather having too-loose stool than being constipated.

Hope this helps!