I still have my colon, but I have had UC for 5 years and just in the past year I would consider myself in remission.

I am 8 weeks pregnant, and I am trying to decided which would be better. C-section or Vaginal birth.

Even though I still have my colon is there any risk of weekening my muscles? I am not trying to be a coward, but I want to be smart about it. I don't have urgent right now bms, but when I have to go, I only have about 5min to get to a bathroom.

I guess I am looking for recommendations.

I know I don't have a pouch, but I am thinking that in my future if I ever need jpouch surgery, what would be better on the muscle.

I hope I just made sense....

Pretty smart if you ask me. I wish that I had a clue that I may have a j-pouch in the future and I would not have opted for a vaginal birth after c-section for my second child. Yes, there is a risk of weakening the sphincters with vaginal birth, and this can affect continence later in life, even with a colon.

However, only about 30% of the folks with UC wind up with a colectomy and after only 5 years, it is pretty tough to tell if you are going to be one, especially once you have gone into remission.

If you have pancolitis (the entire colon affected), then your chances are fairly good that eventually you may need a colectomy. But, this would not be for another 10-15 years (unless you developed cancer or megacolon in the meantime). Who knows what options there will be at that time? Five years after my diagnosis, the only option was an end ileostomy! If your UC is confined to the left side, then I definitely would not worry about it too much.

Jan

I had my son before my pouch. I had UC for about 6 years as well. The only time I had a remission of sorts was when I was pregnant. I gave birth vaginally with no problems. Someone gave me some great advice....when you push you push and bare down like you were trying to have a BM. I thought to myself, "This should be easy...I am an expert at that" LOL. Needless to say when it was time to push I delivered in 20 minutes. I had a nasty epesiotomy (sp)...21 stitches (in layers). I just recently had the pouch done in Jan and my son just turned 3. Having the Jpouch has been awesome! I have had no real problems. And my son is as healthy as can be.
After my pregancy however my UC did get worse. Not sure if this is because of weakening the muscles or just the progression of the disease.
Congrats on the pregnancy and the best of luck!!!
Amanda

I was advised by my surgeon to have a c-section and I did and I will with this one too!