Bearing down as if having a baby

[PMM1485]

Hi there,

My mum has been bearing down and screaming like she was having a baby for about two months now, and the care home are having real problems with the behavior. I have read that this can be caused by constipation, and a confusion between the response of needing to go to the toilet and a false memory of child birth. The care home have mum on a laxative to ensure that is not an issue, although she does still suffer from long term haemorrhoids. She continues to act in the same way though, and requires 1 to 1 care to distract her and avoid an episode.

Has anyone else had relatives who have display similar behaviours?Did you find anything that worked? She has a baby doll, but that doesn't help.

Cheers X.

 

[lemonbalm]

Hello @PMM1485 . My mum has displayed this behaviour when she has had urine infections. It has sometimes taken more than one test to pick it up, so worth checking in case your mum has an infection which isn't showing on tests already carried out.

 

[Sue22f]

Hi there,

My mum has been bearing down and screaming like she was having a baby for about two months now, and the care home are having real problems with the behavior. I have read that this can be caused by constipation, and a confusion between the response of needing to go to the toilet and a false memory of child birth. The care home have mum on a laxative to ensure that is not an issue, although she does still suffer from long term haemorrhoids. She continues to act in the same way though, and requires 1 to 1 care to distract her and avoid an episode.

Has anyone else had relatives who have display similar behaviours?Did you find anything that worked? She has a baby doll, but that doesn't help.

Cheers X.

Hi @PMM1485
My Mil is in a care home and would often bear down like this saying she needed the loo. At and at first I thought she was just constipated as she so often is, due to pain medication, but she said that she needed to pee and would be straining so much I was afraid she would do some damage to her bladder! She is totally incontinent of urine and wears pads so there would be no need for her to be concerned about having an accident. She would often say she was in pain and would do this straining and bearing down as if it would help the pain?

I think it could have been due to frequent urine infections in her case but you are right in that distraction tactics seem to be the best thing to avoid it continuing. Sadly, I have no idea if it is still occurring as we have not been allowed in since March.

If your Mum hasn't had a recent urine test, I would recommend it to discount an infection or get antibiotics if she has one as when UTIs are bad they can increase the dementia symptoms significantly in our experience.
Sending best wishes and hugs as we all need one!