Are You Planning To Douche When You Are Pregnant?

Would you douche while pregnant? Are you thinking whether it is safe to douche when you are pregnant, then the answer is a definite no.  Douching would involve cleaning your vagina with water or a combination of other liquids like vinegar or iodine. Through a nozzle or tube it is squirted on to the vagina.

Experts are of the opinion that any women whether they are pregnant or not should not pick up douching. But a still a major chunk of women in the age group of 15 to 44 years are more prone to douching. If you douche once in a month, it would make it really difficult for you to become pregnant. On the other hand if you douche after sex it would also not make it difficult for you to become pregnant. Coupled with the fact if you douche it does increase the chances of ectopic pregnancy. This would make it really difficult for you to conceive in the future. If you are into douching too early it means that a premature baby is also possible.

There are some other issues that spring up with douching that includes bacterial vaginosis, or sexually transmitted diseases. A study went on to state that if you did douche in the last 6 months it would pave way for higher number of infections and that includes HPV and till date you can come across more than 200 of them.

This brings us to the major question why douching with water while pregnant is still undertaken. A study that was conducted on 141 women in Los Angeles provided further clarity on the same. It was found out that 6 out of 10 African American women douched and in case of Latin American it stood at 4 out of 10. This further went on to state that African American women were more to douching in comparison to the Latin American women. What was alarming is that these women did learn the art of douching from their mothers.

Most women who took up douching were of the opinion that they did it for the primary reason of personal hygiene. But the real problem is that douching would go on to disturb the balance of bad and good bacteria in the vagina.

Now what is to be done by which you can clean your vagina? When you are bathing you can wash the outside of it with warm water but from the interiors it is better if you allow the vagina to clean itself by the process of forming mucus. Just take note of the fact that a clean vagina would not smell like a garden of roses. It is suggested that the moment you have a thick white discharge it would be better to get in touch with your doctor. In addition if foul smell, redness or itchiness is felt around the region of your vagina then also it is better to seek medical advice.