What causes constipation when your pregnant?

I am five weeks pregnant and the last few days I have had constipation….I can go but its hard to not much of it at all….what can I do? any insight would be helpful thanks!

It's terrible, isn't it? It's caused by the pregnancy hormones slowing down your digestive system. Scientists think this is so the body can get every little bit of nutrition from the food you eat, which might have been important hundreds of years ago.

I found that the kind of fiber in whole grains didn't help as much as eating fresh veggies. I have some celery, carrot sticks, bell peppers, etc. with every meal, and fruit with breakfast. Lots of salad, too. It's the only thing that really helped me…. even softeners did nothing.

By the way, my record for not going was 10 days. Consider yourself lucky.