Occasionally meconium stools will be passed while your baby is still in utero. As meconium passed prior to birth can indicate fetal distress, your birth team will monitor you more closely during labor to ensure your baby is tolerating labor. If this happens your baby may need extra attention at birth to ensure that the baby doesn’t inhale any meconium into the lungs. Inhaling meconium can lead to aspiration pneumonia. Colostrum has a natural laxative effect and will encourage your baby to pass stool more frequently. The same can be said of breast milk. While your newborn will have different sized stools, large and small, you should only count a stool as one of these stools if it is larger than a quarter. Report any problems with stooling to your baby’s practitioner or pediatrician. If the blood does not seem to be with mucus or comes in the stool you need to report this to your baby’s doctor as it may be a problem.
