Heartburn pregnancy

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Heartburn pregnancy. Even though the feeling you have when pregnant is inside your chest and is not really in your heart, that hot feeling is called heartburn. Obviously, your most frequent thought that you have during those hot sensations in your chest is “how do I make this stop?” And then when you have had some treatments recommended to you, you then ask yourself if this is safe for your baby at all?

LET US FIRST LOOK AT WHAT CAUSES HEARTBURN DURING PREGNANCY

When you eat food, it goes down through a tube called the esophagus and then gets down into your stomach.

The lower esophageal sphincter also known as LES is that part of the “tube” that acts like a door to  your esophagus and then leads the way to your stomach. What it does is that it opens for food to go through and then shuts so that acid from your stomach won’t climb up.

What happens when you experience heartburn is that, the LES has relaxed its “door” so now acid from your stomach is having the chance to climb up.

When you become pregnant, because of the changes in hormones, a lot of things also change in your body, one of which is that the LES now easily opens for acid to clime up your throat. The effect is that you feel the acid coming up so strongly especially when you have just finished eating.
What worsens this situation is that, as your baby grows and enters the second trimester or the third trimester, the growing and expansion of the size of your baby causes your uterus to also enlarge so as to contain the baby.
This puts your stomach under some pressure and then makes the content of your stomach to push up back.
So pregnancy will make you to have more heartburn.
What actually happens is that, the muscles inside the “tube”, your esophagus allows food to get into your stomach more slower than usual, this makes your stomach to also keep content for long, taking more time to get empty.
The advantage of this is that, your body now gets enough time to take all the needed nutrients to your new unborn baby, however, this same thing is what also gives you heartburn.
And also from the time your new baby crosses trimester 3, the size of your baby pushes your tommy out of its normal position, this is the other cause of heartburn.

Because every woman is different, being pregnant does not automatically mean you are going to be having heartburn. However if you do, this could be the possible reasons.

TO STOP HEARTBURN DURING PREGNANCY TRY THE FOLLOWING

  • Take in small amounts of food each time, lower drinking as you eat.
  • When eating, chew your food very well and slow down
  • As much as you can, eat several hours before bed
  • Stay away from food that give you heartburn
  • After eating, take a walk, and stand up for some time
  • Make sure your clothes are not too tight
  • Keep a good weight
  • Elevate your body as you sleep
  • When symptoms start, try yogurt

The following can help

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