A woman's body undergoes hormonal changes during pregnancy that can slow down her digestion. Stomach irritation is part of the symptoms of pregnancy. In fact, the heartburn during pregnancy It is recurrent and usually occurs in the second trimester.
This phenomenon affects almost half of pregnant women and makes their lives difficult. There are several effective tips to help women alleviate the heartburn during pregnancy.
If you want to know more about heartburn during pregnancy, Continue reading this article we prepared for you!
What is heartburn?
Heartburn is a sign of inflammation of the stomach lining.
Inflammation can be diffuse, in the case of gastritis, for example, or more localized and significant, creating an ulcer.
Heartburn is typically located in the upper left part of the abdomen, but also includes more central “epigastric” burns.
Different information allows the doctor to be guided towards a precise diagnosis: exact location and appearance (the time in relation to meals, the attitudes that alleviate it, those that worsen it).
There are multiple triggers for burns: taking medications, spicy foods, stress, acids, alcohol…
Gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining. It can cause burns, but it often progresses silently, leading to atrophy, that is, the disappearance of cells in the affected area.
An ulcer is an inflammation that creates a depression or even a hole. It may be at the level of the stomach, but most often it is found in the duodenum.
Gastroesophageal reflux is a reflux of acidic liquid from the stomach into the esophagus, which has a mucosa not designed to withstand the acidity.
The pain is easily recognizable when accompanied by heartburn, a burn that extends back to the midline of the chest, which can result in the eruption of acidic liquid in the mouth.
Why do you have heartburn during pregnancy?
As your pregnancy progresses, your baby takes up more and more space in your abdomen and puts pressure on your stomach, pushing it upward.
Under pressure, liquid from the stomach rises into the esophagus, causing acid reflux. This becomes particularly important during the second trimester.
Well, as you can see, there's not much you can do to avoid heartburn during pregnancy. Hormone production and baby growth are natural and nothing can be done against it!
However, below you can see some tips that will help alleviate this phenomenon.
10 tips to relieve heartburn during pregnancy
Take small meals
Heartburn occurs when the sphincter muscle relaxes during pregnancy, allowing food and gastric juices to pass into the esophagus.
To avoid this unpleasant problem, a simple tip: eat small meals. Consume less, but more frequently, and chew well to facilitate digestion. Simply not overloading your stomach can prevent it from causing you heartburn during pregnancy!
Sleep in a semi-sitting position
It is also better not to sleep immediately after a meal and, in this sense, avoid eating meals too late. Leave a gap of at least two hours between the end of a meal and a period of sleep: digestion in the stomach lasts two hours, before continuing in the intestine.
To prevent or alleviate burning at night, you can also add more pillows to your bed to raise your head. With this tilt, your esophagus will be in a more ideal position.
Avoid fatty, fried and spicy foods
Avoid fatty foods: cream, mayonnaise, avocado, French fries, creamy cheeses should be forgotten, for a while at least. The same happens with fried and spicy foods, which are difficult to digest.
Avoid sugar
Remove sugary foods, desserts and company: anything that contains a lot of carbohydrates should be avoided! For dessert, choose fruits that are not acidic.
Drink lots of water
Do you wake up at night with your chest on fire? Drinking a large glass of room temperature water will gently activate your digestive system.
In fact, always drink plenty of water and forget about juices (which contain carbohydrates), coffee, tea, alcohol and soft drinks that are irritating to the stomach.
Do breathing exercises
Practicing breathing exercises can open the rib cage while reducing stress, which is one of the causes of heartburn during pregnancy. Make it a habit to breathe deeply at any time of the day, but especially before meals.
Test the foods you eat
Some foods seem to help women, but others don't. So you have to test them. For some, rice, corn, whole grain bread or beans (white or red) have worked wonders. Other women complain that they cause heartburn during pregnancy.
And what about milk and dairy products? In some people, they will actually temporarily calm heartburn. But it also happens that dairy products cause heartburn. So take the test: give up dairy products for two weeks and see if there is any improvement in your symptoms.
Eat “alkaline” foods
Choose alkaline foods such as apricots, figs, dates, green olives, grapes, bananas, cherries, peaches, potatoes, beans, watercress, almonds, etc.
Drink herbal teas
Drink herbal tea frequently throughout the day. Choose a single plant or mix some of these plants, known for relieving irritation of digestive mucous membranes: fennel, chamomile, lemon verbena, lemon balm, licorice, lavender, orange peel or tangerine.
Some plants are emollients and soften, protect and heal irritated tissues in the digestive system.
Control your emotions
Also learn how to manage your level of stress and strong emotions. In fact, stress is one of the causes of heartburn. Yoga, meditation, sport or relaxation can be of great help to you.
