Pregnancy and Heartburn
Heartburn is the uncomfortable burning feeling you get when acid from your stomach rises into your esophagus.
Heartburn is very common in pregnancy for a couple reasons and there are a few things you can do to ease the discomfort.
In the beginning months you will likely experience heartburn because the level of progesterone in your body is much higher then normal.
This hormone your body creates slows digestion and relaxes the sphincter muscle located between your stomach and esophagus.
This muscle normally prevents any upward movement of the stomach but because of the hormone it has a harder time doing it's job.
The other reason you will deal with heartburn doesn't normally happen until further on, but it's because of your growing uterus.
As the uterus grows it pushes upward on the stomach, which then pushes acid from the stomach into your esophagus.
There are a couple of things that you can do to help with heartburn.
Since each woman is different which one or ones that work for you I can't say.
So keeping trying different methods until you find one that at least helps.
-Eat frequently.
A lot of people say small, frequently meals.
I think the word meals seems a little misleading since it really should say snacks.
If I was experiencing some extra awful heartburn normally eating 12-14 snacks instead of meals would help.
-Tums, Tums, and more Tums.
I bought the big thing of tums from Costco and would eat them like candy.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but they helped a lot, especially when combined with everything else.
For me, instead of chewing on 2-4 at a time, I would slowing chew one, the chalk like texture seemed to really make the flavor of those nasty burbs go away and calm my stomach considerably.
-Crackers, especially saltines may be your savior.
I used these more during the beginning weeks when I was throwing up every 20 minutes.
These helped get the nasty puke taste out of my mouth and the salt seemed to counteract the acid.
-Use a sleep wedge.
Most woman complain of heartburn at night, which makes sense because your esophagus and stomach are horizontal causing more acid to go up.
Using a sleep wedge allows you to get comfortable in a semi-sitting position and greatly reduces the amount of acid going up.
Heartburn is very common in pregnancy for a couple reasons and there are a few things you can do to ease the discomfort.
In the beginning months you will likely experience heartburn because the level of progesterone in your body is much higher then normal.
This hormone your body creates slows digestion and relaxes the sphincter muscle located between your stomach and esophagus.
This muscle normally prevents any upward movement of the stomach but because of the hormone it has a harder time doing it's job.
The other reason you will deal with heartburn doesn't normally happen until further on, but it's because of your growing uterus.
As the uterus grows it pushes upward on the stomach, which then pushes acid from the stomach into your esophagus.
There are a couple of things that you can do to help with heartburn.
Since each woman is different which one or ones that work for you I can't say.
So keeping trying different methods until you find one that at least helps.
-Eat frequently.
A lot of people say small, frequently meals.
I think the word meals seems a little misleading since it really should say snacks.
If I was experiencing some extra awful heartburn normally eating 12-14 snacks instead of meals would help.
-Tums, Tums, and more Tums.
I bought the big thing of tums from Costco and would eat them like candy.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but they helped a lot, especially when combined with everything else.
For me, instead of chewing on 2-4 at a time, I would slowing chew one, the chalk like texture seemed to really make the flavor of those nasty burbs go away and calm my stomach considerably.
-Crackers, especially saltines may be your savior.
I used these more during the beginning weeks when I was throwing up every 20 minutes.
These helped get the nasty puke taste out of my mouth and the salt seemed to counteract the acid.
-Use a sleep wedge.
Most woman complain of heartburn at night, which makes sense because your esophagus and stomach are horizontal causing more acid to go up.
Using a sleep wedge allows you to get comfortable in a semi-sitting position and greatly reduces the amount of acid going up.
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