It’s not a secret for anyone that any medications are in varying degrees unacceptable for a woman’s body, especially for pregnant women. But after all, the illness of the future mother will negatively affect the child. Therefore, if you, being "in position", still managed to get sick, then of the two evils, choose the least and begin to be healed. Take pills for headaches during pregnancy with caution.
Self-medication: is it worth it?
Never resort to self-medication and do not use the advice of "experienced" friends. Remember: you are carrying a baby and you must be 200% sure that the methods of medical care are safe for your unborn child. Moreover, only a doctor should prescribe treatment.
Most often, pregnant women complain of “causeless” headache. But this is not a disease, but its consequence. Simply put, the symptom of “headache” can be more than 50 different diseases. These are all kinds of infections, side effects of drugs, osteochondrosis, hypertension, kidney disease, all diseases of the ENT organs, eyes, depression and nervous breakdowns. If you have a first pregnancy, headache, pills can alleviate the situation. First you need to decide what exactly caused your condition.
Causes of Headaches
During the bearing of a baby, headaches in a woman can become more frequent and intensify in their intensity. During pregnancy, some physiological changes occur in the female body. There are reasons for this:
- Hormonal changes occur in the body due to an increase in progesterone and estrogen levels, and this directly affects the functioning of blood vessels.
- The work of the cardiovascular system and central nervous system is changing.
- The diet is changing (as a rule, pregnant women begin to eat something that they have never consumed before and, on the contrary, flatly refuse once their favorite foods).
- Incorrect position of the back, posture. (This usually occurs in the last stages of pregnancy, when women already have a large tummy, and there is already not enough strength to hold the back correctly).
- Change in weather or climatic conditions.
Doctors distinguish two types of headaches: primary and secondary. Quite often, the first type occurs when bearing a fetus - migraine, pain and tension. One of the most popular forms of this disease is the latter. It occurs as a result of psycho-emotional overstrain, which is the result of stress. For mild headaches, a single dose of medication is recommended for a pregnant woman. What to treat? Which pill to take for headaches during pregnancy, and which to exclude?
Contraindications
We should not forget that all medications, including even those that can be used during pregnancy, have various contraindications. In situations where it is impossible to do without medication, everything possible must be done so that the effect of taking the drug many times exceeds the potential risk that threatens the well-being of your child. Analgesics are commonly used to treat headaches. The most famous of this group is the tool "Analgin." This drug is banned for production and sale in several countries. A small dose or single use carries the risk of complications, such as severe damage to the kidneys, a change in blood structure or anaphylactic shock. In this regard, the drug "Analgin" is strictly contraindicated in pregnant women.
Headache pill
The active component of this drug is part of some painkillers, such as Pentalgin, Sedalgin, etc. These medicines contain drugs that enhance the analgesic effect. Caffeine, which is in the drug "Sedalgin", enhances your baby’s arousal, and this is unacceptable in early pregnancy. This will certainly affect the central nervous system of your baby. Therefore, tablets for headache during pregnancy are strictly forbidden to take if they contain these components. And yet, if it so happened that the discomfort does not go away, and your health worsens, which means the baby’s condition, too, limit yourself to a single dose of Paracetamol. This is so far the only headache pill compatible with pregnancy.
Migraine
In 25 percent of cases, the main cause of headaches is migraine. It is characterized by severe throbbing pain, spasm of the vessels of the brain. Migraines can result in decreased appetite and sleep disturbance. There is such a subspecies of this sore as migraine with aura. What it is?
The beginning of this subspecies is due to the presence of circles in front of the eyes and small flashes of light. Then an acute headache appears, which occurs in conjunction with nausea and photophobia. Emotional stress, lack of sleep, a long break between meals can provoke a migraine attack. All of the above is inherent to a greater extent to women "in position", especially in the last stages. If you experience a normal headache during pregnancy, Paracetamol will help you.
Migraine first appeared - what to do?
If during the first time you have a baby, you encounter a migraine, especially the one with an aura, immediately contact your doctor who is conducting your pregnancy. During the examination, a specialist can exclude diseases such as vascular thrombosis or intracranial hemorrhage. Headache pills during pregnancy will help narrow your blood vessels during an attack. Such drugs as Rizatriptan, Zomig, the effect and safety of which are currently not well understood, are perfect.
Migraine symptoms
If you have a headache with migraine symptoms, immediately consult a specialist. And only if the expected result exceeds the potential risk for your child, start taking the drug taking into account the recommendations prescribed by your doctor.
Secondary headaches can be caused by:
- previous head injuries (fall, disaster);
- vascular disorders;
- the presence of intracranial pathology;
- the use or, conversely, a sharp cessation of alcohol, tobacco;
- the presence of systemic infections, such as urosepsis;
- metabolic disorders.
Pregnancy. Headache. What to do?
The fact is that throughout pregnancy, reproductive hormones have a huge influence on the neurochemical processes in the body and on the bloodstream, as a result of which we cannot exclude any of the above types of headaches.
Pregnancy complicates the headache quite a bit. How to treat it if it is caused by arterial hypertension? This is a serious problem today. The fact is that hypertensive patients take medications constantly. Not in order to “relieve” pressure during a hypertensive crisis, but in order to prevent this crisis itself. There is such a term in medicine that is used when prescribing drugs - "for life". This is just about hypertensive patients.
For pregnant women, the situation is doubly complicated. In modern practice of drug testing, there are only indications of the therapeutic concentration of this drug in the blood. Research on how a particular medicine affects a child has not been conducted. In such a situation, the attending physicians again resort to the principle of "choose the least of two evils." So, there are drugs that block the work of receptors located in the heart and blood vessels. These are medicines “Atenol”, “Metoprolol”, “Propranolol”, “Nebivolol”. Only the last one, which is officially approved for use by women in this position, will help relieve a headache during pregnancy.
What to do if you have a severe headache?
A few words about the most important. The acute “suddenly” severe headache during the period of gestation may be a signal of the presence of a rather serious pathology of the central nervous system - subarachnoid hemorrhage. In many cases, a surgical solution to the issue or premature delivery due to the existing threat to the life of the mother and child is possible. This information does not need to be afraid, but it is worth knowing about it in order to carefully and with special trepidation relate to such signals of your body when you are pregnant.
It is worth saying that all of the above deviations are extremely rare. If you have a headache during pregnancy, the medications prescribed by your doctor will help get rid of this problem.