Your Headaches During Pregnancy Explained

Headaches during pregnancy are quite common.  Approximately twenty percent of pregnant women will suffer from migraines.

If you have a history of headaches you can find that they become less frequent or even stop during pregnancy.

Equally, you may never have had a migraine before and you suddenly start getting them when you become pregnant.

Studies have shown that they generally occur within the first trimester and then either disappear or reduce in the second and third trimesters.

This improvement is believed to be due to circulating estrogen and progesterone levels.

However, the headache attacks usually return after the pregnancy and while women are having their menstruation period again.

Migraines are different from the more common tension and stress headaches and can last anywhere from two to forty-eight hours, and occasionally even longer.

They are a type of vascular headache, believed to result from an abnormality in the functioning of the brain’s blood vessels. Any headache can be painful but migraine headaches are often disabling.

Symptoms of a migraine may include: -

• Throbbing or pounding pain in the temples or front/base of head
• Nausea and vomiting
• Tunnel vision or blind spots
• Loss of appetite
• Fatigue

Although migraines are commonly triggered by stress, chocolate, cheese, drinking red wine, hormones, and too little or too much sleep, the cause of a migraine in pregnancy is different for each individual.

A good way to find the trigger for your pregnancy migraine is to keep a migraine diary.  This enables you to keep track and identify the cause of an attack and will therefore help towards their prevention.

Your headaches during pregnancy are a doubly frustrating ailment to experience at a time when all medications are strongly advised against, including the common headache remedies aspirin and ibuprofen.

While it is important to inform your pregnancy healthcare provider of any headaches/migraines it is likely that natural remedies will be recommended.

The challenge in treatment is to maximize migraine relief while minimizing the potential for foetal harm.