While pregnancy is a phase of physical and emotional weakness, these fevers, colds, flu, and cough make this phase even worse. Right after conceiving, a woman’s body goes through many hormonal and physical changes. This may disturb your health and routine. You may feel weak, exhausted, tired, have mood swings, headache, abdomen pain, back pain, leg pain, gas in the stomach, heartburn, sleepless nights, body pains, etc. It becomes tough for pregnant women to live the normal routine life which she had before their pregnancy. She may not be able to focus on her work properly, give time to her partner or kids, cook something special for her family, take her of her family like before, or go out shopping or on dinner dates. You will need so much support and help from others. You may be completely or partially dependent on them throughout your pregnancy. But some women who live in nuclear families, try to do their work on their one slowly by taking some precautions. According to me, all these symptoms happen in the second or third pregnancy in some women. For some women, their first pregnancy will be a great phase of their life as they don’t get any pregnancy symptoms and enjoy their phase a lot.
When a woman is already going through all these pregnancy symptoms, a slight fever, cold, or any other illness in the body can make her feel even more exhausted, in pain, and in distress. Extra care and more precautions are needed in this tough time. You need to be more careful when you have such symptoms. If you have a fever you should monitor it every 6 hours with the help of a thermometer. You can take the Calpol tablet if you have a fever after consulting your doctor. If the fever doesn’t reduce a
I will tell you about my personal experience when I had a cold with a fever during my second pregnancy. I will also tell you some home remedies, treatments, and precautions that you can take when you have an illness.
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Causes of Fever in Pregnancy:-
1. Common cold:- This is one of the common illnesses that everyone gets. Pregnant women are more prone to it as they have low immunity and can catch a cold or any other illness very easily. You must remember one thing during pregnancy if you get a cold, fever, or any other disease, it will take some more time to heal. Since your immunity will be low, it takes more time to recover. Normally common cold gets better within 5 days, but in pregnancy, it takes 10 days to recover fully.
Symptoms:-
- Runny nose.
- Headache.
- Throat pain.
- Slight fever.
- Cough.
Treatment and Home remedies:-
- Since you cannot have any tablets during pregnancy, consult your gynecologist for treatment of a cold. She will give you a Monateck tablet to be consumed twice a day for two days. And if you have a fever or severe headache she may recommend you to take a Calpol tablet once or twice a day depending on the severity of the fever and headaches.
- Home remedies work best in case of a common cold. You can have warm or hot liquids to get relief from throat pain. you can have ginger water along with one spoon of honey, black tea, green tea, turmeric milk, steam, and salt gargles, and you can use Vicks daily at night.
- Take steam at least twice a day with Vicks or turmeric. Don’t use any tablets in the steam as you are pregnant.
- Have warm liquids and water throughout the day.
- You can also use a humidifier in your room to keep the air moist.
- Hot soups work best for fever, cold, throat pain, and cough. You can have chicken soup, mutton soup, bone soup, corn soup, or veg soup.
- Avoid drinking too many cups of tea and coffee as they are not good for your health.
- Avoid sweets, chocolates, cold drinks, cold juices, oranges, limes, pomegranates, and lemons if you have too much cold. You can have them in moderate quantity if you are very fond of them.
2. Flu:- You might get confused if you have flu or not as the symptoms of the common cold and flu are a little similar. But still, you can find out the difference as the symptoms of flu are worse than just a common cold. You may need to see your doctor immediately after seeing all these symptoms. Since your immunity is very low during pregnancy, you can easily catch a cold or flu. Thatswhy influenza or flu vaccine is given to all pregnant women to prevent flu. Flu can be very dangerous to both the mother and the unborn baby. It can cause stillbirth, low birth weight, preterm labor, and pneumonia, or bronchitis in the pregnant mother if not treated properly on time.
Symptoms:-
- High fever.
- Less appetite.
- Stomach upset.
- Body pains.
- Dizziness.
- Chills.
- Terrible cold.
- Cough.
- Headaches.
- Tiredness.
- Exhausted.
Treatment;-
1. Getting vaccinated as soon as possible during pregnancy is the best tool to prevent flu. Your baby will also get some antibodies through the placenta which will provide some immunity against flu to the baby.
2. Go to the doctor immediately if you have a high fever or any flu-like symptoms.
3. At home, you can take a Calpol tablet to reduce fever and body pains.
4. Take as much rest as possible. Sleeping on time and with plenty of rest can heal you faster.
5. Drink plenty of fluid. If you are not able to drink water all the time, you can replace it with fresh fruit juices, ORS, soups, and buttermilk.
6. Take a sponge bath if your fever is above 110 degrees.
7. You may have very less appetite and may not like to eat. But remember that you have your baby inside who needs proper nutrition at this time to grow healthy.
3. Infection:- Many pregnant women are prone to Urinary tract infections during pregnancy. These infections can both be viral and bacterial. These infections take a long time to cure and need antibiotic courses for treatment. Infections can be a threat to the unborn baby if not treated correctly on time.
Symptoms:-
- High Fever.
- Dizziness.
- Heavy Vaginal discharge in case of UTI.
- Stomach pain or any other body pain.
- Constant fever.
- Vomitings.
- Severe headache.
- Shortness of breath.
- Less appetite.
Treatment:-
These infections can only be treated by your gynecologist. You cannot treat them at home with natural remedies or by asking others for advice or experience. Before doing anything like that you should remember that you have a baby inside who is still developing and preparing for the new world outside.
Can Fever hurt my Baby?
Many women get confused about fever and chills with early symptoms of pregnancy. During early pregnancy, your body temperature might rise slightly mainly in the abdominal area and you might also have continuous headaches. This is due to the increasing pregnancy hormones in your body to build room for your baby to develop in your womb. You may also feel cold and chills during the day or at night. I used to shiver at bedtime or suddenly at any time of the day. This is also due to pregnancy hormones.
Any constant fever that continues for more than 3 days can be harmful to both the mother and the baby. Normal fever due to the common cold or fevers that come and go on their own within 3 days won’t be harmful. Your baby doesn’t get hurt or feel the same as you are feeling during a fever. But since fevers can cause dehydration in the body, you have to make sure that you drink plenty of fluids and water during fevers in pregnancy as dehydration can affect the growth of your baby.
A high fever of 102 degrees in early pregnancy or in the early second trimester can affect the development of your unborn baby. It can cause some birth defects like cataracts, slow brain development, abdominal wall defects, premature birth, miscarriage, autism, and delay in milestones after the baby is born.
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