Overview
A lot of changes are noticed during pregnancy. Some of them are growing belly, there are some changes that are not noticeable. Some of them can be an increased amount of blood in the body. Well it can considered a normal part of pregnancy. Talk with your health care provider about the warning signs that your pregnancy may be abnormal. Pregnancy weight gain may also increase, heart palpitations though this isn’t a cause for alarm. The difference is in how much your body weighs. During pregnancy, your weight will stay pretty much the same.
While the amount of weight you gain is important to know, it’s not a good indicator of your health. Unless your health care provider has tested you for a serious medical condition, it’s best to avoid measuring your weight when you’re pregnant. Doing so can lead to inaccurate results. Medicaid uses the federal Department of Health and Human Services guidelines to determine your eligibility for benefits and to determine the total amount of your monthly benefit.
Heart Palpitations During Pregnancy
Heart palpitations, also known as CHF, is the involuntary contraction of the two arteries supplying blood to the body. When there is a high blood pressure inside the heart, the blood pressure increases by exertion from pressure in the arteries. This increases the heart rate. When the heart beats, blood is pumped into the veins through the heart valves.
Most women experience normal sensations during pregnancy as they spend time in bed. Sometimes they feel light-headed, restless or unsettled. The most common cause of heart palpitations during pregnancy is the hormones of pregnancy.
How does Pregnancy effect the heart?
The heart is able to store more oxygen during pregnancy because the walls of the heart have more fatty tissue to deliver this oxygen to the fetus. Once the fetus is born, the heart begins to reduce the amount of oxygen it takes in. The extra blood flow can cause the heart to become larger than normal and may increase the chances of an early heart attack.
Pregnancy is a profound time of radical change for the heart and cardiovascular system. During pregnancy, there is increased blood flow to the heart and reduced blood flow to the body as a whole. It is as though, the heart is getting a much-needed reprieve from the body’s normal demand for the body’s resources.
The goal of the heart’s successful recovery is to create a reserve of energy for the body. Pregnancy will release many medications from the body and may increase the risk of certain medications aggravating an underlying condition. Pregnancy is also likely to cause serious or unexpected complications of the heart or cardiovascular system that require immediate attention and treatment.
A typical pregnancy lasts about 50 weeks. Most women get the full 80 weeks. The baby can start moving around in the uterus at any time during pregnancy. The number of abdominal movements increases during the third trimester. Your abdomen will rotate, extend, and flatten. At this point, your uterus is closer to the top of your pelvis and your back may feel larger. Your body also increases the pressure on your spinal cord. At this point, your uterus is doing more work.
You may feel as if your muscles are being stretched. Just before the birth of a boy, a woman’s uterus can move as far down her back as she wants to go (breast-to-body length is about 35 centimeters). By the second trimester, about 90 percent of your uterus’s weight is in the breasts. A baby that is too big will be too heavy for you to carry. Only babies that are right at the right size will be easy to move.
Women may have palpitations that last a short period of time, while men might feel them all the time. In general, women experience more palpitations during their menstrual period and may feel the second one all the time during their periods.
How can one tell if they have heart palpitations?
Heart palpitations are often referred to as “palpitations” by the health care providers. “Palpitations” have several names such as myoclonus (a contraction of “myo- – cyclic movement of muscle), sympathetic dilatation (sympathetic dilatation refers to the movement of blood to and from your heart), palpitations of the heart and tachycardia (a contraction of “tachy”- a measurement of heart rate), or rapid ventricular response (rv- so called because you’re likely to get a quick, shallow pulse if the heart is going quick, or irregular if it is going slow). Your heart palpitations can vary in intensity, duration and direction. They can come and go over the course of an hour or more, and can last for minutes, hours or days at a time. Sometimes heart palpitations don’t seem like they’re causing much hassle to you, or your heart sounds just right.
How to diagnose heart palpitations during pregnancy?
Your doctor will perform a physical exam to make sure that your child’s skin and organs are healthy. Your doctor will want to see if your baby’s heartbeat is normal and if your child is gaining weight. If you have a heart problem, your doctor may try to diagnose heart palpitations by testing for weak heart muscles, abnormal heart rhythms or irregular heartbeats.
Doctors also may check your child for heart rhythm problems, as well as compare your child’s blood pressure, heart rate and other health indicators to those of a normal baby. Your doctor will likely prescribe a drug to treat your heart palpitations. The medicine can be administered intravenously, either as a tablet or as a liquid. Before starting the drug, your doctor will recommend that you talk with your doctor about your child’s medical history. Your doctor will give you instructions on how to take the medication. He or she may also discuss with you what side effects might be associated with the drug.
Treatment
Treatment for palpitations is very similar for women and men, except for the fact that women have more time to manage their palpitations. the patient should always be sedated prior to drugs that are potentially significant sources of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. For certain medications, especially alcohol and even caffeine, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia can be seen as an early symptom of anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Accordingly, the therapeutic dose of these medications should be carefully adjusted prior to going on long-term medication.
Most important is that the patient should not be obese. She should be as healthy as possible, she should be able to tolerate the medications, and she should not be unaware of her condition. Chronic alcohol use and exposure to drugs, particularly those which are known to induce high blood pressure, can also create a problem for the patient. Failure to recognize the condition can lead to catastrophic events. Subsequently, management of this problem is necessary.
Before going on medication, treatment-dependent symptoms in the patient should be addressed in the first place. Many patients will present with an underlying diagnostic problem such as hypertension. By focusing on any abnormal changes in the patient’s physical activity level, e.g. drop in the patient’s endurance or decrease in skill in skills used, the associated problem should be addressed.
For example, a sudden decrease in a patient’s work capacity to the extent that her work is impossible to carry out can be identified.
Some of the things that you can do to help your heart palpitations include
- Spend some time in the bathroom before you do any heavy physical activity, and lie down on the toilet to relax and take a breath.
- Take a walk around the block and stop in front of the exact spot where your heart is racing.
- Sit on the floor or the couch and relax. The more you try to relax, the more you will feel your heart beating faster.
- Take a good, long hot bath.
- Clear your mind.
- Listen to your favorite songs and listen to the beats of your heart.
- Play with your pet and then get up and get some fresh air.
- Think about an old song and get up and dance.
- Do some light reading.
- Concentrate on something that makes you feel good.
- Tell someone how much you love them.
- Do something that makes you happy.
- Listen to a CD or CD player with music that makes you feel good.
- Do a group activity that helps you enjoy yourself.
- Talk to a group of people about something that makes you feel good.
- Get up and run around.
- Try to fall asleep in 15 minutes or less.
- Give yourself a hard time for what you’re going through.
Don’t make any personal decisions that affect your life until you have completely overcome the urge to smoke. That’s just simple common sense, but every person and every company wants to sell you something that makes you feel better about yourself. When you decide that you have no more excuses, you will have been mentally weak enough to really tackle this problem!
Bottom Line
Heart palpitations during pregnancy might not be a serious condition. But if they are not treated properly the consequences might be hard to predict. It might affect the mother and the child adversely in the long run. You need to take proper care of your health and take required tests as frequently as possible when you are pregnant. This will help you to go through the complications in your pregnancy and take necessary steps to avoid any unhealthy things to occur during pregnancy. This should be taken into consideration to maintain a healthy life style and check your health condition from time to time.
Sirisha B