Top 10 list of Tips for Heartburn in Pregnancy (Achievable)

Today I share with you a top 10 list of tips for heartburn in pregnancy. These are 10 tips to prevent, identify and treat heartburn for pregnant women.

Tip number one.

Know when you have heartburn, this is a burning sensation or sometimes you have reflux, which means that stomach acids come up into your throat and mouth after you eat. It's extremely common in pregnancy, at least half, and some sources say 80% of women in pregnancy develop Heartburn.

It usually gets worse throughout the pregnancy. What causes heartburn is that you have abdominal pressure from the baby and also the lower esophageal sphincter, which is the ring that closes your stomach off at the end, at the bottom of your throat tends to relax during pregnancy. So you have two reasons to have reflux and heartburn in pregnancy.

Lastly, if you think you have these symptoms, it's okay to treat on your own, but if anything severe like pain or vomiting or difficulty swallowing or pain when you swallow or blood in your stool, any symptom that's not just a little bit of burning or reflux of fluids after meals for any of those above symptoms, you should definitely see your doctor just to make sure that it really is just heartburn.

Tip number two.

Do not smoke or drink alcohol. There are many reasons not to smoke and drink alcohol during pregnancy. I would say, improving heartburn is at the bottom of the list, but it's still an important thing to remember. Smoking and alcohol both make reflux worse, so avoid all tobacco use and all alcohol during pregnancy.

Tip number three.

Make sure you gain a healthy amount of weight during pregnancy. What's a healthy amount of weight? Well, first of all, you should know your body mass index or BMI before you are pregnant. So what was your weight before you were pregnant? And if you go online or ask your doctor, you can look for a BMI calculator and calculate your body mass index before you were pregnant, which you'll need your height and your weight to calculate the BMI.

If your body mass index or your BMI before you became pregnant was less than 30 then you should gain 25 pounds during your pregnancy. If your mass index was between 30 and 35 then you should gain only 20 pounds during your pregnancy and if your body mass index was more than 35 then you shouldn't gain weight at all during your pregnancy.


Again, the reason for this is because the extra weight causes increased pressure on your stomach and that can make your reflux worse. There are other reasons though, to not gain too much weight during pregnancy that is probably more important than avoiding heartburn in pregnancy, but it is important to realize that it's maintaining a healthy weight gain is an important way to help with your heartburn.

Tip number four.

Elevate the head of your bed. You want to elevate your head, elevate the head of your bed about six to eight inches. Also, you want to keep, you want to avoid meals three hours before bedtime or sooner because the food will still be in your stomach when you lie down and it can easily go back up into your throat causing your reflux. And it's also important not to lie down after meals. This will give gravity the chance to move the food out of your stomach so that you don't have reflux.

Tip number five.

There are certain foods to avoid if your reflux becomes worse after eating these foods. These foods include cola, orange juice, fried foods, chocolate, and peppermint. I understand these are a lot of people's favorite foods and it's important to realize that this is just a list of foods that generally cause heartburn. But if they don't cause a problem for you, then you don't need to avoid them. You should avoid foods that make your heartburn worse.

These are some of the common and the usual suspects when it comes to making your reflux worse. It's also important when eating to eat small frequent meals you should eat about while you're pregnant, you should eat about, and especially if you have heartburn about five to six meals a day. That's about every three hours. Drink plenty of fluids as well to prevent heartburn in pregnancy.

Tip number six.

Always have sugarless gum. Sugarless gum after meals is a good idea. Any of the common brands would work and what it will do is it will help you produce saliva. Saliva will help wash the food down past your stomach and into your intestines and out of your throat so that you have refluxes bad.

Tip number seven.

So we've talked about all of the non-medication ways of treating heartburn before you start medications, like even over the counter medications. It's really important to talk to your doctor to make sure that this is really just heartburn and to have your doctor and you decide on the best treatment. At this point, what I recommend are acids and any of these over the counter and acids will do.

If all of the measures I've discussed so far don't solve your heartburn problem. These are medications that you can take as soon as you feel heartburn symptoms after you eat, so if you've tried these over the counter and acids and you've tried all of the tips that we've discussed so far.

Tip number eight.

The next medication that I recommend is Basic Care Omeprazole Delayed-Release Tablets. You can get this over the counter and it is safe in pregnancy. The dose I recommend is 150 milligrams, one tablet and you take this one tablet twice a day. The first one being before breakfast, I recommend that you start off just taking this as needed, but if your heartburn in pregnancy remains unchanged though you are taking it as needed, then I recommend you take it on a scheduled basis twice a day, every day.

Tip number nine.

If you've tried all of those lifestyle changes, you've tried the anti-acids and you've tried the Basic Care Omeprazole Delayed-Release Tablets and you are still having heartburn, I recommend Matys All Natural Acid Indigestion Relief Capsules. This is a proton pump inhibitor. The reason I chose this one, and there are several different ones, is that it's pregnancy class B, which means that it's hasn't been shown to cause any harm in humans.
Some of the other proton pump inhibitors like Omeprazole or pregnancy class C, otherwise I would have recommended them. There are a few pregnancy class B proton pump inhibitors. The reason I chose lansoprazole is that it was the least expensive I could find, and it is available in a generic form. This is a pill you'll take once a day before breakfast to alleviate heartburn in pregnancy.

Tip number 10.

Believe in yourself. I have discussed several ways of modifying your lifestyle and a couple of different medications, all of which can help with your heartburn in pregnancy. Pregnancy is a great time and there's no reason to have heartburn interfere with the excitement of having a baby. I hope these tips have been helpful.

If you have tips that you have used that worked for you that I have not included them in this article, please share them with us in the comments below and let's all extinguish the heartburn in pregnancy.