Pregnancy & Heartburn

Featuring Dr. Alison MacInnes, MD, FRCPC

Duration: 1 minute, 15 seconds

So heartburn is a really uncomfortable feeling for a lot of pregnant women.

It happens for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that a hormone produced during pregnancy called progesterone. It relaxes the sphincter that keeps the acid from coming up the esophagus after we eat.

So this hormone is released during pregnancy and so pregnant women often have a worse degree of reflux. The other thing is that as the baby grows and puts pressure on the stomach it also pushes acid back up into the esophagus.

So for a few reasons women who are pregnant are at an additional risk for developing heartburn. So the good news is there are a lot of treatments for pregnant women who develop heartburn. They can be divided into lifestyle measures and medications.

So lifestyle measures are wearing looser clothing, not eating huge meals, sleeping with the head of their bed raised slightly, so anything that'll keep things from coming back up.

And then there's a lot of medications, both over the counter and prescription medications that can be prescribed to really reduce the symptoms.

So if people have questions about heartburn related to pregnancy, they should definitely speak with their healthcare provider.

Presenter: Dr. Alison MacInnes, Family Doctor, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Family Doctor