• Contact us
• About us
• A-Z topics
• Symptom Checker
• Service Finder
• Linking to us
• Information partners
• Terms of use
• Privacy

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is funded by the Australian Government and operated by Healthdirect Australia.

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is provided on behalf of the Department of Health

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby’s information and advice are developed and managed within a rigorous clinical governance framework. This website is certified by the Health On The Net (HON) foundation, the standard for trustworthy health information.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

This information is for your general information and use only and is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes.

The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional health care. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, this publication or any part of it may not be reproduced, altered, adapted, stored and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Healthdirect Australia.

Support this browser is being discontinued for Pregnancy, Birth and Baby

Support for this browser is being discontinued for this site

• Internet Explorer 11 and lower

We currently support Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. For more information, please visit the links below:

• Chrome by Google
• Firefox by Mozilla
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari by Apple

You are welcome to continue browsing this site with this browser. Some features, tools or interaction may not work correctly.

Headaches in pregnancy - Should I be worried?

Maternity care is still essential during the coronavirus pandemic and services are still running. If you have any concerns about your pregnancy call your GP, midwife, nearest early pregnancy unit or maternity unit.

How can I treat a headache in pregnancy?

If you have a mild headache, it’s safe to take paracetamol. Make sure you follow the instructions on the packet for how much you can take.

There are some painkillers you should not take while you’re pregnant. These include tablets or capsules that:

• contain added caffeine (sometimes sold with 'extra' on the label)
• contain codeine
• are anti-inflammatory, like ibuprofen or aspirin.

Some women may be advised to take a low dose of aspirin as a treatment if they have had miscarriages before or they are at risk of pre-eclampsia. This will be prescribed by a doctor. Aspirin should not be taken as treatment for a headache.

Try to take the lowest dose of paracetamol that works and for the shortest amount of time. Your midwife, GP or pharmacist can give you more advice if the pain is ongoing and doesn’t go away with paracetamol.

Find out more about drugs and medicines in pregnancy.

 There are some things you can do to prevent headaches. Try to:

• drink at least eight glasses of fluid a day to avoid dehydration
• get enough sleep
• eat a healthy, balanced diet
• rest and relax  as much as possible. You could try things like mindfulness or yoga.

Call your midwife, doctor or hospital maternity unit if you have a very bad headache or a headache that won’t go away. This could be a symptom of pregnancy induced hypertension.  This is a type of high blood pressure that develops after 20 weeks and goes away within 6 weeks of the baby's birth. It’s also known as gestational high blood pressure or gestational hypertension.

Call your midwife, doctor or hospital straight away if you have a headache and vision problems and sudden swelling on your hands, feet, face or stomach. This could be a sign of pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy condition that can be dangerous for you and the baby if it is not monitored and treated. 

Call your midwife, doctor or hospital maternity unit if you have a headache and any of the following symptoms:

• discomfort in the lowest part of your stomach (pelvis)
• back pain
• loin pain (your sides between the lower ribs and pelvis, and the lower part of the back)
• needing to wee a lot or an uncontrollable need to wee
• cloudy, foul-smelling (fishy) or bloody wee
• a raised temperature  (over 37. 5°C)
• feeling sick (nausea) and vomiting.

This could be a sign of a urinary tract infection. UTIs cab be treated with antibiotics that are safe to use in pregnancy.

Migraines in pregnancy

Migraines are a common type of headache. Many people who have migraines may have:

• severe pain, which feels like a throbbing, pounding or pulsating pain
• nausea (feeling sick)
• pain brought on by bright lights
• an ‘aura’, such as flashing lights before the migraine starts.

 Talk to your doctor or midwife if you’ve had migraines before and if you are taking or have taken any medication for them. This is because some migraine medications can contain codeine, aspirin or ibuprofen, which are not recommended in pregnancy unless prescribed by a doctor and the benefits outweigh the risks.

Don’t wait until you have an attack. Your doctor should be able to give you advice on how you can manage your symptoms while you’re pregnant and if you choose to breastfeed.
 

Women with migraines are at slightly higher risk of developing high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia. This risk is very small and most women with migraines will not have high blood pressure.

If you have any worries at any time, talk to your midwife.

If you’ve never had a migraine call your midwife, doctor or hospital maternity unit. Serious conditions like pre-eclampsia can be like a migraine, so although it’s unlikely anything is wrong, your healthcare team may want to see you.

If you have always had migraines, you may find that they get better during your pregnancy. But pregnancy can also change the nature of migraines, so if you have a migraine that feels different to what you’ve had before, call your midwife, doctor or hospital maternity unit. 

One of the best ways to prevent migraines is to recognize what triggers an attack and trying to avoid them. For example, stress, eating certain foods or lack of sleep may bring on an attack.

Avoiding your triggers can be difficult when you’re pregnant. For example, if you have morning sickness you may not feel like eating or drinking much. This can cause low blood sugar or dehydration, so it’s important to try and find ways to cope.

Getting enough sleep may also be difficult during pregnancy. Try our tips for a better night’s sleep.

You should also try to

• drink at least eight glasses of fluid a day to avoid dehydration
• eat a healthy, balanced diet
• rest and relax as much as possible. You could try things like mindfulness or yoga.

You could also try acupuncture, which has been recommended by NICE as helpful for people with migraines. Acupuncture is a type of complementary therapy that involves a practitioner inserting thin needles at particular points on your body. It’s used to control and relieve pain.  Research has shown that it can also help with back pain  for pregnant women.

Acupuncture is generally safe to have when you’re pregnant but talk to your midwife or GP before you book a session. If you do want to try it, make sure your acupuncturist is fully qualified and that they use disposable needles at every treatment session. Tell your practitioner that you’re pregnant because certain acupuncture points can’t be used safely in pregnancy. 

Migraine Action

Migraine Trust

1st, 2nd, 3rd trimester, tablets

Why headaches bother you during pregnancy, how to get rid of them and prevent them? Taking medicines that are not agreed with the doctor at any stage of pregnancy can have an adverse effect on the fetus. Therefore, the expectant mother should not self-medicate, but consult a specialist as soon as possible.

Why there is a severe headache during pregnancy

The pain syndrome can be primary or secondary. Primary headache occurs independently under the influence of certain factors. Secondary is a symptom of the underlying disease. Most often, women bearing a child are worried about migraines and tension headaches.

Migraine is accompanied by a throbbing headache, predominantly one-sided, concentrated in the forehead and temple, sometimes the eye. The pain syndrome is intense, capable of affecting the daily activities of a woman. Such a severe headache during pregnancy can also be accompanied by photophobia, sound sensitivity, nausea and vomiting.

If you have a premenstrual migraine during childbearing, it may stop bothering you. In the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, headache may be completely absent. However, 1-2 women out of 10 may start to have a headache for the first time in the 1st trimester.

Tension headache may occur during early pregnancy. It has a compressive, squeezing character, covers the head like a helmet, helmet, hoop. The pain occurs in the temples, occiput, forehead, has a bilateral character, intensifies in the evening. In this case, nausea, vomiting, photophobia are also possible.

If you have a headache, you should consult your doctor to find out which headache pills you can take during pregnancy.

An expectant mother should immediately seek medical help if:

• sudden severe headache;
• new onset headache accompanied by neurological symptoms;
• severe headache with vomiting and visual disturbances that does not go away within an hour and even gets worse;
• Headache worse when lying down.

Which pills can be taken for headaches during pregnancy

When you have a headache, you do not need to endure this condition. Prolonged pain syndrome can lead to anxiety and depression, which can negatively affect the health of the expectant mother. However, taking medications without consulting a doctor is also highly discouraged.

Usually drugs in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters are prescribed at the lowest effective dose to reduce potential negative effects on the fetus. Among non-drug remedies for headaches, which can also be attributed to preventive measures, there are: elimination of stress factors, adequate rest, moderate but regular physical activity, proper diet.

You can consult an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Ivimed clinic. Also, expectant mothers can choose a suitable pregnancy management program in the clinic.

Migraine during pregnancy: what to do

Migraine is a benign disease, it does not affect the course of pregnancy and fetal development. However, migraine and pregnancy is a combination that requires a responsible attitude. Especially with frequent migraines (more than 2 times a week) and migraines with aura, as:

• drugs approved for use, few,

• and the approach to the treatment and prevention of migraine during this period is extremely individual: it depends on the frequency, severity and duration of headache, the degree of impact on life.

Our neurologist Daria Korobkova conducted a live broadcast on the clinic's Instagram account, where she told how migraine and pregnancy are connected, why attacks become more frequent or disappear, and answered subscribers' questions. The ether was saved, see “Air recording: migraine during pregnancy and GV.

We will tell about migraine during breastfeeding separately.

The statistics of clinical observations of migraine during pregnancy looks like this:

In 60-70% of pregnant women with migraine, headache attacks become less frequent, milder, or even completely disappear in the second and third trimesters. This is due to the stabilization of estrogen levels. By the beginning of the second trimester, it rises 6 times and its fluctuations stop.

In other women, migraines during pregnancy either remain unchanged or worsen. But as the duration of pregnancy increases, the proportion of such women gradually decreases:

If at the end of the first trimester the frequency and intensity of attacks persist, then it is most likely that migraine will disturb the woman throughout the entire period of pregnancy and after childbirth too.

How to manage migraines during pregnancy?

The main thing here is to learn how to control seizures and, if necessary, seek medical help.

1. Follow lifestyle advice:

• get enough sleep;

• drink enough fluids;

• eat fractionally and without long breaks;

• rest;

• avoid stressful situations. This is one of the main provocateurs of migraine. Psychotherapy, relaxation and stress management are here to help you.

2. Keep a headache diary. This will help you take control of migraine triggers.

Yes, these simple recommendations are sometimes enough to make attacks less frequent! Pregnancy is a special state of a woman. If in other periods of life we ​​are not so serious about such recommendations, then in this situation it is worth trying to change the philosophy of life and attitude towards ourselves =)

How to relieve an attack?

1. Favor non-drug methods. Sometimes, in order to relieve an attack, it is enough to eliminate an unfavorable factor:

• dry biscuits, ginger, or applesauce may help with nausea;

• for dehydration - diluted juice or other liquid;

• sleep, walking or breathing exercises can also help to cope;

2. If the attacks are severe, interfere with your life, then under the supervision of a specialist, you can resort to drug therapy.

PARACETAMOL is considered the safest and can be taken throughout pregnancy.

All other drugs have nuances. For example:

• ibuprofen can be taken in the second trimester, and in the first trimester it is better to limit, in the third trimester the drug is contraindicated for use;

• aspirin is prohibited in the 3rd trimester and is undesirable for taking in the first two, as it can cause extremely undesirable consequences;

• It is strictly forbidden to use ergotamine and opioid analgesics;

• triptans are not officially approved for use during pregnancy as no controlled studies have been conducted. However, clinical observations of women around the world who took them on their own showed no adverse effects on the fetus. We discussed this issue in more detail on the air.

!Other than paracetamol, we do not recommend the use of any drug without a doctor's prescription.

When to see a doctor:

• migraine occurred for the first time during pregnancy;

• if migraine attacks suddenly become more frequent and stronger;

• if the aura became longer or appeared for the first time;

• if the headache is rapidly increasing and has an unusual character;

• if the pressure has increased during the headache.

Follow our Instagram to read the latest materials on the diagnosis and treatment of headaches!

cluster headache.

Learn more

• 
  Why does baby projectile vomit
• 
  How to kegel exercises
• 
  How parents feel after losing a child
• 
  Human milk line
• 
  What is it like to have a seizure
• 
  How to not get pink eye from your child
• 
  How to treat ear infection child
• 
  What does it mean when you bleed during pregnancy
• 
  Chance of spina bifida
• 
  Why are some babies born early
• 
  Blotchy rash face