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Pregnancy and Headaches: When Should I Worry?

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing to be celebrated, but few people fill you in on the not-so-great symptoms that may occur during the journey. Namely, heartburn, gas, constipation and, for some pregnant mamas, headaches.

While headaches can be just another normal symptom of pregnancy, should they ever be a cause for concern?

“Headaches are common in women both in and outside of pregnancy,” said Kelley Saunders, MD, an OBGYN with Banner – University Medicine Women’s Institute. “But whether they are normal or not should always be discussed with your doctor."

Here is some insight into what causes headaches during pregnancy, some remedies to treat them and why your doctor should be kept in the loop.

Is it a headache or something else?

It isn’t always easy to tell what kind of headache you’re having, but the most common types of headaches during pregnancy are tension-type headaches, migraines and cluster headaches.

Tension headaches are the most common kind of headache in pregnant women. It can feel like someone is trying to squish your head like a watermelon. If you carry your stress in your shoulders and neck, you may be more susceptible to this kind of headache.

Migraines are a particular type of headache that occur on one side of the head. For some women, migraines can get worse the first few months and then improve in later stages of pregnancy. For others, they may experience no change, decrease or difference in their migraines.

Cluster headaches are less common but can occur during pregnancy. You’ll suddenly have severe pain around your eyes or temples usually about the same time every day.

The good news is that there are plenty of pregnancy-safe things you can do to prevent and relieve the most common pregnancy headaches.

Tips for relieving mild headaches

• Get plenty of rest. Sleep is especially hard later in your pregnancy but is so important to physical and mental health. Find yourself a comfy prenatal pillow and snuggle away.
• Drink plenty of water. Pregnant moms require more water than the average person. While you may want to avoid extra trips to the bathroom, adequate fluid intake is important for you and baby.
• Eat regular, well-balanced meals. To prevent low blood sugar, eat small meals throughout the day. Avoid sugar, like soda and candy.
• Get a prenatal massage. A full-body massage can release tension in the muscles of your neck, shoulders and back.
• Use warm compresses on head, neck and shoulders.
• Avoid triggers. Keep a journal to help identify specific triggers so you can learn what to avoid. Some common headache triggers include strong odors and nitrites or nitrates.
• Try exercise and relaxation techniques. There’s evidence that regular exercise can reduce stress and boost overall mood. Check with your doctor first before starting any new fitness routines.
• Take acetaminophen to relieve symptoms (as approved by doctor).
• Take caffeine in doses less than 200mg in a day (as approved by doctor).

If you have a history of migraines, however, your doctor may treat them differently during pregnancy. Discuss with your doctor what medications are safe to take during pregnancy.

Is my headache a cause for concern?

Sometimes. Headaches tend to be more common in the first and third trimesters, but they can occur in the second trimester as well. While there are common causes for headaches during pregnancy, it’s important to note that headaches during the second and third trimester can also be due to high blood pressure, called preeclampsia.

“Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-related condition that requires prompt evaluation and management with an obstetrician or maternal fetal medicine specialist,” Dr. Saunders said. “Elevated blood pressure prior to pregnancy puts a woman at increased risk for preeclampsia.”

When should I call my doctor?

Whether you experience headaches or not, it’s always important to discuss your pre-pregnancy history, obstetrical history and concerns with your doctor for an individualized assessment and management plan. However, if none of the above treatments resolve your mild headache or your headaches become more frequent and severe, talk to your doctor to determine the cause.

“This includes new headaches that present after 20 weeks, a sudden onset of severe headaches, headaches associated with a fever, mental health changes, elevated blood pressure and vision changes,” Dr. Saunders said. “It’s important to keep an open line of communication with your physician and let them know about any changes in your health so they can rule out anything serious."

Got questions? We can help!

If a headache is keeping you up at night and your doctor isn’t available, call the Banner Nurse Now line, a free health care service that offers advice 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Call 844-259-9494.

Check out other pregnancy articles on our Banner Health blog

Pregnancy is an exciting, but also a bit scary time (especially if this is your first baby). Here are some other reads to help guide you through the trimesters and welcoming baby:

• 5 Tips for Having a Happy, Healthy Pregnancy
• Expect the Unexpected: How Your Body Changes During Pregnancy
• What To Expect In The Second Trimester
• Understanding Pulmonary Embolism Risk During Pregnancy

Women's Health Pregnancy

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Headache during pregnancy: where does it come from and how to get rid of it

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When to call an ambulance

Call 103 or 112 urgently if the following symptoms appear:

• sudden and severe headache;
• consciousness becomes confused or completely lost;
• pain worsens over 5 minutes;
• flies, spots flash in the eyes;
• throbbing and noisy in the ears;
• speech has become slurred, words are drawn out;
• arms and legs weaken, convulsions set in;
• the muscles of the neck are very stiff, it is impossible to reach the chest with the chin;
• temperature rises to 39 °C or more;
• increased heart rate at rest;
• severe shortness of breath;
• the child pushes without stopping or stops abruptly;
• leaking water or blood;
• pain in the lower abdomen, as if contractions had begun.

Why pregnant women can get headaches

Pregnancy headaches are not always life threatening. But the doctor needs to be told about it in any case. If the symptom appeared for the first time and does not hurt much, postpone the conversation until a scheduled visit. If your headache is recurring or gets worse, it's best to make an appointment as soon as possible. The gynecologist will decide what needs to be done or refer you to another doctor.

There are many causes of headaches. Scientists have found that in pregnant women in 57% of cases it is primary, that is, not associated with other diseases. The most common are migraines and tension headaches.

Everything else is a secondary headache caused by various pathologies. Usually it is high blood pressure and infections. But there are also more dangerous reasons.

1. Stress and fatigue

A pregnant woman's body experiences increased stress, because it has to work for two. If at the same time the expectant mother is exposed to stress, strong feelings or sleeps little, she develops a tension headache.

Discomfort lasts from 30 minutes to several days. The head hurts in the forehead, occiput, both temples. But there is no feeling that they put on a tight hoop or helmet. The pain does not get worse when bending over, walking, or climbing stairs, bright lights, or sounds.

What to do

Tension headache can go away on its own: just get some fresh air or sleep. Sometimes pleasant emotions help, which distract from experiences.

If the pain persists for 2-3 consecutive days, see a doctor. He will select painkillers that are safe for the child.

2. Medications

Any medication that enters the stomach or bloodstream can cause headaches even if the dosage is correct. In pregnant women, this often occurs due to drugs for high blood pressure, heart disease, antibiotics, anticonvulsants.

Long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for headaches may cause the opposite effect: the pills do not remove, but provoke symptoms.

What to do

If your head hurts a few hours after taking the medicine, you need to see a doctor to change the medicine. Do not drink non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for more than 3-5 days. If they do not help, you need to tell the doctor about it.

3. Love for coffee or rejection of it

Coffee can cause headaches during pregnancy. Unpleasant symptoms occur if you drink more than 3-4 cups a day.

Abrupt refusal of coffee is also harmful. It is worth finding out about pregnancy and stopping brewing a fragrant drink, and after 1-2 days, aching pain will appear in the temples and the back of the head.

What to do

Coffee is best avoided during pregnancy. If a headache occurs a day after this, you can drink a small cup of the drink and wait a day again. Gradually, the dependence on coffee will pass.

Coffee drinkers can reduce their drink intake to 1-2 cups per day.

4. Infection with fever

Acute viral (usually ARVI) or bacterial (eg, streptococcal tonsillitis) infections cause fever and headache. This is a normal reaction to foreign microorganisms.

But any infection is dangerous for pregnant women. It can cause fetal defects, growth retardation and even miscarriage. And with meningitis, especially listeriosis, there is a threat to the life of the mother.

What to do

If you have a headache with fever, call your doctor. He will prescribe safe medications or give you a referral to the hospital if a serious infection is suspected. In this case, you need strong antibiotics, droppers to maintain the body and sometimes hormones.

5. Preeclampsia and preeclampsia

After 20 weeks, preeclampsia may develop in pregnant women. This is a disease in which one of three symptoms or a combination of them may appear: high blood pressure, edema, and protein in the urine.

Without proper treatment, preeclampsia turns into preeclampsia. The pressure rises sharply, the head and lower abdomen hurt unbearably, the baby pushes unusually hard or, on the contrary, suddenly calms down. Preeclampsia can lead to placental abruption, damage to the liver and other organs, bleeding, and even seizures. Without urgent medical care, the fetus and mother die.

What to do

When the first signs of preeclampsia appear, the pregnant woman is hospitalized to find treatment. After that, she is discharged home under the supervision of her gynecologist.

But if her health worsens, the doctor again sends the woman to the hospital, where she is prescribed medication to reduce pressure, special drips to keep her body functioning. If improvement does not occur within a day, a caesarean section is performed.

6. Migraine

One of the causes of migraine is a change in estrogen levels. But the disease very rarely appears due to pregnancy. On the contrary, in 70% of women, the symptoms subside dramatically after conception. Nevertheless, migraines torment many.

It may begin with an aura: flashes of light, spots before the eyes, tingling in the hands or numbness of half of the face, sometimes tinnitus. Each symptom can last from 20 minutes to an hour.

A migraine attack develops after the aura. In this case, one side of the head hurts and throbs, nausea or vomiting appears. A woman is irritated by bright lights, loud noises, smells. They make the pain worse.

Seizures last from a few hours to a week or more. After a migraine, there is a feeling of severe fatigue, exhaustion, and an awkward turn of the head can return the pain.

What to do

Any medication for migraine during pregnancy must be prescribed by a doctor. In some cases, drugs from the group of beta-blockers are used.

Studies have shown that frequent migraine in pregnancy is associated with a lack of magnesium. The doctor will help you choose the appropriate type of vitamin and mineral complex and its dosage.

7. Cerebral vascular disease

Hormone problems in some pregnant women increase blood clotting, which increases the risk of thrombosis, stroke, or bleeding in the meninges. These conditions are very dangerous: a woman can die within a few minutes or remain disabled.

Vascular involvement is always accompanied by several symptoms:

• severe headache on one side;
• nausea and vomiting;
• blurred vision;
• loss of consciousness;
• convulsions.

What to do

Urgently call an ambulance. The pregnant woman must be laid or seated so that she does not hit when she falls. You can't give medicine! You can only open the window so that there is more air in the room.

Which treatment the doctor prescribes depends on the specific disease. These can be drugs that reduce blood clotting and dissolve blood clots. In some cases, urgent surgery is needed.

8. Brain tumors

Studies show that progesterone and estrogens during pregnancy can trigger or accelerate the growth of tumors in the brain. Symptoms of the disease appear slowly, over several months, and depend on the size and location of the tumor.

The headache may gradually increase, then vision, speech, hearing deteriorate, limbs go numb and convulsions appear. Sometimes it is difficult for a woman to keep her balance.

What to do

If a pregnant woman often has a headache, or she forgets what she wanted to buy in the store and how to cook her favorite borscht, confuses her way home, you need to go to a neurologist. First, he will prescribe standard treatment, simple and safe medicines, rest, good sleep.

If this does not help, the symptoms persist or worsen, a deep examination is needed. The pregnant woman will be sent for an MRI of the brain. This procedure is safe for the fetus. If the diagnosis is confirmed, surgery may be required.

What to do if the doctor cannot find the cause of the pain

If you have been examined and the doctor cannot tell you why your head hurts and diagnoses you with vascular dystonia, this is a cause for concern. There is no such disease.

Seek another doctor. Perhaps he uses new diagnostic methods that will help to deal with the problem and choose a treatment.

How to avoid pregnancy headaches

Experts recommend:

• Avoid triggers. For example, if you notice that certain foods, smells, or situations cause headaches, try not to encounter them.
• Protect yourself from stress, do not worry about trifles.
• Move more. During pregnancy, walk every day in the fresh air and do special exercises for expectant mothers.
• Eat right. Try to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, dairy products, drink at least 2.4 liters of liquid. Every day, the menu should include fish, poultry or lean meat. And it is better not to buy sweet, fast food and other junk food.
• Follow the daily routine. You need to sleep at least 8 hours a day and go to bed no later than 22-23 hours in order for melatonin to be produced normally.
• Learn to relax. Learn simple meditation techniques or breathing exercises.

Read also 🧐

• How pregnancy develops by week
• How to calculate the duration of pregnancy
• What rights does a pregnant woman have at work
• 7 best sex positions for pregnant women
• How to recognize a miscarriage and what to do next

Headache after sleep in the morning: why and what to do, advice from a neurologist .

“When a person complains of a headache, the doctor's task is to determine the patient's state of health, whether there are any disorders in the body. A signal that a morning headache is a sign of a serious illness is weakness in the arms, the presence of vomiting and nausea, fever, or a change in gait. If you have a headache in the morning and there are no accompanying symptoms, most likely, you just need to adjust your daily routine to go to bed and get up at the same time, and also walk more often in the fresh air ”- neuropathologist of the highest category, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, National Medical University named after N.I. A. A. Bogomolets, Candidate of Medical Sciences - Vladimir Melnik.

Main causes of morning headache

Headache is one of the most common symptoms in the world, and if it does not occur as a separate disease, it always becomes a harbinger of some disturbance in the body. The exception is cases when pain in the head in the morning occurs against the background of drinking alcohol-containing drinks the day before, which is a normal reaction of the body to intoxication. However, if you did not drink alcohol and slept enough, but still feel a headache, this may indicate the presence of certain diseases or that something is wrong with your sleeping place.

Cause of morning headache #1

"Too little or too much sleep"

The body needs seven to eight hours of sleep to recover. If it becomes much smaller, it goes into safe mode and begins to produce hormones - cortisol and norepinephrine. The pulse and blood pressure increase, and headaches often occur as a result. American scientists examined 1480 people complaining of frequent headaches. In 50 percent of patients, migraines were caused by sleep disorders. In addition, all people who regularly sleep only 6 hours experienced severe headaches.

After a bad night's sleep, it is best to walk more during the day and sleep for 20-30 minutes (longer sleep is not recommended, as your body will not be in a natural biological rhythm, problems with falling asleep may begin, and the subsequent situation with insomnia and headache will recur). The opposite situation is too long sleep, which, in turn, is also bad.

“Serotonin levels drop during sleep that lasts more than nine hours, and this reduces blood flow to the brain and often causes headaches,” Dr. Salvatore from the New England Neurological Center (USA).

Consultants of orthopedic salons ORTO SMART - Medtechnika, orthosalon in Dnipro, Kyiv, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Vinnitsa and other cities of Ukraine, will be able to help you in more detail in solving headache problems, and will be able to advise you on suitable orthopedic products.

Cause of morning headache #2

"Lack of joy hormones"

The hormones of joy, or hormones of happiness, which are so often found in colloquial speech, are called endorphins. This is a special type of hormones in the human body that are responsible for the normal psycho-emotional balance of the nervous system. According to studies, endorphins are at their lowest in the morning, and in some people this triggers a migraine. Low levels of endorphins affect the levels of other neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which causes blood vessels in the brain to constrict. This constriction reduces blood flow to the organ, which can cause headaches in some patients,” explains Dr. Mark Khorsandy of the Dallas Migraine Care Center. Morning exercises will help to correct this picture, which will equip the body with a surge of endorphins.

Cause of morning headache #3

'Bruxism'

Some people have a neurological problem called 'bruxism'. According to Wikipedia, bruxism is teeth grinding. Such a pathology can occur in a person at night and adversely affects the health of the teeth and temporomandibular joints. Bruxism can occur against the background of chronic stress, mental stress, or be formed as a result of violations of the central and peripheral systems.

Bruxism affects about forty percent of the population of our country, and this is a very impressive figure. It is bruxism that can be one of the likely causes of morning headaches. Symptoms of bruxism are:

• Morning headache;
• Toothache;
• Morning discomfort in ears and neck.

If bruxism is suspected, a neurologist or dentist should be consulted. In dental practice, special splints are used that protect teeth from pressure and eliminate reflex jaw clamps.

Interesting fact! Incorrect bite can also cause morning headaches. The pain in this case is localized around the cheeks and occurs as a result of overloading the temporomandibular joints. To fix this problem, contact your dentist.

Cause of morning headache #4

"Abuse of pain medication"

Morning headaches can occur if you are taking pain medication. These include acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol and psychotropic drugs.

“Analgesic abuse is an important risk factor that increases the incidence of headaches; taking these drugs can also turn episodic pain (less than 15 times per month) into chronic pain (more than 15 episodes of headache per month for at least 3 months),” researchers at the International Association for the Study of Pain report.

That's why painkillers should be used strictly in metered amounts and only as prescribed by a doctor.

Cause of morning headache #5

"Hypertension"

A huge number of Ukrainians suffer from hypertension, and this disease affects all age groups. Hypertension affects not only the elderly and overweight people, but also young people with normal body weight. They are usually unaware of their illness because hypertension, especially in the early stages of the disease, is not always apparent. Morning headache in this case can be the first signal of hypertension, especially if it appears in the back of the head and is accompanied by tinnitus. Doctors explain this process by the narrowing of blood vessels and increased pressure.

Cause of morning headache #6

"Hormonal Changes"

Migraine that occurs in the morning (nearly half of the attacks occur between 4 and 9 am) affects women three times more often than men. This is due to changes in the level of female sex hormones.

Headaches also occur in 30 percent of patients with hypothyroidism (deficiency of thyroid hormones), but disappear quickly after hormonal treatment. The headache associated with hypothyroidism is usually continuous, bilateral, throbbing or non-throbbing.

Cause of morning headache #7

"Sinus Problems"

Painful sinuses can cause headaches, especially in the morning. The mucus that remains in the sinuses is a substrate for microbes. When inflammation of the sinus mucosa occurs, the resulting edema puts pressure on the nerve endings, causing pain. Diagnosing this problem is quite simple - the pain increases when the head is tilted and disappears after washing and cleaning the sinuses.

Cause of morning headache #8

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a pause in breathing during sleep that can last for more than ten seconds and cause headaches in the morning. In addition to the headache, when you wake up you will feel weak and irritable, and during the day you will have trouble concentrating. The problem with this condition is that you can experience sleep apnea and not even be aware of it unless you sleep with a partner who can see it. Obstructive sleep apnea is often accompanied by snoring.

Cause of Morning Headache #9

"Dehydration"

Even a slight lack of water in the body can disrupt well-being. If during the day you do not drink enough water, then after night the body will suffer greatly. How does poor hydration cause a headache? There is a theory that the loss of water in the body provokes tension in the blood vessels in the head, the blood is not sufficiently saturated with oxygen, which activates pain in the head. Remember to drink at least 2-2.5 liters of water throughout the day.

Cause of morning headache #10

"Incorrectly organized sleeping place"

If you sleep on an ordinary pillow, it is not surprising that you experience a headache in the morning. Pillows are usually made from materials that do not have optimal rigidity and do not correspond to the anatomical structure of our body. Due to the incorrect height and rigidity of the pillow, the cervical and thoracic spine are deformed, normal blood circulation is blocked, enough blood and oxygen cease to flow to the brain, which provokes the formation of spasms in the head. What to do in this case? Neurologists advise using only orthopedic pillows for sleep.

Orthopedic pillow, which you can buy directly on the website of our online store, has a number of advantages compared to a regular pillow. Its shape corresponds to the anatomical structure of our body, so during sleep the cervical spine will not be deformed. You will get rid of not only headaches, but also neck and back pain, and in general you will begin to feel much more cheerful.

You can buy an orthopedic pillow in the ORTO SMART chain of stores - Medtehnika, orthosalon. We offer a wide range of orthopedic products.

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