Dealing with Asthma during Pregnancy
Asthma is way too stressing to deal with in daily routine. Shortness of breath, wheezing, continuous exposure to environmental triggers, etc. is not easy to handle on an ordinary basis. Now imagine asthma and pregnancy together. Pregnancy, which is a 9 months long process when the mother-to-be has to be extremely careful about her co-morbidities and her health in general, when combined with asthma, sounds disastrous.
No doubt, this condition is not easy to attend to. However, certain measures can be taken to unburden the hazards of asthma from the joys and outcome of a healthy pregnancy.
If you are an expecting lady affected with asthma, then do not worry about it too much. Just make sure that you go through the following mentioned measures to lessen the untoward effects of asthma during pregnancy.
Contents
A good choice of doctors
For mother-to-be (s) with asthma, it is important that you consult a chest medicine specialist along side. It is also highly necessary that your obstetrician and asthma specialist communicate so as to plan your events and treatment together accordingly.
A ‘more often’ check-up
Remember that if you are asthmatic and pregnant, then you need checkups for lung function more often than usual. Lung function and capacities must be checked and maintained throughout the pregnancy so as to avoid any displeasing event or effect on your health or the fetus’s. A regular monitoring of your respiratory system is also necessary for the fact that in about two-thirds of cases, the severity of asthma changes during pregnancy.
Fetal monitoring
Fetal movement monitoring becomes necessary after 28 weeks in such cases. However, if you feel that your asthma is not well handled, then go for an ultrasound after 32 weeks of gestation so as to calculate and monitor fetal growth rate.
Avoid asthma triggers
Try your best to avoid such triggers that bring out an asthmatic attack in you. Stay away from dust, mites, tobacco, smoke, and any other factor which you think can worsen the condition.
Medications
Discuss in detail about your medications for asthma with your doctor. Make sure you follow the regime accurately. Although corticosteroids cast a negative effect on the fetal growth rate, but as approved by FDA, Budesonide is the safest drug to use for asthma during pregnancy. Low dose of this steroid medication has proved to be effective for both the fetus and the mother.
