Very hot bath - please reassure me

[Xiaoxiong]

I'm 7+6 and seem to have managed to catch every spring cold going all at once. Dutifully following the instructions not to take any decongestants during pregnancy, my lovely DH ran me a nice hot bath to try and clear my sinuses which feel like they're full of cement.

It was really a very, very hot bath - although I did try and cool it down I got out after about 20 min feeling dizzy and sick with my heart pounding. Had to have a bit of a lie-down and some iced water before I felt better.

Of course I then turned to Google - source of all fears and worries - and found that hot baths can supposedly cause all sorts of awful things in early pregnancy.

Does anyone know if this is credible? Can anyone reassure me that this just applies to the extremes, ie. if I boiled myself for 5 hours, and not applicable to a very hot bath for 20 minutes? (This certainly wasn't something the GP mentioned when I saw her last week, surely that means it isn't that risky?)

I indulged in a couple of quite hot baths during pregnancy and no problems.

i'm sure one very hot bath won't do any damage- sauna's and hot tubs are more risky because they remain hot, therefore pushing up you core body temperature. a hot bath only stays hot for a limite time, therefore is a safer option. more safe to not have very hot baths though obviously but i'm sure baby will be absolutely fine.

Hot baths are not recommended in pregnancy. You need to avoid getting overheated.

But it was a one off. I'm sure hundreds of pregnant women have done it without realising they're pregnant or knowing it's unsafe.

You probably felt so rubbish because you were poorly but you do tend to feel everything worse when pregnant.

For your sinuses, inhale steam, try olbas/vicks and a neti pot. They can sometimes become infected too, in which case you need antibiotics. I'm sure your baby is fine. Are you booked in with the midwife yet? They will reassure you if you want to speak to somebody with more knowledge than me.

I have my baths quite hot (not so hot that I feel faint but hot enough that sometimes my skin is a bit pink) and no problems here so far. As Blinks said, the real danger is a think keeping your body temp high whereas a bath will generally lose its heat relatively quickly.

I am sure you will be fine!

I read on a thread on here a while ago that a posters midwife had said the sort of hot a bath would have to be to be damaging, would be physically unbearable, of course don't make a habit of it, but don't worry too much either :)

I'm pretty sure I've had a few hot baths as my DH has skin like an asbestos mat and runs them to the heat of the Earth's core. It hasn't caused me any problems so far but I won't be doing it again now I've read this thread!

I had hot baths (no cold added) all through 4 pregnancies without problems. You do need to avoid raising your core body temperature too much but equally a hot bath has limited capacity for achieving this in a huge way. I wouldn't worry. Statistically, over-worrying is probably more risky!

I had hot baths for back ache when pg and used a hot tub at 16w. It was the only thing that soothed my back. Don't worry, occassionally will be fine -possibly not every week.

please. don't. worry. Everything can cause all sorts of terrible things in early pregnancy according to Google. You need to ask yourself what evidence these things are based on, as there are no trials conducted on pregnant women so we can only surmise that a rise in core body temperature could cause xyz. In fact, it used to be an old wives tale that you could drink gin, have a hot bath and end an unwanted pregnancy, complete nonsense of course but if a woman did miscarry after that she would of course surmise that this was the cause. However, think about it logically. If the human race were so fragile that one hot bath could cause irreversible damage, would we have grown to such prominence on the planet??? Please don't sit in baths that make you feel sick and dizzy though, that's just common sense isn't it?

Thank you so much everyone - you've made me feel much better! MN is a godsend sometimes.

Thanks for the cold remedies Turtles - I have unearthed some olbas oil and it is doing wonders already. Not booked in with the midwife yet but if it's still preying on my mind when I see them in week 10 I will mention it.

Nothing I can do about it now at any rate except be more observant in future - I honestly didn't even notice how hot it was or how sick I felt until I had been gently poaching for a while.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend them but I had really hot baths throughout my pg and my DD is fine

I had a nice relaxing jacuzzi during the first trimester of my first pregnancy - and only saw the "no pregnant women" sign staring me in the face when I got out. I did worry but everything was fine.

A doctor or midwife (don't remember which) told me that the risk was more about the mum and high blood pressure and dizziness, but that it couldn't hurt the baby in itself. SO don't worry - you haven't done any damage.