Paranoid pregnant woman - coughing

[Jahan]

I've just started coughing in the last day or so. I'm 36 weeks pregnant and am now paranoid I have whooping cough!

The cough seems to be mild and I feel a bit 'chesty' and I have bouts every now and then.

Is it worth going to the gp or am I just being paranoid?
I've not found anything that suggests it would affect my baby if I did have it.

Its always worth going to the GP imo. Even if it doesn't affect the baby, it still needs to be treated.

And if its not whooping cough, your mind is put at ease

I would have thought if it was whooping cough that would be handy as it would then give you antibodies that you'd pass on to the baby, what the vaccine does. I'm no expert though.

Have you got heartburn? That gives you a cough with the acid going into your lungs

I just know I'm being paranoid really as I feel otherwise well.
Alicehurled I've had quite bad reflux this week so I think you're right. Its likely to be caused by that!

Being pregnant is riddled with rational and irrational worries!!

Oh you're totally allowed to! I was wailing this morning. It's allowed

My heartburn cough didn't go till I got tablets to stop the acid I'm afraid. It was constant.

Oh, can you get a heartburn cough ? And does it make you wheeze a bit after you've been lying down? That is such a relief, I had been torturing myself with thoughts of terrible lung diseases.. Thanks!

Yes lots of wheezing. I couldn't talk without coughing at its height. Just breathing was hard. But there can be other things that would cause the same symptoms so it's worth being careful.

whooping cough is NOTHING like a normal cough at all, you wheeze in and in and can't breath out and turn blue, eventually when you do manage to breath out (ages later) its a bit coughey and spluttery

AliceHurled I don't think it'ld be handy, you can't breath and turn blue! can't be good for the baby if you're not breathing

And yes lying down would make it worse, as it makes the HB worse generally

If you did have whooping cough, you and baby would be fine so don't worry.

But you'd know if you did have it- whooping cough involves coughing fits of up to a couple of minutes where you literally can't stop and end up going blue in the face.

Far more likely to be a heartburn thing, a viral infection or at worst a tiny bacterial infection.