panic attacks and pregnancy

[bessie84]

Odd times ive woke up in the night having a small panic attack, this has only started happening recently, last night was horrendous though, im a very light sleeper and every little noise makes me jump. Last night i woke up and couldnt breath, took me a while to regulate myself and calm down.

can this affect baby? Thats what scares me the most. and because they only happen at night, im really starting to not want to go to bed, panicking about panicking! even though im absolutely knackered.

what can i do to help it/ stop it?

has anyone else had it?

ive read online your more prone to them in pregnancy due to hormones, i must mention i do suffer with anxiety anyway, but nothing like the attacks at night, in fact ive been pretty good recently until the bedtime situation started.

got a consultant appt in 2 weeks so will mention it, im just more worried for baby (im 15 weeks)

Thank you. x

Are you sleeping on you back? It can effect your breathing and give you palpation, making you think you are having a panic attack and then in turn make you have one.

Oh, you poor love - that sounds horrible.

I had terrible anxiety for the first part of this pregnancy, and was waking in the night sick with panic about one thing or another. For me it started getting a bit better around 10 weeks, and a few weeks after that I started to feel much better - more calm and much more energy. Hopefully you'll have a shift of hormones with second trimester and start feeling better too soon.

I should think it's highly unlikely to affect baby - many many people have degrees of anxiety/depression/panic/stress in pregnancy, but good idea to ask your consultant and get your mind put at rest by someone with more medical authority.

If you're struggling to sleep the thing that works for me sometimes is listening to podcasts - anything slightly boring just droning on in the background seems to do the trick!

Just saw this and quickly wanted to say I was experiencing what I thought might be panic attacks - couldn't get enough breath, heart palpitations and dizziness. I'm 36 weeks. Turns out its anaemia from lacking in iron! Doctor took bloods and gave me some iron pills :)