Severe heartburn in pregnancy

[Littlefeather2]

Hey, I’ve been on omeprazole now since my seventh week of pregnancy (now 13 weeks) and just started to try and wean off them. I’ve had GERD for a couple years and managed to come off omeprazole before using natural supplements but they stopped working when I became pregnant . I was gonna try and ease myself off them again because I’m worried that by taking them so early on I might become too tolerant to them as time goes on (and the baby is only gonna get bigger ). Anybody found they had to take larger doses as time went on or did omeprazole stop working for you altogether? Right now I’m thinking of staying on them as the dreaded nausea and vomiting has returned , don’t know if that’s the acid rebound you get when coming off omeprazole though. I’ve had to try ranitidine instead but it’s just not as effective .

I've been on omperazole since 10 weeks, also have GERD! I'm now 28 weeks and they've just started to stop working and suffering with heartburn all day! Definitely helped at the start though so worth taking to stop suffering

Oh I’m so sorry the omeprazole has stopped working for you yazzyb! . I’m considering taking the pain now and just taking ranitidine (even though it doesn’t fully work) so that in my last trimester I can take the strong stuff and still have it work....hopefully!

I'm currently on ranitidine twice a day which I have been on for years and years but now have omeprezole once a day too. The relief is amazing!

Hey balalalala, yeah the relief with omeprazole is unreal, so tempted to go back on it! If things don’t improve I definitely will but gonna try a few new things first. Last time I was on omeprazole I thought it was because I had too much stomach acid, turns out it was too little and taking a supplement with acid in completely cured my reflux and I could eat absolutely anything! I felt so good, although pregnancy makes things a little more complicated .

That's interesting! How did you get to discover that? What did you end up taking?

Hi, I’ve been on omeprazole since 20weeks (now 33) and before that I was taking a mix of ranitidine and Gaviscon but wasn’t effective. Before I got the omeprazole I had started to throw up during the night because of the heartburn and reflux. I think it worth to just keep taking it. Now, I do have to get up once a night to take Gaviscon but the omeprazole is keeping things at bay...., was exactly the same in my last pregnancy.

Hey :) I know how you feel, the nausea and vomiting is nearly worse than the heartburn! Never experienced nausea with it before I was pregnant. I noticed the omeprazole took that away too, just worried cos I’ve had to start it so early on and scared about what’s coming next to be honest . It must be worth it in the end though if you’re going through it all for a second time

Yeah it really is peculiar isn’t it, we’re always told we have heartburn due to excess acid when in reality it’s normally too little acid causing the stomach valve to relax. I suffered for years with reflux and was at my wits end really as I didn’t want to always be on medication. Omeprazole really isn’t good long term so I started looking into things ( as I do ) and hesitantly decided to experiment with adding more acid to my stomach. Couldn’t believe it when it worked, I found though to come off omeprazole I had to take deglycyrrhizinated licorice root before meals, digestive enzymes with meals (which also had betaine acid in) and then slippery elm tea 2 hours afterwards to coat my throat and stomach. Did that for a few weeks and then noticed I just needed the enzymes for complete relief. And they worked for well over a year right up until I guess pregnancy changed everything lol. Guessing it has to do with the valve in my stomach being affected by hormones. What was great though is that the enzymes actually help you get nutrition from food unlike omeprazole which blocks nutrients. So I’m looking at getting the enzymes but with no acid added and seeing if that helps