39 weeks- headcold

[RosaAbsolute]

Can anyone offer any advice? I'm 39 weeks and have a horrible cough and cold. I'm up every hour in the night coughing loads and can feel my head and chest is all congested. So far I've just been drinking hot water with lemon and honey- are there any decongestants I can take safely? Any painkillers?

I'm desperate to shake this off quickly.

Not much else you can do I’m afraid. You can get a quite weak cough syrup, but that’s not going to help much more than honey and lemon. I had this and I think it’s why I went overdue, when I was being discharged after the birth they said my bloods showed elevated white blood cells: it was a really horrible cold!! Sadly I also kept my cough, so I had stitches and a cough.

I hope your cold shifts fast: rest if you can!

See a healthcare professional. It is probably just making you uncomfortable but just get checked out.

I had this at 37 weeks and it was a worse infection than I realised. I was admitted and DS was then born by c section after I had been in hospital for 24 hours on an antibiotic drip.

You can take Paracetamol. Honey and lemon has actually been shown to be more effective than cough syrups but if you would prefer, you can ask the pharmacist for a simple cough linctus. Unfortunately you can't take any decongestants as they can interfere with placental blood flow. Just keep up your fluids and you will be fine! Only go into your triage unit if you have spoken to them on the phone beforehand...they would have to organise somewhere for you to be isolated.

Try an oil/aroma diffuser with eucalyptus oil in it. Amazing for clearing congestion I find. I have an electric one from amazon & sleep with it on when bunged up. Does the trick