17 weeks - almost fainting & exhaustion

[taylor2233]

I'm 17 weeks & a few times now over the last few days I’ve almost fainted, come over all funny with jelly legs and my vision starts going black. I have to sit down ASAP. I’ve eaten and drunk plenty. Also feeling completely and utterly exhausted. My blood pressure is fine, but my heart rate has been high at 122 when I did my BP this morning.

Probably should mention I’m also under cardiology investigations but don’t get results until my appointment in early January. This was due to chest pain, palpitations & abnormal 24-hour ECG a few months back.

I’m reading online that feeling faint is somewhat normal in pregnancy, I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or whether I should put it down to the heart related stuff and see if they could see me sooner.

I have had this throughout the second trimester (worst weeks 18-23), I'm now 25 weeks and it's not as bad but I still have to be careful getting up too fast and I won't drive.

At 18/19 weeks I did actually faint on a dog walk and sliced open my chin but baby was fine thankfully. It was put down to low BP so I'm managing that now but it can also be linked to low iron levels.

I still get light headed a lot and it's caused me to fall over a couple of times so my hands and knees are covered in grazes. If I feel it coming I just try and eat/drink something sugary and lie down.

Thank goodness baby is so well protected in there!

I was just about to say, but the pp has covered it as an option. You could request a blood test at your doctors to check your iron?

From 11 weeks I started to feel tired, by 15 weeks it was exhaustion (midwife said it was normal) and by 18 weeks I have had two occasions of almost passing out. At that point I requested a blood test at 19 weeks and my iron was low. I’m now on iron tablets and I have only been on them for 10-12 days but I already feel a bit better in terms of tiredness/exhaustion.

I had this in pregnancy, second trimester, and it turned out I was anemic! Make sure you get your bloods done - prescription iron tablets or injections should clear it up