short of breath anyone??

[star6]

I'm 26+5 today and feeling very short of breath often (not over exerting by any means). I'm generally pretty fit, but have such shallow breathing at times and feel my heart rate rise a bit. Is this normal?

have you had your iron levels checked recently? low Hb can cause breathlessness as well as palpitations and rushing tiredness.

It could simply be down the the fact that as the baby and your uterus grows your lungs get compressed. The raised heart beat is normal afaik as your body is working a lot harder than usual due to all the extra weight, the extra blood it needs to pump around and of course getting your lungs to work harder.

Another consideration is hayfever/asthm type symptoms. I've never had hayfever before, but was mildly asthmatic when I was younger. this summer has been awful for me with constant steaming nose and wheeziness/breathlessness. All other tests were fine, so they tried me with an inhaler and hey presto.....breathlessness gone

I would mention it to your MW at your next AN check, or if you think that's too long a wait, probably worth seeing the doctor.

hth

ps I'm 23 weeks today

Thanks. My iron levels have been all over the place. 9 down to 4.8 then to 7 ... nightmare. Trying spatone now (it's not pleasant but it works ok) and I'm asthmatic, so that all makes sense... but haven't experienced asthma in a while. I exercise reguarly and eat a really healthy diet.
I do have an asthma inhaler... thought this wasn't safe whilst pregnant? what sort of inhaler did they give you? if it's the same as mine, perhaps I@ll try taking it.

I am 29 weeks and very short of breath more so at night than in the day.
I have no idea if its normal I didn't get it with ds but I am alot bigger this time

it's just a salbutamol one....is that a reliever one?

It is probably something to do woth your iron levels. I take spatone as well but put it in a couple of inches of orange juice and you can't really taste it.

do you take one or two sachets a day? It says on the box that 2 a day is fine on pregnancy

I only found out that it was probably asthma as DH gave me his ventolin to try as he said I sounded like him when his is bad.....and it made an immediate difference!