Asthma in pregnancy - tell me about your experiences of it please ?

[Hobnob76]

Hi all,

Going to be TTC in a few months time, I've had asthma since I was 7 yrs old. I'm on Serevent and have ventolin as a reliever.

Just wanted other people's experiences really, did anyone's get any better/worse ?

Did you need extra care during pregnancy and childbirth ?

Much appreicated.

with ds and this baby asthma has been worse but with both dds was better. Didnt have any extra care apart from more regular asthma nurse appointments to check everything was goign ok. In childbirth just made sure I had inhalers to hand and found using spacer was easier while pregnant especially in later stages.

My asthmas improved dramatically in both my pregnancies. Barely needed ventolin. I was on Flixotide too.

However, with both babies I had a huge astmas attack when they were about 6-8 weeks old. Maybe it was hormone related? I don't know, just seems a strange coincedence it's happened both times.
I'm now on Seretide, which is fantastic. Friends had said I wouldn't be able to use it whilst feeding, but Dr checked it out and said it was safe enough and that keeping me breathing was most beneficial for baby!

Yes, a spacer is really good to use when your lungs are all squashed by a baby bump!

Nemo - thanks for the advice, always useful to know. I take inhalers everywhere I go anyway.

CandleQueen - useful to know about the big attack after baby is born. Good to know that I'll still be able to use the serevent during and after preganancy too. Will def ask about a spacer if/when I get pg, I used to use one when I was younger. Hope I'm one of the lucky ones whose asthma improves in pregnancy!

Hi Hobnob, I had an attack at about 8 weeks pg, so expected things to get worse but since then have only used inhaler once and my other allergies have cleared up too.
x

LoveActually - thats good news! Here's hoping that my eczema clears up too!

I barely knew I had asthma through my pregnancy, only used my salbutamol a couple of times towards the end.

Also I didn't suffer wih hayfever which I normally get really badly.

Mine seems to be alot better during my pregnancy, so far so good-28wks.

Fine when I was pregnant, went absolutely haywire after I had DD and I'm stil using the brown inhaler 5 months later even though I never used to take it pre DD.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think from the reactions on here I can say that my asthma may get worse, as I already have moderate asthma.

Hi

I was totally asthma free during pregnancy so much so that my consultant reduced my very high meds and weaned me off steriods totally until the last 3 weeks when we introduced them again slowly so I would be up to strength again after DD was born. I stayed pretty symptom free until DD was 6 weeks then when the hormones declined I had the mother of all attacks.

The official stats are I think a third, a third, a third.

One third get better, one third stay the same, one third get worse.

You will of course get breathless, in a different way, from about 17 weeks, because of the changes in lung mechanics, and cardiovascular load.

And there is the seasonal variation to consider also. If coming into spring and pollen sensitive, that may be a factor.

With DD my asthma got much worse, but acupuncture sorted it really well. With DD it didn't get worse and may even have got a bit better. Didn't get any special care in pregnancy or labour. (Good luck! btw)

Mine got worse during pregnancy, mainly at the beginning.

Needed inhaler during early labor, but then was OK

My asthma was a joy during pregnancy. It just went. I'd had it all my life and suddenly it wasn't there any more. I don't consider myself severely affected by asthma but this made me realise that I'm much more affected than I realise. Hope yours is the same!

And I had the easiest labour and delivery of anyone I know, I think. No asthma or any other kind of complications at all. Wishing you as much luck as I had!

Thanks Horton, your post has given me great hope!

I would say I also had an easy short uncomplicated labour and delivery - no inhalers needed I think it was the adrenalin and excitment of waiting to meet out baby.