Racing heartbeat which makes me feel faint - is this dangerous for baby?

[beaniepix]

About every 6 months for the last 10 years or so, my heartrate suddenly goes up to about 140-150 bpm for no reason (ie usually when I'm doing nothing much), and takes 20-30 mins to come down. It feels very uncomfortable, can feel the beats strongly through my body esp chest, and sometimes feel a bit faint. I had it checked out years ago, the ECG indicated that it was not dangerous. (Can't remember what it's called: tachycardia / arrhythmia /palpitations or something?)

I'm about 12 weeks and I had a worse-than-usual attack this morning - felt really horrible (don't know what rate it went to as didn't have a watch at the time) and took about an hour for my heartrate to drop down to about 100bpm, still very high but at least I don't feel as faint or ill, it has stayed at 100bpm for the rest of today. (Still don't feel great though, it has to be said).

If it makes me feel faint and ill, might that be because the oxygen isn't getting around my body properly or something?

In which case, my big worry is, can this be dangerous for my baby? Is there a risk that the baby isn't getting a proper blood/oxygen supply?

I will try to phone my midwife when i can (probably tomorrow now) but if anyone knows anything about this I would appreciate the reassurance! Thanks!

I have had this twice since getting pregnant. Once for two hours, and the last time quite brief but incredibly strong and fast and felt like it was bursting from my chest (actually the second time it was located centrally near my aorta). I got checked over and they can find nothing.

Doctors said to come back if it happens again so they can monitor it, but didn't seem overly concerned about any effect on the child - were more concerned about me.

I don't know if that is any help.

Thanks Daisy, that is reassuring that they don't seem too concerned about the effects on the baby.

Hope you're doing ok, it feels horrible when it happens, doesn't it?

Hi
I mentioned a racing heart to the midwife at my check up (at GP surgery) two weeks ago, when I was 35 weeks, and was immediately sent for an ECG. I have NO history of this, but they have been keeping a close eye on me due to so far unexplained high BP. I felt silly, like they were making a big fuss about nothing, but they said I had to let them know if it happened again (it hasn't). They didn't tell me WHY. Now, maybe this was just in the context of the BP thing with me, but I guess what I'm saying is, mention it, better to put your mind at ease...

hi, i suffer from heart palpitations aswell, i have done for about 13 years, when pg with ds1 they got worse and i had to wear a portable heart monitor for six weeks. since he was born i only had a couple of episodes and when i got pg again they got really bad. i said to antenatal doc and he said that as i had a healthy pregnancy 1st time, he couldnt see it being a problem. i have since cut out a lot of caffeine from my diet and am pleased to say i havent had an episode since. there are alot of things that can affect your heart rate, do a search on internet and see if anything jumps out at you. they also werent concerned that it would affect my baby. hope this helps.

I have an irregular heartbeat which got much worse during my last pregnancy, they sent me to a cardiologist who did ECG, echocardiogram, the full works basically, it was really reassuring to find out everything was structurally fine. I have cut out caffeine completely as I found that it was triggering my funky beats.

Tea, Coffee, fizzy drinks and chocolate all contain caffeine. Alcohol, nicotine, MSG and sugar can have the same effect. You could keep a diary to see if anything is triggering these palpitations. I also find I get more if I don't sleep properly. Stress is also a big trigger. Also bear in mind that your heart is working twice as hard as normal, in less space, so little things that it might have done before that weren't noticeable are now very noticeable.

Ask to get checked out properly by a cardiologist, that's what they're there for after all. The stress of worrying about such things is often worse for you than whatever the problem is in the first place. Hope everything goes well for you.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I went to my GP this morning and she is sending me for an ECG and blood tests, and will take it from there. She didn't seem to have a clue whether it could affect the baby (but I suppose maybe no-one can ever answer that for definite and it's encouraging that there's no definite evidence that it DOES have an adverse effect).

I gave up alcohol when I got pregnant and have totally gone off tea and coffee, hardly ever have fizzy drinks and haven't been eating a lot of chocolate either - so it seems doubtful that it's caffeine-related for me.

I do find it very reassuring that there are others in the same/similar situation and there are no horror stories so no reason to start worrying unduly. It's also good to know I'm registered in the system for it now so some checks will be done just to be on the safe side.

Thanks again everyone!!!