What Are Pregnancy Headaches?

Although there’s really no such animal as a pregnancy headache, getting a headache during pregnancy can be absolutely beastly! To help you get some fast relief, I’ll use the term, “pregnancy headache” throughout this article instead of the longer “headache during pregnancy”.

Chances are, if you’re pregnant, your doctor has locked up your medicine cabinet and thrown away the key… or at least put it out of sight for the next nine months. Inside the cabinet, your Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Midol, and even the aspirin bottle are out of reach, but when you have a pregnancy headache, they are most certainly not out of mind!

There are lots of causes for a pregnancy headache. Most of them involve stress of some sort or another. The stress of quitting smoking, drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, overeating— all of them pile up until your poor head doesn’t know if it’s coming or going, and sometimes you wish it would just go away and leave you alone! Fortunately, though, most common headaches are caused by tension or stress and there are some measures you can take to provide relief.

Lower the shades, lower your eyes, sit back and relax with a wet compress and your favorite soft music. A cool compress can work miracles on a hot-day pregnancy headache and a warm compress can be very soothing when it’s chilly. Lowering the shades gives you the sensation of letting the world turn without your help for a few minutes as well as keeping out any errant sunbeam that can turn your beastly headache into a blinding one!

Put your feet up. Silly thought when you have a pregnancy headache, but quite often, you’ll find that putting your feet up helps your brain to remember that your head needs circulation, too!

Put your feet on the ground and take a walk. These days with high-tech, double-hung, triple-glazed, hermetically sealed environments, fresh air has nearly become extinct. A breath of fresh air may clear out some of the cobwebs and a walk will help clear your thoughts and clear-out that pregnancy headache!

Take a nap. Sleep is a great refresher. Chances are when you awaken, some of those problems that caused the tension won’t be as intense and your pregnancy headache will be gone!

These are all simple solutions to provide relief for pregnancy headache caused by tension, but what if you are a chronic headache sufferer or worse a victim of the dreaded migraine? Fortunately, during pregnancy, higher and more stable estrogen levels offer some protection and headache improves for almost half of women with migraine and one-third of women with tension headache. Still, the best offense against pregnancy headache is a good defense. Tell your healthcare provider about your headaches on your first visit. Describe their frequency, location, level of pain, and duration. Your healthcare professional may offer solutions to help you keep the monster pregnancy headache at bay!