What can I do about heartburn in pregnancy?

Your questions answered by Ruth Armes of Greatvine.com

What can I do about heartburn?

Heartburn is common in pregnancy. It is caused by acid from your stomach flowing upward into your oesophagus.

This happens because pregnancy hormones have relaxed the valve between the stomach and the oesophagus, and the baby is pressing up under the stomach. As the baby gets bigger, heartburn often becomes worse.

Tried and tested

Here are some things that I recommend to the women that I teach and which you can try, to help yourself:

Try eating some fresh apple after every meal.
Peppermint or camomile tea helps some women.
Solgar (vitamin company) produce an organic papaya fruit puree called Caricol. This has a regulative effect on the digestive system and helps maintain a healthy digestive system.
Avoid sugar and fatty, heavy meals. The worst offender is chocolate, with cakes, biscuits, cheese and animal fats, coffee and alcohol, following close behind. Try completely cutting out refined sugar for a week and the chances are you will have no heartburn!
You might be surprised that foods that you think of as acid, such as citrus fruits, are not a problem.
Eat small meals often, and be sure to chew slowly and carefully.
If lying flat is a problem you may need to sleep propped up more. Bending forward may also make things worse.
It is best to avoid antacid medications because the stomach tends to react by increasing its acid production to counteract the alkalinity. This can also be true of milk and yoghurt.

Ruth Armes

Ruth Armes is a qualified active birth and NCT teacher with over 15 years of experience and has supported over 2,000 pregnant women and their partners through the physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy. Ruth’s specialities include pregnancy-related ailments, Yoga for pregnancy, and educating parents about their options for childbirth so that parents can make the right choice for them. For individual advice you can trust, book a private phone call with Ruth at www.greatvine.com/ruth_armes