How to reduce fever quickly when pregnant woman has high fever

In life, the groups of people we are most worried about catching colds are the elderly, children, and pregnant women. During pregnancy, you cannot take medicine. If you ignore the cold and let it get worse, it will cause a high fever. A high fever may even affect the baby in the belly, so a cold and fever in pregnant women is very serious. If a pregnant woman has a high fever and wants to reduce the fever quickly, take a look at these physical therapies first.

What to do if a pregnant woman has a fever

After all, the physiological characteristics of pregnant women and fetuses are different from those of ordinary people. Therefore, when facing a fever, they should be treated differently. How should we take care of pregnant women when they have a fever to ensure the health of the mother and fetus?

1. Physical cooling: In addition to finding out the cause of the fever, moderate fever reduction is necessary for pregnant women. Fever often increases the mother's metabolic rate and is accompanied by many uncomfortable symptoms such as headache, loss of appetite, general fatigue, palpitations, and even dehydration, which increases the burden on the cardiopulmonary function of pregnant women. Therefore, you should choose moderate fever reduction. Generally speaking, if the pregnant woman's body temperature is not higher than 38.5 degrees Celsius and there are no obvious discomfort symptoms, you can consider using physical methods to help reduce the fever, such as: ice pillow, heat dissipation patch, warm water wiping, such as wiping the body repeatedly with a warm towel, placing ice packs in the armpits, forehead and groin, etc.

2. Use of antipyretics: Try not to use them. As for when to consider using drugs, it varies from person to person. However, if the body temperature is above 38.5 degrees Celsius and accompanied by uncomfortable symptoms, you can consider using drugs under the guidance of a doctor, otherwise it will harm the fetus.

3. Find out the cause of the fever: It must be reiterated that the pathogen that causes the fever is more harmful to the mother and fetus than the fever itself. Therefore, when a pregnant woman has a fever, it is important to find out the cause of the fever and prescribe the right medicine, which is more important than simply reducing the fever.

Does a fever in pregnant women affect the fetus?

If it is only a short-term mild fever, it generally does not cause harm to the mother or fetus. However, some studies have found that during the 5-6 weeks of pregnancy (3-4 weeks after conception), which is the period of neural tube development, if the pregnant woman's body temperature is higher than 38.9 degrees Celsius and lasts for more than 24 hours, it will increase the chance of neural tube defects (such as anencephaly) in the fetus. But it must be emphasized that very few pregnant women will allow their body temperature to rise so high and last for such a long time without treatment.

Therefore, the harm caused by fever to the fetus or mother is not greater than the harm caused by the cause of the disease itself. For example, if the fever is caused by German measles infection, the harm caused by the virus to the fetus (such as deformity) will far exceed the heat damage caused by the fever itself.

After the first trimester, a fever caused by the flu will not cause direct harm to your baby. However, pregnant women can become very ill from the flu, so pregnant women should get a flu vaccine to prevent it. But if the pregnant woman is in good health, common colds and fevers during pregnancy will not have much impact on the pregnant woman or the fetus.