What causes dizziness in pregnant women?

Pregnant women may experience dizziness or even fainting during pregnancy due to anemia, hypoglycemia, hypotension and other symptoms. Also, if you suddenly stand up from lying or sitting, you will feel dizzy for a short time, so you should pay more attention to it and try to get up slowly.

Doctors believe that dizziness and blurred vision after pregnancy are one of the common symptoms of pregnant women. In mild cases, patients may experience dizziness, unsteady gait, and in severe cases, patients may experience black spots in front of their eyes, blurred vision, or even fainting when suddenly standing or walking. Common causes of dizziness during pregnancy include hypoglycemia, hypotension, supine syndrome and physiological anemia.

Hypoglycemia: Due to the accelerated metabolism after pregnancy, the blood flow to the pancreas increases compared to the non-pregnant period, so the physiological function of the pancreas is very strong. The insulin level in the blood of pregnant women is relatively high, resulting in low blood sugar (especially fasting blood sugar) in pregnant women, resulting in symptoms such as dizziness, palpitations, fatigue, hand tremors and cold sweats. In addition, due to the increase of progesterone in the blood of pregnant women during early pregnancy, pregnancy reactive vomiting occurs. In addition, women generally eat less at this time, and their bodies consume a lot of energy, so it can also aggravate symptoms of hypoglycemia such as dizziness.

Countermeasures: Eat more and better for the three meals, especially breakfast. You can eat more high-protein, high-fat and high-carbohydrate foods such as milk, eggs, meat porridge, cakes, sugar water and noodles. You can have a fourth meal if necessary. In addition, you can also carry some convenient foods such as biscuits, candies, sugar water and fruits with you, so that you can eat them immediately if the above-mentioned hypoglycemia symptoms appear, so that symptoms of hypoglycemia such as dizziness can be relieved in time.

Hypotension: This is due to the formation of the placenta during the early and middle stages of pregnancy, which diverts part of the blood and causes a slight decrease in the blood volume of the pregnant woman; compared with the non-pregnant period, it can generally decrease by 5-15 mmHg. Due to the drop in blood pressure, the brain may not receive enough blood, resulting in symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision and blackouts. Due to the lack of blood supply to the limbs, symptoms such as fear of cold, general fatigue and weakness in the limbs may occur. At this time, the body can improve brain and limb ischemia and hypoxia by increasing heart rate and cardiac output, but pregnant women may also feel palpitations, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. This situation usually occurs around 2 months of pregnancy and returns to normal at 6-7 months.

Countermeasures: Posture movements (the process of changing from lying, squatting and sitting to standing) should be slow to avoid sudden blood supply deficiency to the brain; try to wear tight clothes and elastic socks to help blood return; when dizziness occurs, you can eat salty food and drink more boiled water to increase blood volume; avoid sweating when exercising, and avoid high water temperature when showering to prevent blood vessels from dilating and blood pressure from dropping; do not ride bicycles or motorcycles to avoid dizziness and car accidents; when dizziness occurs, you should sit down or lie on your side to rest immediately, and go to the hospital to ask a doctor for symptomatic treatment if necessary.

Supine syndrome: In the late pregnancy, the enlarged uterus can cause the diaphragm to rise, compressing the heart and causing it to shift to the upper left. At the same time, the enlarged uterus can compress the inferior vena cava and obstruct venous return, reducing the amount of blood returning to the heart and the cardiac output. This can lead to cerebral ischemia and hypoxia and cause symptoms such as dizziness and blurred vision. This is more obvious in the supine or semi-recumbent position, while the symptoms are alleviated in the lateral or standing position. If you lie in a supine or semi-recumbent position for a long time, it may also lead to varicose veins in the lower limbs, ankle edema and hemorrhoid formation.

Countermeasures: Try to sit flat. If you feel tired after sitting flat for a long time, you can change to side-lying position, or take a walk indoors or outdoors. In short, try to avoid supine and semi-recumbent positions. Once supine syndrome occurs, you should lie on your side immediately, or slowly sit up after lying on your side, to relieve the pressure of the uterus on the heart and inferior vena cava and restore blood supply to the brain.

Physiological anemia: Blood volume begins to increase from the 6th week of pregnancy and reaches a peak at 36-34 weeks. Since the increase in plasma is greater than the increase in red blood cells, the blood is relatively diluted, and the number of red blood cells and the amount of hemoglobin decrease relatively, leading to physiological anemia. In addition, the production of red blood cells during pregnancy, fetal growth and development, changes in various tissues and organs of pregnant women, and the need for more iron for metabolism are also causes of physiological anemia, resulting in symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, and weakness.

Countermeasures: Eat more foods rich in iron, such as animal blood, animal liver, lean pork, egg yolk, goose meat, spinach, cauliflower, amaranth, kelp, black fungus and peanuts; use aluminum pots less often and traditional iron pots more often when cooking, so that the iron ions can dissolve in the dishes and be ingested with the dishes; if necessary, take iron supplements under the guidance of a doctor.

In addition, there are many other reasons for dizziness during pregnancy, such as pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, mental fatigue and psychological factors. I hope all pregnant women can pay attention to their own physiological and psychological changes, experience them carefully, and strengthen self-care. If the above treatments are ineffective, you should go to the hospital immediately to see a doctor. The above is for reference only. It is recommended to seek medical attention.