What causes chest tightness and shortness of breath after childbirth?

Giving birth is a very big thing for a woman. Some even describe giving birth as a near-death experience. Most women feel weak after giving birth, and some even experience chest tightness and shortness of breath. When this symptom occurs, most people will feel difficulty breathing. So what exactly is causing chest tightness and shortness of breath after childbirth?

Chest tightness and shortness of breath is a subjective feeling of difficulty breathing or insufficient breath. Those with mild symptoms will feel nothing serious, but those with severe symptoms will feel uncomfortable, as if a stone is pressing on their chest, and may even have difficulty breathing and cause chest tightness and shortness of breath.

Causes of chest tightness and shortness of breath

1. Functional chest tightness (i.e. chest tightness without organic disease): Staying in a room with closed doors and windows and poor air circulation for a long time, or encountering some unpleasant things, or even having quarrels or disputes with others, or being in a climate with low air pressure, often causes feelings of chest tightness and fatigue. After a short rest, opening windows for ventilation or going outside to breathe fresh air, relaxing your mind and regulating your emotions, you will soon return to normal. This type of chest tightness can be said to be functional chest tightness, and there is no need to worry or seek treatment.

2. Pathological chest tightness (i.e. chest tightness caused by organic lesions): Chest tightness can not only be physiological, but can also be caused by diseases in certain organs in the body, i.e. pathological chest tightness. like:

Respiratory obstruction: tumors in the trachea and bronchus, tracheal stenosis, and external pressure on the trachea (thyroid enlargement, tumors in the mediastinum);

Lung diseases: emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, atelectasis, pulmonary infarction, pneumothorax;

Heart disease: some congenital heart diseases, rheumatic heart valve disease, coronary heart disease, heart tumors;

Diaphragmatic diseases: diaphragmatic bulging, diaphragmatic paralysis;

Pathological chest tightness can occur suddenly or slowly. Most of the sudden occurrences are due to acute traumatic or spontaneous pneumothorax, acute asthma, acute foreign body in the trachea, acute heart attack, acute pulmonary infarction, etc. Chronic chest tightness is a condition in which symptoms gradually worsen as the disease progresses.

If you experience chest tightness and shortness of breath after childbirth, you should go to the hospital for examination in time to find out the cause of the chest tightness and shortness of breath. If it is physiological, generally speaking, adjusting your mental state can make a good difference. If it is pathological, you should receive symptomatic treatment. After childbirth, as a family member, you must take good care of your child.