Can You Take Tums When Pregnant? Why Don’t We Find Out Yogether?
During pregnancy, there are a lot of discomforts that you will have to live with. You can comfortably handle the back pains, the constant trips to the bathroom and the swelling. However, when it comes to heartburns, it can get you in the end. You will, therefore, look for the best remedy for your heartburn. But can you take Tums while pregnant?
Tums are antacid drugs that help to provide quick relief from heartburn. However, since you are pregnant and you are suffering from heartburn, the question will be whether it will be safe to take Tums during pregnancy. Let’s first take a look at what causes heartburns.
When you are pregnant, your placenta produces the hormone called progesterone. This hormone will enable the muscles of your uterus to smoothen and relax. This smoothening and relaxing of your uterine muscles can also cause the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach to relax. Consequently, the gastric acid in your stomach will seep back up your esophagus.
This is what will cause the burning sensation that will be unpleasant to you. This burning sensation that will extend from your lower throat to the bottom of your breastbone is what is called heartburn. Another reason why when you are pregnant you end up being a prime candidate of heartburn is because your baby will also be exerting pressure on your stomach and your lower esophageal sphincter.
This pressure exerted on your stomach will increase the chances of stomach acids being pushed up your esophagus. Heartburn is usually harmless, however, the discomfort that it will cause you is what will force you to seek medications to clear it.
Can Your Diet Also Trigger Heartburn?
Yes, your diet can also make you suffer from heartburns while you are pregnant. Since the speed at which digestion takes place reduces during pregnancy, eating large meals will increase your chances of suffering from heartburn.
If you eat too much, you will stretch your stomach. Since the baby is also putting some pressure on your stomach, you may therefore end up with a stuffed stomach. The juice and acids from your last meal can therefore easily make it to your esophagus to haunt you.
Eating fatty foods can also make you more susceptible to heartburns. This is because foods that have high-fat contents are likely to sit in your stomach for longer. The longer the food stays in your stomach, the more digestive acids your stomach will produce.
These digestive acids are what will irritate your digestive system and cause you to feel that burning sensation that will make you feel very uncomfortable.
Is it Safe to Use Tums during Pregnancy?
Tums are antacids tablets that are made to provide heartburn relief by reducing the amount of acids in your stomach. Good news is that Tums are actually safe to be used during pregnancy. Therefore, if you are pregnant and you are having a bad day because of that heartburn that does not seem to be going away, just go to a chemist and buy Tums. Your heartburn will be gone within minutes.
Another good thing about Tums is that they actually add calcium to your body. This will be good for your health since during pregnancy, your body will need between 1000 to 1300 milligrams of elemental calcium on a daily basis.
However, it is recommended that if you have any medical condition, you should consult your doctor before taking Tums tablets. If you have serious medical conditions such as kidney problems, heart problems and inflammatory problems, consulting your doctor is very important so that she can determine whether the Tums medication is safe for your condition.
If you also have high calcium levels in your blood, you should also consult your doctor to determine if it will be safe for you to take Tum's medication.
Healthy Steps You Can Take to Prevent Heartburns
Most pregnant women usually wonder if there is something they can do to prevent heartburns. Yes, there is. There are several steps you can take to ensure that heartburns don’t give you sleepless nights when you should be enjoying being pregnant. Here is how you can manage your heartburn:
Changing Your Diet
One of the ways you can prevent heartburns is by changing your diet. You can do this by avoiding foods that are known to cause heartburns. These foods include chocolates, caffeine, processed meats, highly spiced foods and fatty foods.
Change Your Eating Habits
You can also change your eating habits. You should avoid eating heavy meals at once. Instead, if you feel like you have a huge appetite for food, ensure that you eat several small meals. You should just take your time to eat so that you chew your food properly.
Reduce Your Fluids Intake During Meals
Although it is recommended that you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, when you are pregnant, you should never do this at once during meal times. Instead, it’s good to have your sips in between your meals. This way, you will avoid distending your stomach.
Don’t Eat Just Before Bedtime
Before lying down, you should give yourself some two to three hours so that the food you have eaten can be digested. When you are pregnant, food tends to stay for longer in your stomach before being digested. If you lie down immediately you have had a meal;digestion is likely to be slowed down. Your stomach will, therefore, produce a lot of acids that will cause you a lot of discomforts.
You can also try some foods that are known to soothe heartburns naturally. If you can’t keep off from eating foods that are known to be the usual culprits of causing heartburns, you can reach out to foods that soothe heartburns to help you neutralize the acids in whatever you have just eaten. They include:
Ginger Tea
This tea is known to be an age-old remedy for digestive problems. You can make your pain-soothing tea by peeling or grating an inch of the ginger root and dipping it in a cup of hot water. It will effectively neutralize the acids that are causing you stomach pains.
Bananas
Heartburns can be a good excuse to eat a lot of bananas. According to Dr Gerard E Mullin, who is an expert in digestive health, bananas help to relieve people from heartburns by sticking to the lining of your esophagus.Thiswill, therefore, relieve you from the pain that is caused by heartburns.
Oatmeal
The next time you feel some discomfort as a result of heartburn, you should sit down with a bowl of oatmeal. This will relieve your pain by coating and buffering your stomach lining. However, you should not splash heavy creams on your oatmeal since cream is high in fat.
Final Answer
Can you take Tums while pregnant? The answer is yes. You should not let heartburns make your pregnancy unbearable due to the constant burning and pain in your throat and chest. Tums are antacid tablets that are made to eliminate heartburns by neutralizing the acids in your stomach that are causing the discomfort.
There you have it on the safety of taking Tums when you have heartburns during your pregnancy. Do you have any questions? Make good use of the comment section and contact me.
