Preventing Pregnancy Heartburn with Natural Remedies

Heartburn is a burning pain radiating from the center of the chest

This pain has nothing to with the heart. Heartburn occurs when stomach acid comes up from the stomach into the throat and mouth.

Food travels down to the stomach through a narrow tube called the esophagus. Once inside the stomach, the proteins it contains are dissolved by stomach acids.

These acids are contained by the acid-resistant lining of the stomach, but if they escape the stomach they can easily damage other tissues. Heartburn occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which is basically a valve between the throat and the stomach, fails to keep acid inside the stomach.

There are two conditions that almost always cause heartburn. These are weight gain and pregnancy. The overwhelming majority of women who get pregnant get heartburn. Up to 80 per cent of women who have children suffer heartburn during pregnancy. The most common time to have heartburn is during the first trimester.

The relationship between heartburn and early pregnancy is hormonal. In the first trimester, a great increase in estrogen and progesterone is needed to accommodate the growth of the embryo also "loosen up" tissues all over a woman's body. In nine months, the mother must be able to "stretch" enough to deliver a child. Female sex hormones make all the tissues of the body more flexible, including the LES. The estrogen and progesterone that cause the extra flexibility in the LES are at especially high concentrations during the first trimester.

Home remedies to neutralize stomach acid

Antacids are never a good idea for treating or preventing heartburn, whether pregnant or not. Neutralizing stomach acid just masks symptoms. It does not relieve the underlying condition. Also, antacids interfere with digestion.

Calcium, iron, and vitamin B12 cannot be liberated from food by the process of digestion if stomach acid is weak. Women who are mildly sensitive to milk, meat, soy, citrus, or tomatoes may develop full-blown food allergies if these foods are not completely digested. And if the problem is not really heartburn, for instance, if the real problem is peptic ulcer disease, masking symptoms delays diagnosis and treatment that can make a difference.

The best ways for pregnant women to prevent heartburn don't involve antacids. Here are ten suggestions for natural remedies that nearly always help.

1. Eat small meals less often. Large meals fill the stomach and push against the LES, allowing stomach acid to come into the throat and mouth.

2. Avoid bending and stooping. The fact that women in late pregnancy cannot easily bend or stoop has a lot to do with the fact that women in late pregnancy usually do not suffer heartburn.

3. Do not eat within 3 hours of bedtime, although clear liquids are OK. Soup, milkshakes, and meal replacement drinks, however, can also cause heartburn.

4. Do not eat low-fat. Fat binds stomach acid. Low-calorie meals are always less likely to cause heartburn, but high-calorie meals are not especially likely to cause symptoms unless they are low-fat. Eating a carton of fat-free sherbet, for instance, is often a trigger for heartburn, while eating a bowl of ice cream made with whole milk may not be.

5. Avoid any kind of alcoholic beverage, caffeinated coffee and tea (decaf is OK), chocolate, citrus fruits and juices, fatty foods, peppermint, hot peppers, and tomatoes. Peppermint candy can be surprisingly irritating. These foods relax the LES and allow stomach acid to come up. Peppers do not cause heartburn-they activate a nerve in a way that causes the pain of heartburn to be more acutely felt, all along the chest and also over the cheekbones.

6. If the unlikely event you are so inclined, don't wear belts or girdles.

7. There are many herbs commonly used to treat indigestion that should never be used if there is heartburn. These include absinthe, bitter orange, andrographis, Angostura bitters, barberry,  blessed thistle, centaury,  boldo, devil's claw (enteric-coated capsules for treatment of arthritis pain relief are OK), gentian, greater celandine, horehound (marrubio), goldenseal, Oregon grape root, prickly ash (also known as Szechuan pepper), wormwood, vervain, and yellow dock. The reason you should not use any of these herbs if you have heartburn is that they are bitter. Any food or herb with a bitter flavor triggers a reflex reaction in a nerve to the stomach that increases the release of stomach acids.

8. Two herbs can help heartburn. One is slippery elm. Drunk as a warm tea, slippery elm is mostly mucilage. The mucilage coats the throat and protects it from any acid that make come up with heartburn. Another is deglycyrrhizinated licorice, also known as DGL. More commonly used to treat peptic ulcer disease, DGL may settle the stomach. For DGL to work, however, it has be chewed, mixing the herb with saliva. Swallowing the tablet whole is of no benefit. Pregnant women should not take other forms of licorice, since they can aggravate high blood pressure.

9. Never prop yourself up in bed with pillows. This puts pressure on your stomach and makes heartburn worse.

10. Consider raising the head of your bed with bricks. Sleeping on slant down from head to foot with your head at least 6 inches (15 cm) higher than your feet keeps stomach acid from flowing up from your stomach.