Shortness of breath/heavy feeling in chest

cls78 · August 2014

Is anyone else having this? I am not having chest pains, but it is getting annoying. I am breathing fine, but my chest feels heavy or tight at times.

boxerrrmama85 · August 2014

Question for your OB. Sorry you are feeling like this-- but if you are concerned your OB will have the best answers for you. Best of luck.

ccwmdw · August 2014

Anxiety? It happens to me sometimes where I feel like my lungs just can't expand enough. Hope you feel better.

agm04 · August 2014

Yeah I do feel this sometimes. My good friend who recently had her 2nd said she did, too, even early on.

cls78 · August 2014

I put a call put to the ob and they are telling me to go to the emergency room. I feel fine right now and I feel like the emergency room is over kill, but I guess they are covering their ass. If I couldn't breath or in pain yes I would go to the ER, but it is more annoying then anything and it does not happen all the time. I go there on Tue, so I will talk to the Dr then.

The nurse did tell me I can wait it out and see how I feel. She said she had heard of some experiencing that and it was nothing, but their protocol is to tell the patient to go to the ER.

I was just seeing if anyone else here was experiencing this. I heard it can be from increased blood flow.

cannolioh · August 2014

It is likely normal pregnancy symptoms, but you should call your doctor to see if they want you to come get checked out. I hope it goes away for you soon.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

It's pretty common. Your body is working to make a lot of blood right now, and you may not be keeping up. Make sure to get plenty of iron in your diet. If you don't have enough blood, it's harder for it to transfer oxygen around your body, and it makes you feel breathless (I have this right now, too). Just take it easy and eat plenty of dark leafy greens and red meat.

cls78 · August 2014

@thegoodpotato‌ Thank you! Made me feel much better. I was starting to feel bad for not running to the ER like the nurse said. Also my diet right now sucks and I probably need to add more meats and leafy greens. I bet that is part of the problem. My husband worked late last night and I had a pb and j for dinner and other stuff through out the day, but not a real meal. I need to go to the grocery store bad!!

thegoodpotato · August 2014

cls78 said:

@thegoodpotato‌ Thank you! Made me feel much better. I was starting to feel bad for not running to the ER like the nurse said. Also my diet right now sucks and I probably need to add more meats and leafy greens. I bet that is part of the problem. My husband worked late last night and I had a pb and j for dinner and other stuff through out the day, but not a real meal. I need to go to the grocery store bad!!

No problem.

I lost a lot of blood after I delivered my first (almost to where I needed a transfusion), so I know what low blood supply felt like. I felt the same when they diagnosed me as severely anaemic (almost needing to go to the hospital anaemic) with my second. Lots of things like kale, beet greens, spinach and some beef and hopefully you'll feel better.

CatLadyTX · August 2014

I had this with my first, starting right around this time. My OB referred me to my PCP, who ran a bunch of tests and EKGs just to make sure everything was ok. Ultimately, he said that my growing uterus is pushing my other organs up, butting more pressure on my lungs. He told me that it was not uncommon in pregnancy and to come back in if it continues to worsen, or if I wanted peace of mind.

cls78 · August 2014

I go to the OB on Tue, so I am going to make sure I talk about it with him then. I should of brought it up at my last appt, but it does not happen all the time and I didn't think to mention it.

ksgsmu · August 2014

I haven't had problems with shortness of breathe unless I walk too quickly up stairs. Starting at 12 weeks though I could tell that everything was starting to be pushed up as the uterus is moving out from the pelvic bone. My main symptom has been reflux though.

jennjilljo · August 2014

Shortness of breath has been present for both pregnancies for me. It can be normal but it never hurts to get it checked. I do know that it can be worse if you have asthma.

amt0312 · August 2014

Dude, call a doctor. It could be nothing, it could be everything. Don't leave chest pain to internet strangers.

cls78 · August 2014

@amt0312‌ I already did and I am not having chest pain. I was checking to see if anyone else was experiencing this not a DX.

chickyclg · August 2014

I am having shortness of ..

I talked to my OB yesterday about it at my appt. and he said it most likely had something to do with the blood flow because with twins your body has more blood than ever. But I'm not having pain, just breathing heavy when I do too much too fast. But I was also told that when my breathing gets heavy to take a break.

MrsTucker2011 · August 2014

I had this at work last pregnancy. I was 7 months along though. It was pretty bad, to the point of almost blacking out and not being able to speak. I did go to ER, and it was because everything was pushing up on my lungs.
They told me to lay down if it happened again, drink some cool water, and calm my breathing. That seemed to help when it happened again.

teshadgirl · August 2014

I get shortness of breath at times, and have also experienced light headedness to the point of almost passing out on the subway (soooo scary!) My dr said my blood pressure is lower than normal when pregnant because of the extra blood going the baby. Definitely not something I thought would be a symptom before getting pregnant...