Pregnancy And Asthma

Not so long ago, 20-30 years ago, a pregnant woman with bronchial asthma often encountered a negative attitude even among doctors: What were you thinking? What children?! You have asthma! Thank God, these times are long gone. Today, doctors all over the world are unanimous in their opinion: bronchial asthma is not a contraindication for pregnancy and in no case is a reason for refusing to have children.

However, a certain mystical aura around this disease persists, and this leads to an erroneous approach: some women are afraid of pregnancy and doubt their right to have children, others rely too much on nature and stop treatment during pregnancy, considering any drugs to be absolutely harmful during this period. period of life. The treatment of asthma is surrounded by an incredible amount of myths and legends, rejection and misconceptions. For example, if blood pressure rises, a woman will not doubt that she can give birth to a child if she is treated correctly. She will definitely take into account the doctor’s recommendations about the need to limit salt, about leading a healthy lifestyle, she knows that she must take medications to normalize her blood pressure, and that treatment cannot be abandoned. When planning a pregnancy, a woman will consult a doctor in advance about which medications can be taken during pregnancy and which ones cannot, and will purchase a tonometer to monitor her condition. And if the disease gets out of control, immediately seek medical help. Well, of course, you say, it’s so natural. But as soon as it comes to asthma, doubts and hesitations appear.

Perhaps the whole point is that modern methods of treating asthma are still very young: they are just over 12 years old. People still remember a time when asthma was a frightening and often disabling disease. Until recently, treatment was reduced to endless droppers, theophedrine and hormones in tablets, and the inept and uncontrolled use of the first inhalers often ended very badly. Now the situation has changed, new ideas about the nature of the disease have led to the creation of new drugs and the development of methods for controlling the disease. But to achieve success in treatment, joint efforts of doctors and patients themselves are needed.

At the present stage of development of medicine, there are no methods that can rid a person of bronchial asthma once and for all. Asthma is a disease that cannot yet be cured, but can be well controlled. During pregnancy, the severity of asthma often changes. It is believed that in about a third of women the course of asthma improves, in a third it worsens and in a third it remains unchanged, while the course of the disease usually does not change in the first trimester. But rigorous scientific analysis is less optimistic: asthma improves in only 14% of cases. Therefore, you should not rely limitlessly on this chance in the hope that all problems will be resolved by themselves. The fate of a pregnant woman and her unborn child is in her own hands - and in the hands of her doctor.

As a matter of fact, asthma itself does not contribute to a complicated course of pregnancy and disturbances in fetal development (well, except that toxicosis of pregnancy is somewhat more common in pregnant women with asthma). All problems are associated not with the fact of having bronchial asthma, but with poor control of it. The greatest risk to the fetus is hypoxia (insufficient amount of oxygen in the blood), which occurs as a result of the uncontrolled course of bronchial asthma. If suffocation occurs, not only does the pregnant woman experience difficulty breathing, but the unborn child also suffers from a lack of oxygen (hypoxia). It is the lack of oxygen that can interfere with the normal development of the fetus, and in vulnerable periods even disrupt the normal formation of organs. To give birth to a healthy baby, it is necessary to receive treatment appropriate to the severity of the disease in order to prevent an increase in the onset of symptoms and the development of hypoxia.

And the prognosis for children born to mothers with good