Breathless and Dizzy...and Not in a Good Way (Week 21)

Being a (self-acclaimed) superfit mom, I went into this pregnancy pretty confident that I would be able to maintain a level of fitness that I could be proud of. Of course, life has a funny way of cutting me down to size once-in-a-while--even though I'm short enough as it is.

My Near-Faint Experience

Late last week I experienced something I had never felt before. I was walking with a client around their neighbourhood for our weekly one-hour walk, at our usual moderate pace, when I started to feel out of breath. At first I thought it was funny because a walk like that never used to make me feel like I had just done a 30-second sprint. "Ah, the joys of pregnancy," I thought. Soon enough, it became apparent that my heavy breathing was not subsiding, and I was starting to feel dizzy. I began to feel faint. To my minor embarrassment, I quickly reached a point where if I didn't sit down, I was going to collapse. My poor client, who had no idea what was going on with me, was understandably concerned. I was having a hard time breathing, and my heartbeat was pounding in my ears. Without having much choice, I sat down on the curb to try and recover. It took all of 30 seconds to feel normal again. Without skipping a beat, I got back up and we completed our walk. I had no idea what to make of what had happened, and what was worse was that I couldn't explain it to my client. 

The very next day, I walked home from the cinema with my partner--it's all of a 10 minute walk. We reached our building and headed up the four flights of stairs to our apartment. By the time I had reached the hallway, a huge wave of dizziness came over me. I was breathless yet again, and my heart was going a hundred miles a minute. I needed my partner to help me through the apartment door. I was starting to see stars, and I realized I was close to passing out. After collapsing on the couch, I panted for another 30 seconds, during which time my breathing and heart rate quickly subsided. It was at this point I decided that I should figure out what the heck was going on with me. Thankfully I could easily find out what the problem was--and that it was nothing serious. 

Pregnancy and Breathlessness

In pregnancy, your ribcage widens to allow for an increase in lung capacity. This works to offset the problem that the growing uterus plays in constricting your breathing. As your uterus expands, it pushes up into your diaphragm, making it harder to pull in your usual-sized breaths of air. Moreover, with all those pregnancy hormones that cause your muscles and ligaments to relax, your diaphragm is on a mini vacation, not working as hard to pull air into your lungs. 

To make things worse, the increasing progesterone in your body makes you more sensitive to the carbon dioxide your muscles produce as a waste product when you move. The resulting breathlessness is caused by your body trying to get rid of the carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen as quickly as it can.  

Breathlessness can also be caused by low blood iron levels, which I am prone to.

Pregnancy and Dizziness

By now, if you've been following my blogs, you've learned that there's a lot of hormone-induced relaxing going on in the body. One of the other parts of the body that are relaxing as your pregnancy progresses are your blood vessels. They are widening to help increase blood flow to your baby. This causes your blood pressure to be lower than usual, which can reduce the blood flow to your brain, temporarily causing dizziness.

Dizziness is also caused by low blood sugar levels that may occur as your body adapts to changes in your metabolism. Women who are anemic or who have varicose veins may be more susceptible to dizziness than others (not only do I have low blood iron levels, I also have varicose veins, which explains the severity of my symptoms).

When you Need to Worry About Breathlessness and Dizziness 

There are not always benign explanations for why you may feel breathless and dizzy during pregnancy. You should contact your health care provider immediately if your dizziness is accompanied by vaginal bleeding and/or pain in your abdomen. This could be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy, a low-lying placenta, or placental abruption.

You should also contact your health care provider immediately if you have persistent dizziness or dizziness accompanied by blurred vision, headaches, or palpitations; this may be a symptom of severe anemia or some other illness that could have a negative effect on your pregnancy.

If you are feeling breathless and you get the feeling that your heart beat is racing, irregular or missing a beat, or if you feel chest pain--especially if it starts when you exert yourself--or if you have difficulty breathing when you're lying down or at night, see your doctor.