Migraines are currently a common condition nowadays. According to the data, due to the hormonal changes of pregnancy, these strong headaches usually improve. However, there are a percentage of women for whom this is not true.  

Headaches and migraines

Even though you may have never suffered from migraines, or at least not regularly, you may experience headaches during your first three months of pregnancy.  There are two factors that affect this condition: on the one hand, the changes in hormonal levels are partly to blame for this problem and on the other, the concerns and worries that usually come hand in hand with the news of impending motherhood also have a strong emotional component that could cause tension and therefore headaches.

Headaches are defined as a pain that can affect the forehead, the area above your eyes, the space between your ears or the nape of the neck or the top of your neck. Primary headaches are those that are isolated, while secondary headaches are a consequence of an illness.

Tension headaches are the most common types of tension headaches. In general, they are located on the upper neck or feel like a band that goes from the lower neck to the forehead and are not as intense as migraines.

Migraines tend to affect women more than men and it is common for sufferers to have a family history of them. A typical migraine affects only one side of the head, it’s a pulsating pain and may last between 4 and 72 hours. Migraines may be accompanied by nausea or vomiting, sensitivity to light or sound and a lot of people see a kind of aura before the onset of the migraine.

Although nowadays there is effective medication for migraines, these meds may affect your pregnancy, reason for which you should check with your doctor before taking anything and also to see what kind of pain-killers you can use to alleviate pain.  

In order to prevent headaches

The best remedy for headaches is undoubtedly prevention.  There are activities and foods that appear to trigger migraines in some people. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these triggers could be different for each person. Weather changes, stress or certain foods could trigger a headache. Try to figure out if, after doing a certain activity or eating a certain food, you get a headache. Some people keep a “log” of activities and foods in order to identify what happened right before the headache or migraine started.  

Other prevention measures include exercising regularly and doing relaxation exercises. This could eliminate daily part of the stress that could bring on the headache.  

Remedies for pain

Migraine pain can get to be really intense, but there are certain measures that can diminish it, or at least, prevent it from getting worse.  Rest and relaxation improve the progression of a headache. If the pain is pulsating, sometimes a cold compress on the headache or the point of pain may alleviate it.  

In any case, if headaches are very severe towards the third trimester, you should contact your doctor, because it could be a symptom of another problem, such as high blood pressure or a condition known as preeclampsia.