The body of the expectant mother is undergoing a lot of changes. Muscle tone, hormonal levels change, and the volume of circulating blood increases. The most ambitious changes start shortly before childbirth, because a woman will have to go through a responsible and very energy-consuming period. The body temperature that rises in the later stages scares pregnant women, because it may well be the reason for refusing hospitalization in a regular department and the reason for giving birth in the observational department of the maternity hospital.
In this article, we will look at the main reasons for this phenomenon and find out if an increase in temperature always indicates the presence of certain problems.
Impact of stress and anxiety
No matter how much the pregnant women are told during the courses of expectant mothers and in the consultation about the need to be calm and ready for childbirth, women usually cannot remain completely calm. Excitement, anxiety, fear of childbirth - all this creates very real prerequisites for an increase in body temperature. Moreover, the closer to the date of birth, the more intense the excitement can be. From this point of view, an increased body temperature before childbirth may well be a physiological reaction to a psychological factor.
Such a psychogenic temperature usually rises to 37.0-37.5 degrees, does not last long, and is often accompanied by chills. It is these feelings that stress hormones can cause in the human body.
What to do is clear without much explanation. You need to try to relieve stress, take a shower, calm down, switch to other thoughts, watch your favorite movie, go for a walk. In general, to do something that will help to temporarily forget about worries and fear, and tune in to a creative mood - very soon the baby will be born, and it will be really wonderful and right.
Promotion before childbirth
The temperature can rise just a few days before childbirth, and then it, together with other "harbingers", can be regarded as a sign of the imminent onset of labor.
Before childbirth, the placenta and pituitary gland begin to produce oxytocin, a hormone necessary for full-fledged contractions. Progesterone is on the decline. In response to a change in the hormonal background, the body may well give out a thermal reaction, the thermometer will show up to 37.5 degrees.
You don't need to worry. If there are no other complaints and signs of illness, such a temperature does not need to be reduced or treated. Upon admission to the maternity hospital with her, at the discretion of the doctor, a woman may well go not to the observational department, which pregnant women are so afraid of, but to the usual generic one.
For reasons of illness
An increased temperature in pregnant women cannot be ignored, if only because it can be an indicator of the presence of an infectious or inflammatory process in the body, which is extremely undesirable during childbirth. Immunity weakens during gestation, it is artificially suppressed by progesterone to ensure the bearing of the fetus in order to avoid rejection. Therefore, before giving birth, a woman becomes a convenient target for viruses and bacteria of all categories and stripes.
It is possible that the temperature rises due to a viral infection. SARS can be caught anywhere, with a viral disease, not only the temperature rises, but also stuffs up the nose, a headache, there is a sore throat, and a cough may appear. The temperature rises above 38.0 degrees.
The manifestation of a genitourinary infection is also accompanied by a high fever and pain during urination, a change in the amount and color of urine, and its unusual smell.
The most dangerous infection is inside the uterus. Intrauterine infections are not as rare as we would like. An increase in temperature above 37.5 degrees and its long-term retention at this level and above, without signs of a cold, may well be a sign of intrauterine infection, which is extremely dangerous for the life of a woman and her child.
If an intrauterine infection is detected, if there is still time before delivery, treatment may be prescribed.
If childbirth should take place from day to day, a woman may be prescribed a caesarean section if the infection affects the vagina, cervix, and also in cases where the condition of the fetus after infection has significantly deteriorated.
How and when to treat?
If a woman complains of a fever, the doctor is obliged to examine her - take a blood test, do an ultrasound scan, take a smear of the vaginal flora for analysis, do a general urine test. In the absence of signs of disease, treatment is not prescribed, since the increase in temperature is considered physiological. Such a reaction of the body before childbirth, according to statistics, is characteristic of about 15% of pregnant women.
If the causes of the temperature are still painful, you should try to eliminate them before childbirth. Childbirth in itself is a great burden on the female body. If there is an opportunity not to aggravate this load, why not take advantage of it?
With ARVI, a woman is prescribed abundant drink, bed rest, fresh juices and fruits, and healthy sleep. Medicines in this case are not prescribed or symptomatic drugs are recommended - apart from a runny nose, cough or headache. The doctor should choose the medicine taking into account the “interesting” position of the patient.
Sexual, genitourinary infections require treatment with antibacterial drugs. Before childbirth, antibiotics do not have such a strong teratogenic effect on the fetus as in the third trimester. According to the doctor's prescription, they may well be used to stabilize the condition of the future woman in labor.
Preventive measures
Before giving birth, you should not visit crowded places, this threatens with a viral disease, which is now completely unnecessary. Also, you should not refuse vaccinations against influenza - pregnant women and babies are injected with special vaccines, purified from impurities. Even if a vaccinated woman gets sick with the flu, the disease will be milder without serious complications.
To prevent intrauterine infection, it is important to remember that after the passage of the mucous plug, water, at the beginning of the preparation of the cervix for childbirth, sexual contact, swimming in the pool, and also taking a bath is prohibitedto prevent infection from entering the genital tract, and from there into the uterine cavity.
Shortly before childbirth, you should calm down, pull yourself together, consult a psychologist, if you cannot cope with anxiety on your own. Don't forget about taking vitamins, eating well, and resting.
How to properly prepare for childbirth, even in the presence of a temperature, the specialist tells in the next video.
