Having heartburn while pregnant: what to know

Pregnancy can relax the muscle that normally helps keep stomach contents below the food pipe. Pressure from the growing uterus may also encourage acid to move upwards. You may notice burning in the chest, a sour taste, burping, or symptoms that worsen after eating or when lying down. This pattern is consistent with heartburn, but it cannot confirm a diagnosis on its own.

Other digestive conditions, including acid reflux, gastritis, a hiatus hernia, or a peptic ulcer, can cause overlapping discomfort. Tell your clinician about the location and character of pain, your stage of pregnancy, vomiting, and any difficulty swallowing.

Choose smaller portions, eat at a relaxed pace, and keep upright after meals. Avoid bending or lying down immediately after eating, and identify foods that reliably worsen your symptoms. Rest with your upper body raised if night symptoms disturb sleep. Check with a pharmacist or maternity clinician before taking acid reflux medication, antacids, or herbal products; suitability can depend on your pregnancy and other treatments.

Get prompt maternity advice if symptoms stop you keeping fluids down, recur despite practical measures, or come with severe upper-abdominal pain, headache, visual changes, sudden swelling, painful swallowing, vomiting blood, or dark stools. Emergency care is needed for chest pain with breathlessness, sweating, collapse, or faintness.

Ask what may be triggering the reflux, whether your supplements or medicines affect it, which treatment is suitable, and how to recognise symptoms that need same-day assessment.