Headaches and Pregnancy

[Jane91]

I've had headaches since age 8. Before being pregnant, I was getting about 3 "severe" headaches a month (by that I mean not responding to OTC medication, and lasting for more than 2 days) that did not meet the definition of migraine.

After getting pregnant, I did not have a SINGLE headache for the length of my pregnancy and for 3 months post-partum.

Anyone have a similar experience? I would love to be able to figure out what the headache trigger for me is (almost wondering if it is hormonal in some way?)

[zmom2010]

Yep, sounds like hormonal headaches. This happened with me, and a couple of my patients. I would get full-blown migraines each month and bad headaches in the middle of the cycle. Once I got pregnant, not a single one. This is b/c though there are a lot of hormones going on in a pregnant woman's body, it's different from your normal surge and then sudden drop in a regular cycle.
If you start getting them again once you return to a normal cycle, there are some hormonal acupuncture points on the legs that you can have treated, chiropractic can help if you go a couple times BEFORE the headaches start.

Also, I know caffiene can often be migraine/headache triggers, but for me, with the hormonal headaches a HUGE amount of caffiene (like a triple shot of espresso) really helps. However, with this I'd say be cautious, b/c caffiene can aggravate some types of headaches.

Also, I would see if you're getting enough B6 in your diet/supplementation.

Hope this helps a little!!!

[Jane91]

Thanks for the recommendations! Its good to know I'm not crazy about this. I have always used caffeine as a headache treatment, and it does help with my little headaches in-between the severe ones. However, the severe ones it doesn't seem to touch. I will definitely check into the chiro/accupressure.