Can You Die From Hiccups?
The Facts About Can You Die From Hiccups?
Hiccuping is a common symptom of pregnancy. Some women experience it throughout their whole pregnancy. Other times, they only have hiccups during labor or delivery. Sometimes, they don’t even feel them at all! But if you are pregnant and experiencing hiccup symptoms, then you need to know that these symptoms could indicate something is wrong with your health.
If you think you might be having hiccups, then you need to take precautions. There are certain things that will make sure that they won’t happen again. If you’re still not sure what to do, then call your doctor right away. Your doctor can tell you exactly what to do so that there aren’t any complications later on in life.
Hiccups can cause a lot of problems for a woman during her pregnancy and after she gives birth. They can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and fatigue. These symptoms may occur for several days before they disappear completely.
When you have hiccups, you’ll probably want to sleep a lot because your body needs time to rest itself from the stress of being awake all night. However, when you do fall asleep, you might wake up feeling like someone is sitting on top of your chest or stomach. This sensation is called “hiccupping.” Although this might only last for a few minutes, it can keep happening over and over again when you try to go back to sleep.
Possible health issues during pregnancy could cause the hiccups. As mentioned before, there are several different causes of them. When you’re pregnant, your hormones are also going through a lot of changes. This combination is not good for your body when you’re trying to carry a baby.
One particular type of hiccups that happen during pregnancy are called intrapartum hiccups. This means that you’ll be hiccupping when you’re going into labor or while you’re giving birth. While these can be quite bothersome and could cause a lot pain or discomfort, they aren’t known to cause any serious health problems.
If you find that you’re hiccupping while you’re in labor, the best thing to do is to stay calm. This is sound advice for just about anything when you’re in labor! But if you start freaking out, then it’s only going to get worse and everyone around you is going to get upset as well. If you need to, take some time to relax or at least talk with someone who can keep their cool during a crisis.
Another reason for your hiccups during pregnancy is a condition known as persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn or PPHN. This is when your blood pressure remains high after you’ve given birth to your baby. If your blood pressure stays too high, then it can cause severe health problems for both you and your child.
It’s rare that this happens, but it’s something that’s taken quite seriously when it does. Your doctor will probably keep you for an extra day or two after you’ve given birth just to make sure that your hiccups don’t cause any problems in the future.
Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy is another reason why you may experience hiccups during pregnancy. This condition occurs in at least 3 out of every 10,000 pregnancies. It’s marked by elevated levels of bile in your blood. The reason why this happens isn’t exactly known, but in rare cases it can also lead to liver damage and the death of the baby.
Frequency
Some women may only hiccup once or twice when they get pregnant or when they go into labor. Other women may hiccup for weeks or even months at a time.
Sources & references used in this article:
hiccups by D Antin – Critical Inquiry, 2011 – journals.uchicago.edu
Alphons Mermann (1852–1908): hiccups, hygiene and Hebammen by CC Miller, GA Petroianu – Journal of medical biography, 2018 – journals.sagepub.com
Lateral medullary ischemia presenting with persistent hiccups and vertigo by M Mandalà, A Rufa, A Cerase, S Bracco… – International Journal …, 2010 – Taylor & Francis
Hiccups as the Presenting Manifestation of Cardiac Tamponade: A Case Report by TF Mayer – 2001 – JSTOR
My Hippo Has the Hiccups: And Other Poems I Totally Made Up by J Chen, JT Sun, CM Fan, KC Tsai, CJ Chang – The Journal of Emergency …, 2020 – Elsevier
