Alternative health care for heartburn during pregnancy

Because of the risk of medications to the developing fetus during pregnancy, many women who do develop heartburn are reluctant to take any type of drugs. This is understandable because the majority of medications can cause irreversible harm to the fetus. Moreover, most medications have not even been evaluated for their safety during pregnancy. For this reason many women have been turning to alternative health care for treatment of their heartburn symptoms. There are several alternative and complimentary treatments heartburn. The aim of these treatments is to decrease acidity by relieving your stress and anxiety levels. If you are pregnant and under a lot of stress, you may want to consider the following treatments:

Aromatherapy is an exotic treatment that combines  use of naturally occurring oils from a variety of plants, herbs, barks, stems and fruits to enhance your physical and psychological well-being. The sweet smelling fragrant oils can be inhaled or massaged and are said to relax the brain. There are many anecdotal reports that use of aromatherapy can help relieve pain, enhance mood and improve mental function.

Gentle exercise during pregnancy cannot only help one maintain decent weight, but boost self esteem. Pregnant women should not perform strenuous exercise for fear of injuring themselves and the baby. Activities recommended to help stimulate the stomach and diminish acidity include walking, cycling or swimming. One should avoid intense exercise as it can worsen heartburn.

Hypnosis is said to decrease anxiety and relieve stress. However, one requires multiple sessions over a period of few months. Unfortunately, hypnosis is also expensive and its benefits are short lived.

One of the cheapest ways to relieve stress and get relief from heartburn is listening to soothing soft music. Others may benefit from total body massage with a variety of oils and creams. Like hypnosis, massage is a great stress reliever but it is also costly and the effects are not sustained.

Acupuncture has also been widely touted to relieve stress and anxiety. Like massage and hypnosis, many sessions of acupuncture are required to obtain stress relief. Moreover, acupuncture is not cheap.

All pregnant who suffer from heartburn should understand that these methods are not a substitute for medical treatment of heartburn but complementary methods. The only definitive way to decrease stomach acidity is to take medications. However, when these alternative treatments are used, the dose of medications required to decrease acidity is significantly less.