Pregnancy is itself a difficult stage in every women’s life and if you have a sore throat, it just adding more to your misery. There’s absolutely no relationship between pregnancy and strep throat and everyone is equally vulnerable to it. However, if you suffer from it when you’re pregnant, it just adding more struggle to combat.
Sore throat, often referred to as strep throat is a bacterial infection in the throat and tonsils. Inflammation, irritation, swelling, and pain is what you experience around your tonsils which is basically caused by stretococcal (strep) bacteria.
Strep throat is not always same as a sore throat. Your throat and tonsils can be affected by allergies and other infections while strep throat always has a bacterial-cause.
Symptoms of strep throat during pregnancy
There are a lot of changes women go through during different stages of pregnancy. Some of them are natural while some are caused because of health related issues. If you feel that you’re having a sore throat and are not sure about it, here are the symptoms that you can look at:
- Pain in the throat
- Headache
- Weakness and fatigue, lack of energy
- Red and swollen tonsils
- The white spots in the throat or tonsils
- Swelling around the neck
- Difficulty while eating and swallowing
- Enlargement of lymph nodes
- Difficulty breathing
- Cough, nausea
- Inflammation of the throat
- Excessive sweating
- Fever
- Abdominal pain
- Loss of appetite
What you need to understand is that you don’t need to have all of these symptoms to have sore throat during pregnancy. If you are going through some of them, you either need to take care of yourself or see your doctor and let him/her know about your pain.
How to get rid of sore throat during pregnancy?
If it’s bacteria that’s causing the infection in your throat, antibiotics work like charm. There are various antibiotics available to fight the cause and treat sore throat, of which penicillin, cephalexin and amoxicillin are the most common ones.
Before you take these medicines, you always need to follow the doctor’s instruction regarding the dosage as overdose of antibiotics is harmful, both to the mother and the child.
Penicillin is a category B drug that has no side effects on pregnant women. The only problem with using antibiotics during pregnancy is diarrhea, which is generally uncommon. However, if you see blood stains in the stool for a few days, you need to see your doctor if you are using penicillin.
Cephalexin is also a category B drug which has almost no effect to fetus despite passing through placenta. Not much of research has been made regarding the use of Cephalexin during pregnancy, however, it is strongly believed that the medicine does not impair fertility. Make sure to take the proper dosage in order to treat sore throat.
Amoxicillin is also a category B medicine according to FDA. Huge amount of dosage, around 10 times that in human has been tested in animals which showed no evident signs of teratogenicity. However, it’s also advised to take Amoxicillin only when its benefits are high.
Home Remedies to Get Rid of Sore Throat During Pregnancy
Apart from bacterial or fungal infection, sore throat is also caused by allergies, acid reflux, and pollutants. Medical doctors advise not to take medicines unless the pain is severe and unbearable.
Sore throat can be treated with simple methods and here we’ve a list of home remedies that you can use for the treatment.
Warm Salt Water Gargle
Cold is only going to make things worse, so the best thing to do is to stay away from drinking cold water or cold drinks. Warm salt water soothes throat while it also clears the layer of bacteria while gargling.
All you need to do is add a teaspoon of salt to warm water and gargle at least four to five times in a day. You can also add turmeric to the water. However, make sure that you throw out water after gargling in order to keep the bacteria away from your system.
Take Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins are used mostly to make immune system strong and fight bacteria and germs. You can find a number of prenatal vitamin serums while you can also eat several fruits like citrus fruits, mango, kiwi, melons, and strawberries to get vitamin C. Vegetables like spinach, cabbage, pepper, broccoli are also rich in Vitamin C while other food items that are beneficial are eggs, oysters, turkey, beef, etc.
Drink Honey and Lemon Tea
Lemon tea is one of the most effective drinks that help to clear the mucus layer causing phlegm in your throat. Add a teaspoon of honey with your regular tea and drink it. Honey will help to soothe and coat the itchy throat and protect it from further bacterial infection. Make sure to drink it a couple of times in a day and your sore throat will wipe out eventually.
Drink More Fluids
It’s difficult to eat solid food if you’re having a sore throat. Instead of swallowing, you can drink more fluid (hot) in order to remove the toxins present around mucus. It’s also important to keep yourself hydrated during any sort of weakness.
Rest
This might not be the fastest solution to get rid of sore throat, but rest is probably helping you to battle the infection in the first place. Rest is going to build up your strength and immunity which helps to fight against bacteria or virus that’s causing the infection.
When to call a doctor?
You can treat sore throat during pregnancy at home or by getting medicine from a local drug store. However, if it’s infection is more severe and you start seeing white layers around tonsils, you might get fever and more pain. If its unbearable, you need to see a doctor right away, because the symptoms of sore throat can develop chest infection and breathing problems which can affect your baby.
In case you feel dizzy, have nausea or going through high fever, you need to see a doctor immediately as it can be cured immediately without causing any effect to the unborn child.
