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38 weeks and coughing

post #1 of 6
Thread Starter 
Anyone had to deal with a cough this late in pregnancy? I'm a little concerned about coughing during labor. I've had lots of Braxton Hicks contractions now for almost 2 weeks and I find it hard to breath through them without coughing like crazy. I don't like taking medication if I don't have to, but I've wondered about having a cough suppressant handy for when I go into labor, but not sure how this will affect baby. Anyone out there had to go through this and any suggestions?
post #2 of 6
I have had a cough since mid February. I also had a cold with a productive cough when I gave birth to my first son (who was an induction with pitocin) and I had an epidual with that delivery. The only thing I will say is that if you are still coughing during labor, I would think twice about an epidural. I couldn't cough to clear my throat because of the epidural and it was very scary because I felt like I couldn't breathe.
post #3 of 6
Unrelated to pregnancy, last year I had a cough that was going to nearly break my ribs, and had just had it with being overly drugged to only partially deal with it. ( most of the best cough supressorers are based on codeine cause it works so well.

So my doctor gave me these little gel capsules of Benzonatate 200mg ( mine are generics for a drug called Tessalon) and I could not believe how well they worked!!!!!!!!!!!!! Complete lifesavers, no affect on my mental clarity what so ever. My medic hubby said that they were some sort of numbing thing and he has seen then carefully broken open and a single drop can numb half a toungue! ( he and the bottle mentions that they are very dangerous to break open and swallow cause they can numb the through and cause short term swallowing issues.

I have some left over and keep them like they are gold for the next time I need then, hopefully never. You might look up and decide is you feel they are save and ask a doctor about them.
post #4 of 6
I had a cold/flu at 38 weeks too. I was home sick from work Mon-Thurs, coughing like crazy. I actually think it caused me to go into labor. My DS was born 10 days early on that Friday, just as I was starting to feel better. It wasn't really a problem though - just a nuisance, although I do suspect that it caused my water to break - I didn't have any contractions before that, and had been feeling fine pregnancy-wise, but started slow leaking, and then some minor cramping until I was put on pitocen at the hospital. The most annoying thing was that during the birth I lost my voice and could only whisper, and I did have an epidural so they wouldn't let me drink anything, and the ice chips were helping keep my throat lubricated.

I don't think the coughing hurts the baby though. Basically I blame the coughing for my water breaking, and therefore for the pitocen, and therefore for the epidural, but that's just my personal experience - would not happen to everyone that way.

Good luck!

post #5 of 6
With my first pregnancy, I had a terrible cough. As in, during my college art class, I kept leaving the room with loud, prolonged coughing fits, and during a really bad one was kind of hanging onto the wall so I wouldn't fall over and coughed til my water broke (I was 40 weeks though!). Labor started naturally about 5 hours later.

The coughing in labor didn't bother me.

The coughing with a postpartum bottom was MISERABLE.

Have you tried taking a tablespoon of dark honey, or a half cup of warm water with a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of lemon juice in it? This can be really helpful to a cough.

Hugs! I hope you feel better by the time baby comes.
post #6 of 6
I'm about 37 weeks and got the cold that my husband and kids just got over. Sore throat with a nighttime cough and some congestion. The cough does feel really uncomfortable. I've been taking some honey with lemon juice for the sore throat and drinking more hot pregnancy tea when I was making iced tea out of it. That seems to be helping me and the warmth is soothing. I almost felt like taking a Benedryl last night to sleep but managed to deal without it. Hope you feel better soon...I feel good that we all got a summer cold out of the way before babe comes.
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