In my second and third month of pregnancy, I had terrible heartburn and as a result, I had no appetite to eat anything. What you’d feel when getting heartburn is a kind of burning sensation in the chest and throat with some sour and acidic taste in my mouth. This is due to some of the hormonal and physical changes in our body. Many women start experiencing heartburn and other gastrointestinal discomforts in the first trimester of pregnancy but in some cases, it could last until their baby is born.

Luckily, my heartburn went away on the fourth month of pregnancy. However, here are some of the steps I took in order to relieve heartburn :

1. Avoid food that might cause gastrointestinal discomforts and risk triggering heartburn. From my experience, citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, vinegar, broccoli, cauliflower and spicy, highly seasoned, fried, and fatty foods among others tend to stir up problems.
2. Don’t eat big meals. Instead of eating 3 big meals a day, I eat 6 small meals throughout the day. Smaller meals will make your stomach less stressful in digestion.
3. Reduce intake of water because large quantities of fluid can distend your stomach. I would drink 8 to 10 glasses of water daily during my pregnancy and sip it between meal.
4. Saliva tend to help neutralize acid. I eat chewing gum after meals because chewing gum can stimulates your salivary glands.
5. Try to drink some soyabean milk and that can help to reduce heartburn symptoms.
6. I sleep with two pillows instead of one. This heightens head and upper body to allow gravity to do it’s job by keeping your stomach acids in your stomach instead of overflowing back to your esophagus.
7. If you’ve got to have supper, do it before 9pm. This allows your stomach two to three hours to digest before I lie down and sleep.
8. Try not to talk when you are eating your meal. Talking too much while you are eating will allow more air to go into your stomach and increase heartburn.
9. Try to slow down when you are eating your meals. Chewing slowly can help your stomach digest food properly. Before I got pregnant, I take at most 15 minutes to finish my meals. It took more than half an hour to finish my meals when I was pregnant.
10. Wear loose and comfortable clothing to avoid any tightness around your waist and tummy. I started to wear maternity clothes in my third month of pregnancy.