Reasons for Frequent Spitting While Pregnant

When pregnant, some pregnant women often complain of frequent spitting. Although it may feel strange, this is generally reasonable and is caused by conditions that often accompany pregnant women. What are those? Check out the explanation below.

Saliva is a clear colored liquid that is naturally produced by glands in the mouth. Saliva has an important role, which is to digest and crush food, keep the mouth moist, maintain tooth strength, prevent bad breath, and fight germs that enter the mouth.

When not pregnant, the salivary glands normally produce about 0.5 liters of saliva. Even though this amount is quite a lot, we don't realize it because saliva is automatically swallowed continuously.

When pregnant, saliva production can increase up to 2 liters per day and occur suddenly. Generally, this happens around 2-3 weeks of early pregnancy. This makes many pregnant women want to spit to reduce the feeling of fullness in the mouth.

Reasons Why Often Spit While Pregnant

There are many factors that are thought to cause abundant saliva and make pregnant women continue to want to spit. The following are some of them:

1. Pregnancy hormone

Frequent spitting during pregnancy is thought to be strongly influenced by pregnancy hormones which in addition to maintaining pregnancy, can also make the salivary control nerves more active than usual. As a result, more saliva is coming out and makes Bumil want to keep spitting.

2. Nausea

Although not all pregnant women feel it, nausea is a sign of pregnancy that is often felt by most pregnant women. In conditions of extreme nausea and vomiting or hyperemesis gravidarum, there will usually be a feeling of being reluctant to swallow anything, even saliva itself.

Meanwhile, salivary glands continue to produce saliva into the oral cavity. This causes saliva to accumulate in the mouth and fill the mouth of pregnant women.

3. Stomach acid disease

During pregnancy, some pregnant women also experience heartburn or heartburn in the chest due to stomach acid disease or GERD. In this condition, acidic stomach contents can rise and irritate the esophagus.

The acid in this esophagus will trigger the salivary glands to produce saliva that is alkaline. Every time pregnant women swallow, this saliva will wet the walls of the esophagus and neutralize stomach acid which causes complaints of pain and heat.

4. Pregnant boys or twins

Several studies have found an association between excess saliva production and male or twin pregnancy pregnancies. However, this matter still needs further investigation. So if Bumil feels that she often spits during pregnancy, it is not certain that Bumil has a son or twins, yes.

In addition to the 4 reasons above, frequent spitting during pregnancy is also associated with the consumption of dairy products and impaired swallowing function, sleep disturbance, and eating disorders in pregnant women. These conditions may be unnoticed and require a careful examination by a doctor.

How to deal with excess saliva when pregnant

Although excessive salivation during pregnancy is not dangerous, pregnant women may feel disturbed and uncomfortable when experiencing this condition. Pregnant women may often wake up at night because the saliva that collects in the mouth makes sleep soundly or even makes pregnant choking.

Well, to overcome this, there are several ways you can do it, namely:

• Don't consume too much food containing flour or milk because it can trigger salivary glands to produce more saliva.
• Prepare a drinking water bottle next to Bumil and drink water often so that Bumil remains well hydrated.
• If Bumil doesn't feel nauseous, it's better to swallow more saliva than Bumil has to go back and forth to the bathroom to spit.
• Try sucking on hard textured candy or chewing gum without sugar. Although not able to reduce excess saliva, this method can make pregnant women more comfortable to swallow saliva that has accumulated so they do not feel nauseous.
• If swallowing saliva continues to make pregnant women nauseous and want to vomit, prepare a small container to remove the excess saliva.

Often spitting during pregnancy is not experienced by all pregnant women. However, this is something natural, really. When you experience it, pregnant women do not need to be embarrassed or worry too much because this condition can disappear by itself with increasing gestational age.

But if frequent spitting is accompanied by stress, decreased appetite, or drastic weight loss, Bumil is recommended to consult a doctor. History tracking and examination need to be done to find out whether Bumil has a disorder that needs to be treated seriously.

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