Dry cough during pregnancy

Hi,

My friend is pregnant (in her 1st trimester) and she keeps complaining that she gets very dry cough (that makes her cough pulling up from bottom of the stomach!). She checked with me whether is part of morning sickness in pregnancy?

To my knowledge, I know morning sickness causes vomitting and nausea feeling. But not sure of dry cough. I was sceptical to advice to take any cough syrup,etc. because in my opinion it is better to avoid internal medicines as much possible.

Have any of you gone through such dry cough during your pregnancy?

Please share your experience and any home remedy for the same.

Cheers,
Malar

Hi malar,

For both of my kids, had faced this particular cough problem. For my second kid, would get cough every month as it was fall/winter season and the doctor, as you said would not suggest even a mild dosage cough syrup.

Drinking plenty of warm flluids like milk or water will soothe yr throat and reduce the cough and will not hurt the stomach. In a day, two to three times, do steaming which is very effective. I dont know the name for medicinal ingredients in English; in tamil, we call sitharathai, athimathuram & panagarkandu, mixing all these three a pinch and adding in water, boil and drink which also will help a bit.

It will take atleast 1 week to 10 days to get out of the cough, but what to do? Have to go thro the same. Taking pepper with ghee rice will improve our immune in general and instead of plain water, omam or jeera water is good for cough too.

Hope this helps..

Happy Diwali to you & yr friend!!

Hi Malar,

In addition to Ami's suggestions, it is good to take boiled milk with turmeric powder + pepper (crushed) boiled in it. It soothes soar throat and good for dry cough.

Also, such natural stuff does not have any side effects on pregnant women.

Hi,

Drinking milk with panangkalkandu (tamil name, it is a type of jaggery that you get in crushed crystal form) helps reduce dry cough. It soothes your throat and is also good for digestion too. Also, you can get better taste and avoid sugar.

Good luck to your friend.

Shakthi

HI friends
I m suffering from dry cough from last 20 days and i m in my 30 th week.
Can i take roated turmeric pd with honey and ginger juice.
Please advice me.
Thanks and regards

Originally Posted by malar

Hi,

My friend is pregnant (in her 1st trimester) and she keeps complaining that she gets very dry cough (that makes her cough pulling up from bottom of the stomach!). She checked with me whether is part of morning sickness in pregnancy?

To my knowledge, I know morning sickness causes vomitting and nausea feeling. But not sure of dry cough. I was sceptical to advice to take any cough syrup,etc. because in my opinion it is better to avoid internal medicines as much possible.

Have any of you gone through such dry cough during your pregnancy?

Please share your experience and any home remedy for the same.

Cheers,
Malar

Malar, you're right there. I dont think cough suppressants is a good idea during pregnancy without prescription.

I would like to share what happened with me. My asthma worsened during my pregnancy. In addition to wheezing and congestion, I got dry cough in the nights/early morning. As dry cough could be a sign of asthma, it is best in my opinion, for her to bring it up with her ob at the next appointment.

Asthma needs to controlled during pregnancy with appropriate medicaiton or it could (not will) result in premature birth. Not trying to scare you, but I happen to know a handful of women whose asthma was in bad control during pregnancy and they had PROM and emergency c-sections at 8 months. In my case, my OB switched me to another inhaler and brought my asthma under control. So though it is a nuisance, it need not be a problem.

I also have to tell you that I got good relief from turmeric and pepper in milk like PP had said.

Did your friend see a doctor? I too had a dry cough during my first pregnancy - it was from my cold, and lasted for about 2 weeks. Made me feel very uncomfortable. I would ask your friend to get checked by a regular doctor to ensure there is no infection in lungs or anything. Sometimes these coughs can drag out.