The internet is full of questions from women who, during their pregnancy and after childbirth, are suddenly allergic to something they have never been allergic to before. And the unlucky ones have developed a range of allergies. If you're lucky they disappear slowly, if you're unlucky your allergy during pregnancy turns into a permanent allergy.
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It seems to have to do with your body weakening your immune system during pregnancy. Not because you use a lot of energy and get too few vitamins, but because otherwise your body would reject your own child. So it is actually a good thing that your immune system weakens. Unfortunately, in addition to all kinds of other pregnancy ailments, you can also become allergic to, for example, non-precious metals (think of rings), gluten, dust mites, pollen, pets and so on. It's all possible, you can build up one allergy during pregnancy, but it can also be a combination of several allergies.
Because your hormones are a bit different, you also react differently to certain substances. As a result, it is quite possible that after the birth you suddenly become less allergic again and that the allergy during pregnancy even disappears completely after birth. But it is also possible the other way around. You can also get increasingly worse allergic reactions, because your hormone balance returns to 'normal'.
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Dealing with an allergy is especially difficult if you are breastfeeding. Without breastfeeding it is of course already annoying, but with the right diet or the right medication it quickly becomes a lot better. Then the allergy is more manageable. As a breastfeeding mom, it's a little more complicated. You can't just take everything. Some medication does have an effect on your little one, and we don't mean a positive effect.
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I too have become allergic. I always had hay fever and was always allergic to pork and yeast…and kiwi…and insect bites. So quite a laundry list. But somewhere towards the end of the pregnancy I suddenly became allergic to pets.
In the beginning I didn't realize it, because I thought I was suffering from hay fever. But now that my allergy during pregnancy becomes more and more severe, the symptoms are becoming clearer and I can trace them back to my pregnancy. Nice is different, because we have two dogs every (long) weekend. They go with the eldest; when she is with her mother the dogs are there too, when she is with us the dogs are here. The tricky part is that I suffer from allergies in waves.
When the dogs are gone, the symptoms slowly subside, but before it's completely gone, the dogs are back and the symptoms get worse again...so the peak gets bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, medication is not possible, because I breastfeed and our youngest cannot drink from the bottle. So I can't stop breastfeeding. I try to have as little contact with them as possible to minimize the inconvenience. Because itching during pregnancy is really miserable. Especially because the dogs don't understand and that's why they visit me extra. This way, an allergy that has built up during pregnancy can still get in the way afterwards! Fortunately, the Rowenta Air Purifier can still do something in this regard.
Somehow I hope that the allergy will go away once I can stop breastfeeding. But I fear that will not be the case. So now fingers crossed that I will soon be able to stop breastfeeding, so that I can take medication without it affecting our daughter. If not…. I don't even want to think about it…
Do you recognize having an allergy during your pregnancy? And what kind of allergy was that and do you still suffer from it after pregnancy?
