I Am Pregnant, Cold All the Time and Have Low Blood Pressure

Get moving! Exercise will help a lot! I've struggled with low blood pressure and being cold, and I feel like I have really tackled it! Make sure you are getting enough B vitamins, especially B12. It should be in your prenatal vitamin. If you are concerned that you're anemic, this will help a lot! Consider taking a liquid iron supplement called Flora-Dix. This stuff is amazing and easily digestible without causing constipation. If you're a coffee drinker at all, give that up and do your best to incorporate spices like cumin, turmeric and cinnamon into your diet. But I promise you, exercise will help more than anything. It's really important to get that heart pumping!

Hi J.,

I'm always cold too. What I do is always keep my feet covered. I don't know if you walk bare foot or not. Try wearing socks all the time because the coldness usually starts from your feet. Also, try eating ice cubes daily to increase your iron and taking the pills the doctor gave you for your pregnancy.

I have friends who are always cold and low in their iron and the doctor would recommend them to eat ice chips and taking their iron pills to help them.

Love AJ

i don't know if i had low blood pressure but i was always cold for about the first 6 or 7 months of my 3 pregnancies. did your doc say anything about iron suppliments? if you were anemic it should help.

I was anemic with both pregnancies. I took Iron, talk to your midwife about dosage. Eat more red meat and high iron foods. Warning, iron can constipate. Keep your feet and your head warm, that's where you lose most if your body heat. Drink warm liquids, even warm water is good.

I've had low blood pressure most of my life and I'm always cold. It dropped even lower while I was pregnant. I just made sure I had a hat on and socks on my feet and tried to keep as warm as possible. By all means go to the doctor and have your blood and everything else checked out to be sure that is all it is. I take a lot of warm bathes too but be sure they aren't too warm! Blessings to you!

hi J.,
congrats on your pregnancy!
i was cold, too, so my midwife checked my thyroid with a blood test. turned out ok, but you may want to have the test done.
take care,
J.

Did your midwife talk to you about getting your thyroid checked? I hope so! Being cold all the time is a classic symptom of thyroid issues. Might as well bundle it with the blood draw for anemia, when your veins are better. Hope you feel better soon.

My blood pressure is usually low as well. I know even short exercies helps. It raises blood pressure and gets me warmer. Otherwise I just try to dress a little warmer.

I've had the same experience and I was both anemic and had a thyroid problem. You really need to get your blood checked. A hematologist at a lab will be able to take it with no problems. They just put a warm towel on your arm to warm up your veins. Please go get checked!!

How much water do you drink? Soda, milk, tea, juices do not count- straight water. A lot of times being dehydrated will cause low blood pressure and feeling cold all the time..

I've been anemic since I was pregnant with my son ten years ago, it is still a battle. Sometimes pregnancy seems to bring it out more. During my pregnancy, I was severely anemic. I also have low bp, and get cold often. My advice is to get your blood checked and have a doc prescribe the right dose of iron that you need. I needed much more iron during pregnancy and for about a year after than I do now, but it's important to have it for you now. You will also become very fatigued if it goes on for too long. I hope this helps, try to go get it checked, your symptoms sound exactly like mine, and I am indeed anemic. ~A. J

Midwives are great used in conjunction with a doctor. Your problems are bigger than just being cold. Go see your doctor!

Increase your fluid to increase your blood volume and ease the flow. Also, leafy greens and red meat will up your iron if you are anemic. I'm not a physician, but 70 is fairly normal. It's the 98 that's a little low. I was running about 105/68 during my pregnancy and my doctor just kept an eye on my bp to make sure it stayed near that even though it's a little low for normal.

Those are classic symptoms of hypothyroidism (basically low thyroid function) which can be triggered by pregnancy. Get your thyroid function checked by a naturopath (not an MD unless you have one you have a great relationship with) and have them look at your TSH, T3 and T4 levels. This may be what's going on with you and has a simple fix with hormone replacement. Good luck!

J.,
You have received excellent responses already. If you turn out to have iron-deficiency anemia (which is not uncommon during pregnancy d/t increased daily iron requirements), I would recommend you try taking Floradix Iron & Herbs liquid formula. It is easily absorbed & does not cause nausea like ferrous iron does.

Have you had your thyroid checked? My thyroid levels change when I am pregnant and one of the symptoms of low thyroid is being cold. I also have low blood pressure. This usually changes again about mid pregnancy and then I am warm all of the time. It may be a temporary thing. Good Luck and keep those feet in some warm socks!

It is really important that you check to see if you are anemic. Make sure you are taking your prenatal vitamins and drink hot liquids frequently. There is a simple test for a CBC complete blood count, that can be drawn. Sometimes with a fingerstick. Call your Dr.
Deb, R.N.

I recently started seeing a Naturopathic Doctor because blood tests aren't always sensitive enough to detect low thyroid (which if you really have that, could cause the baby to be brain damaged) and most MDs will only do blood tests, whereas naturopaths are more likely to do saliva testing, which is more accurate because it actually measures what is available for use in the tissues (not what's possibly bound up by proteins in the blood). You can see an OB and a naturopath concurrently. A real naturopath has been to 4 years of naturopathic medical school and is licensed as an ND or NMD. You might look for one experienced with pregnancy issues. I'm sure you already are, but stay on those prenatal vitamins and minerals as well, and drink more. My blood pressure has been as low as 86/50, probably due to the undiagnosed lowish thyroid and my constant state of dehydration (because I don't drink enough). I don't think this sounds normal for you. When pregnant, our metabolism should be kicked into overdrive, making us warm, if anything, and even possibly raise our blood pressure. It doesn't sound like you experienced this with the other pregnancies, so it's definitely something to check out. Good luck!

Hi J. - I'm a mom of 3. With my first pregnancy I had hyperthyroid, which is the thyroid working overtime. I couldn't gain weight and had to eat all the time to keep from getting nauseated.
With my 3rd (she's 2 months old today) I was cold all the time. I didn't realize how tired and dragging I was because it comes on one day at a time and as you live your life you're not noticing how tired you feel - it's just the way things are! I have *always* had low body temp, low blood pressure, and a low heart rate. This pregnancy my blood tests came back showing no thyroid problems, but terribly anemic. Not just low iron, which is the routine test, but low ferritin, which is your body's iron stores. My midwives were very vigilant of my iron levels throughout my pregnancy, because if they are low going into labor it's an increased risk, and I was planning to deliver at a birth center.
I got my levels high enough with a daily 65 mg iron supplement in addition to my prenatal vitamins and eating a lot of iron rich foods. You might not like it, but a "hot toddy" each night consisting of hot water and a tablespoon of Black Strap Molasses (not the kind you cook with) is the best iron booster. Next best is to put baby spinach on your sandwiches, in your pasta, salads, etc. Salmon and beans/lentils follow as the next best sources. The foods are the best fix because your body absorbs them readily, whereas some people's bodies do not recognize supplements and just pass them through.
Sorry about the length of this answer, but I'm still on my regimen since I hemorrhaged about 3 pints of blood at my delivery and am still working 2 months later to get my blood back to where it should be!!! Let me know if you need anything else!

I would consider getting your thyroid levels checked. Sensitivity to cold is one of the big symptoms (others being fatigue, constipation, dry skin, etc.). It may be totally unrelated, but low thyroid levels can cause developmental problems for growing fetuses, so it wouldn't hurt to have it checked out.

Get your thyroid checked. It's a simple blood draw, ask your OB for the test. Lots of women develop thyroid problems while they are pregnant, and thyroid disease is very common in women in general. It can make you very tired and cold.

I would go to your doctor. That is a very low BP and you don't want to mess around with your BP when you are pregnant. I would call or go see your doctor on this one.

Hi, My midwife suggested the best iron supplement. It is called Floradix, Floravital Iron + Herbs. It is a liquid extract food based iron supplement. I have been taking it for almost a year, including most of the months I was pregnant and I still take while I am nursing. I have read that many iron supplements prescribed by doctors, or even over the counter, don't absorb well, but this one did for me. I feel like it did a really good job of reducing my anemia, and fairly quickly, but in full disclosure, I didn't take the blood test until after the baby was born, she born Cesarean birth and my iron count was in the good range at my 6 week check-up. Anyway, if your interested in buying it, I found it cheapest online at Vitacost - almost half of its retail price. But definitely talk to your midwife before taking anything.
As a side note - I stopped being cold all the time, but I was also pregnant. Good luck
R.

I also want to add that I took my prenatal daily in addition to the iron supplement. Try taking your iron not with orange juice, but some other form of vitamin c. I've heard that the acid in the orange juice inhibits absorption somehow.

Drink lots of fluids--mostly water.

Please go see your family practice Dr. or OB/GYN Dr. as they have the training and education to improve your condition. I was severely anemic during my last pregnancy and took prescription iron pills because my body could not hold onto iron.

Also, remember that even though you are a busy mom, you need to take care of yourself!!

Hi,
I'm vegetarian and thus get anemic if I don't take my iron supplements. I take SlowFE, and also regular vitamins, plus Calcium since I am still breastfeeding. So I would take an iron supplement {it won't hurt anything, as long as you only take as many as the box says}. Other than that, some ppl just have low blood pressure. I am usually about 120/60. A doctor took my blood pressure once and it was 100/60, and she said 'Amazing that you're still alive'... well, she was not a very nice person. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Take warm baths {monitoring your body temp, because you don't want to get too hot, due to the baby}. I know that taking Cayenne supplements is good for circulation, but not sure about during pregnancy or not.
Good luck to you!

Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition!
As a pregnant mom your blood volume needs to increase and the way to do that is by adding salt to your diet. The recommendations are not to salt to taste, but to go even further than that--which is very contrary to all the PR out there about the evils of salt. But it really does serve us when we are growing babies. I can't say enough about the Brewer Diet--they used to be at blueribbonbaby.org but just go to amazon and pay the rather lofty fee for the book or better yet, go hit the library for it. It is the absolute bible of pregnancy nutrition and while you can't control a lot about your pregnancy, how you eat really does make a significant impact on the health of your baby now and your actual birthing.

You might also want to have your thyroid checked. Hypothyroid can cause coldness and low blood pressure...good luck!

I had the exact same blood temp the whole time ofmy pregnancy and it was never an issue for me. I did have my blood sugar checked often since that can be a cause of being cold all the time. I would get a second opinion if possible since you can never be too careful :) Good luck!

Tell your midwife to consult with a doctor the next time someone has your symptoms - sounds like your thyroid may be low-acting. You'll need a blood test for this. Also, when she/he examines you, see if they manually checks the shape & size of your thyroid, asking you to sip water & swallow while checking with their hands on your throat, near the adam's apple. I went 'til I was 35 yrs. old w/this condition, pregnant with my 6th, when I went to a new doctor, who caught it right away. Good luck, & let me know how it turns out!

Hi There,
I have low blood pressure normally - 90/55 bp and it was a little lower when I was pg. I was also very cold during the first 1/2 of pg. I was never anemic.
My OB. recommended lots of fluids and if I felt faint (which was frequent) to take it easy, get up from sitting slowly, and if it was really bad put my head between my legs. She never seemed concerned about the low bp.

Good luck! Looks like you got lots of great advice.

Hi J.,

I am a homeschooling doula, and I would suggest you increase your water intake to at least 8 8oz glasses of water. You might also like herbal tea, which some say count as your hydration. I would guess that you are dehydrated. You might also consider asking your midwife about additional iron in your pre-natal and protein in your diet.

Good luck!
T.

Increasing your fluid intake may increase your blood volume. Depends on why it's low.

I've had blood drawn many times and sometimes my veins are jumpy too. But they always get the sample.

If your midwife didn't give you any suggestions I'd change midwifes. Blood pressure that low is a serious condition and she should have referred you to a doctor. I'd definately see an OB/GYN. There are many reasons for low blood pressure. And, I agree, it also sounds like you may have a thyroid problem.

I have been anemic and did not feel cold all the time. In fact I discovered that if I moved around I warmed up. When I didn't feel well it was so easy to bundle up on the couch and watch TV. I doubt that you have that problem with 4 kids. :):)

My daughter has been taking medication for thyroid ever since her first pregnancy.