Is It Safe To Take Diet Pills During Pregnancy?

Diet Pills Can Raise Blood Pressure

Remember how pregnancy can raise your blood pressure and cause changes to the way your heart works? Diet pills are known to raise blood pressure even further in pregnant women. Any blood pressure higher than 140/90 mm Hg is considered to be high blood pressure and is known as hypertension. If a pregnant woman has high blood pressure after 5 months of pregnancy, or sometimes earlier, complications such as preeclampsia can occur.

Increase the Risk of  Delivering Low Birth Weight Baby

The stimulants in diet pills are known to burn calories faster. These stimulants enter your bloodstream and reach your fetus too, impacting its growth and development. In fact, slimming pills can greatly impact the birth weight of the babies too, which means that babies will be born with lower birth weight.

Diet Pills May Contain Caffeine

Some diet pills also contain caffeine, one of the ingredients that you must largely avoid during pregnancy. Caffeine can cause many unwanted effects on developing fetuses, which is why doctors ask you to cut down on your cup of coffee. Remember, teas, chocolates, and even cola contain caffeine, and you will already be unknowingly consuming caffeine.

Increase the Risk of Miscarriage

Some diet pills on the market, advertise themselves as “all herbal” and “all organic”. Still, they are not any safer than the chemical ones. This is because some herbs are known to cause many pregnancy-related complications, including miscarriages.

May Affect the Sexual Orientation of the Fetus

Chances of women giving birth to a homosexual baby are high if they took diet pills during pregnancy. This is because the compounds present in these pills tend to affect the sexual orientation of the fetus.

Lack of Research

Another key reason to avoid slimming pills is that there has simply no research studying the relationship between the pills and pregnancy. Researchers do not want to take the unnecessary risk of putting pregnant women through tests.

While all these are good enough reasons for avoiding diet pills, let us take a step back and see why you feel like having diet pills during pregnancy. Healthy weight gain is very important during pregnancy. Read on to know why.

[Read: Tips To Deal High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy]

Why is Weight Gain Important During Pregnancy?

If you leave things to nature, you will gain anywhere between 10 and 15 kg during your pregnancy. While it can be more than 15 kilograms for some, the general healthy gain is supposed to be about 1 kg to 1.5 kg in the first trimester, and 1.5 kg to 2 kg per month in the second and third trimester. Understandably, since a newborn baby weighs only 2.5 kg to 4 kg, all that weight cannot be from the baby! So, where does all this weight come from?

• You will gain about 3 kg of fat. But do not worry about this fat gain, it is an essential change in your body during pregnancy. This fat will help your body prepare for birth and store nutrients that will later be transferred to the baby through breast milk.
• Your breasts will increase in size, and gain at least one kg altogether.
• Another 3 kg to 4 kg is due to the formation of the placenta and amniotic fluid. Your uterus also expands, contributing to the overall weight gain.

So considering that all the above weight gain is very important for your pregnancy, and for the growth and development of the baby, why would you want to inhibit this weight gain?

[Read: Healthy Diet During Pregnancy]

How Can You Ensure You Gain Weight Healthily During Pregnancy?

Just because diet pills are not a good idea, you should not also think about skipping meals and starving to avoid weight gain. Proper nutrition through a balanced diet is absolutely necessary during pregnancy. If you are already overweight, talk to your gynecologist and request a healthy diet chart that you can follow.

You may need to focus more on complex carbohydrates like whole grains, proteins-rich food like eggs, lentils and lean meat and also fruits and vegetables or increased fiber content. Remember that once your baby is born, and you have crossed the mandatory rest time, you can start exercising to lose weight in a healthy manner.

Until then, stay away from weight worries and stay away from diet pills.
Hope this article helped you understand why it is a bad idea to consume diet pills during pregnancy. If you have anything to share on this, please leave it in the comments section below.

[Read: I Am Pregnant And Overweight. How Does It Affect My Baby?]

FAQ’s

1. Can I Take Diet Pills to Reduce Weight During Pregnancy?

No, you cannot. These are not pregnancy-safe. You need to avoid such medications once you become pregnant.

2. Can I Continue my Diet Pills After I Get Pregnant?

No, you cannot. It is not safe. Consult your doctor for alternate options.

3. Can be Taking Diet Pills During Pregnancy Affect my Child?

Yes, it can. These pills are not safe. It can lead to miscarriages or birth defects.

4. Can an all Herbal Diet Pill be Safe During Pregnancy?

No, it is not safe. Though they are chemical-free, herbs can be dangerous. Many herbs can cause severe side effects.

Read Also: Have A Balanced, Nutritional Diet During Pregnancy