Does hiccups hurt my fetus and do you know whats the cause of them?

Question

I'm 30 weeks pregnant and my baby has hiccups sometimes. I know at times when I have them it hurts and I have to drink water. Does this hurt my baby and does this mean I'm not drinking enough water? If so could someone explain what you do know about hiccups within the uterus. No crazy answers PLEASE...

Answer 1

your baby is actually practicing breathing when s/he has hiccups. it doesn't hurt him/her so it's okay to laugh when it happens.

Answer 2

Baby Hiccups

Answer 3

A hiccup or hiccough (generally pronounced "HICK-cup" (IPA: [ˈhɪ.kəp]) independent of the spelling) is an involuntary spasm of the diaphragm; typically this repeats several times a minute. The sudden rush of air into the lungs causes the glottis to close, creating the "hic" listen (help·info) noise. A bout of hiccups generally resolves by itself, although many home remedies are in circulation to shorten the duration, and medication is occasionally necessary. By extension, the term "hiccup" is also used to describe a small and unrepeated aberration in an otherwise consistent pattern. The medical term is singultus. While many cases develop spontaneously, hiccups are known to develop often in specific situations, such as eating too quickly, taking a cold drink while eating a hot meal, eating very hot or spicy food, laughing vigorously or coughing, drinking an excess of an alcoholic beverage, or electrolyte imbalance. Hiccups may be caused by pressure to the phrenic nerve by other anatomical structures, or rarely by tumors and certain kidney disease. It is reported that 30% of chemotherapy patients suffer singultus as a side effect to treatment. (American Cancer Society) It is still unclear to scientists exactly why hiccups occur, particularly because it doesn't seem to give us any specific benefit. Some speculation exists that hiccups are a remnant of a bodily function that has been phased out by evolution, such as the move from aquatic gilled creatures to land animals. Ultrasounds have also shown that unborn fetuses experience hiccups. Some suggested hypotheses include hiccups as a possible muscle exercise for the child's respiratory system prior to birth or as a preventive measure to keep amniotic fluid from entering the lungs[1]. More research is required to ascertain their true nature, origins, and purpose, if any.

Answer 4

Hiccups won't hurt the baby. No one knows why fetuses get hiccups the same as no one knows why people get them. It just happens.

Try not to worry about every little thing. The more relaxed you are, the better it is for your baby. If you have a real issue, you will know it, and you should ask your OB first and foremost - forget about asking people on here. On Y!A you're going to get people's opinions, and for the most part when dealing with health questions, I'd assume you'd want facts.

Good luck to you!

Answer 5

No, hiccups do not hurt the baby. My daughter that is 3 months old always had hiccups in utero. The nurses in the OB ward at the hospital would laugh because everytime I had my weekly non stress test she would start those hiccups. They said she was very active and that was an excellent sign. As a matter of fact she has them now.

Answer 6

My firstborn had hiccups at least once a day for most of the latter half of my pregnancy. It didn't seem to bother her - at least she didn't move around a bunch in response.



In fact, she got hiccups a lot *after* she was born! Those didn't seemed to hurt or anything, she just lay there and "hicced" and maybe looked puzzled.



I did a search and a lot of prenatal sound monitors mention listening to your baby hiccup. The link below also mentions hiccups as part of normal development, and I couldn't find any site that worried about hiccups.



So it looks like you can relax and not worry about hiccups.

Answer 7

No, hiccups don't hurt your baby. My daughter got them in the uterus and gets them at least once a day now at age two months. Modern science still doesn't know exactly why people (or babies, or fetuses) get the hiccups. A recent study hypothesizes that it's a leftover reflex from when, far on down the evolutionary tree, we had gills and needed to clear them periodically. There are theories, but nobody knows for sure.

Answer 8

I had them with all four of my babies. I'm not sure what causes them, but I don't think they bother the baby. It's funny, but after they were born, sometimes around the same time of day that they had the hiccups while I was pregnant, they would have the hiccups.

Answer 9

Hiccups doesn't hurt your fetus. All it is- is air trapped in your diaphram. Even if your fetus has hiccups, it won't hurt it.

Answer 10

It doesn't hurt. I read somewhere that it's a healthy sign of things developing properly with your baby. My daughter had them all the time, and it got comical towards the end...even after the birth, she had them alot...All the video footage of her in the first few weeks had her hiccuping!

It doesn't mean that you need to drink more, it won't stop your baby getting them.

Answer 11

Hiccups, come from breathing wrongly.

A scare sometimes sends you back to regular breathing.

The proper way to breath is deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth.

It has to do with the lungs, but is not a big deal so it does not affect your fetus probably. I don't think more water will make a difference.

Hope this helps,

BluePen

Answer 12

1

Answer 13

I have read that it is actually good for them because it helps in lung development.

Answer 14

hiccups are perfectly normal. they just swallowed to much amnotic fluid. it will not hurt them.

Answer 15

Drink a glass of water upside down that will help you>>>>seriously