Nasal sprays during pregnancy

Pregnant women are advised to take care of themselves in order to be healthy and give birth to a healthy child. In spite of being very careful, an expecting mom may catch a common cold or some other minor or more serious condition. No one is safe from sinusitis or influenza and all the previously mentioned and many more conditions may cause nasal congestion.

Nasal Spray Safety in Pregnancy

Any other patient will almost automatically be advised to use some nasal spray to relieve decongestion, but expecting mothers are always reluctant to use any medication during this period of their lives. Some nasal sprays are considered to be harmless even for pregnant women. They could use natural nasal sprays like saline nasal sprays, because these products contain only some saline solution and no medication. All other nasal sprays you want to start using should get approval from your doctor. Do not use anything your doctor did not agree with to avoid any potential health problems that may arise.

Nasal sprays usually work by constricting blood vessels in the nose. In some cases the drug may get into your blood and thus provoke constriction of some other blood vessels in the body. Situation may become very serious if the drug provokes constriction of blood vessel lining your placenta or womb and in order to avoid this it is best to consult the doctor.

Pregnant women (or anyone else, as the matter of fact) should not use nasal sprays for more than several days. 2 to 3 days of therapy should relieve everyone’s congestion and longer treatment is not necessary or recommended. Prolonged use of nasal sprays may cause damage of the nasal lining, leading to habituation or addiction. For this reason no one, including expecting mothers, should use nasal sprays longer than 3 days.Pregnancy-Safe Nasal Sprays

As we mentioned, saline solution is one of the nasal sprays proven to be perfectly safe for pregnant women. Natural saline sprays can be either hypotonic or hypertonic, depending on the amount of salt present in the water. Hypotonic saline sprays for the nose contain approximately the same amount of salt as our body, while hypertonic nasal solutions contain more salt. For pregnant women suffering from nasal congestion due to cold, allergies or sinusitis doctors recommend hypotonic nasal sprays.

Most doctors advise their patients to use: Ocean Mist, Sudafed or Afrin nasal sprays. Although AfrinR was checked for use by expecting mothers, it was categorized as pregnancy category C drug. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that active ingredient in this product can cause side effects on the unborn children and thus this product should be taken only under some medical guidance.