Features of mustard plaster during pregnancy

For a long time mustard plasters were considered almost a panacea for all catarrhal diseases. As soon as the cough appeared, the patient was immediately recommended mustard plasters on his chest and back.

In recent years, the popularity of this method of treatment fades away. However, mustards are often remembered by pregnant women who are banned from most cough medicines, and this raises the question whether they can be placed or not and how to do this so as not to harm the child.

Before we answer the question whether future mothers are allowed to use mustard plaster, it is worth recalling what it is and how they work. Mustard plaster today refers more to the means of traditional medicine than to traditional methods. And nowhere, except for the USSR (and then Russia), such methods neither cough, nor cold, nor ARVI are treated.

A mustard plaster is a piece of thick paper that is covered with mustard seeds up to 0.5 mm thick. A mustard plaster can be homemade, but these are generally considered “thermonuclear” and often lead to local skin burns.

Mustard plaster acts locally - irritated skin from the chemical effects of mustard oil. In the place where this tool is applied, an inflammatory external process occurs, the blood vessels dilate. The action in this case is more distracting than curative - while the skin under the mustard plaster hurts there is no time to think that it is painful to cough or ache.

In the USSR, the use of mustard plasters was a matter of course, and in every respectful family there was a reserve of such funds in case of illness of one of the household members. Mustard plasters were placed on both children and pregnant women, and no one worried about this. On the chest and back put mustard plasters with bronchitis, with a cold with a cough, on the joints and muscles with neuralgia. They accelerated the ripening of boils and carbuncles.

So it was, until funds appeared on the shelves of pharmacies, more pleasant and more effective.

If you buy a pack of pharmaceutical mustard plaster and read the instructions for use, it is not written anywhere that they are prohibited while waiting for a child. This means that use during pregnancy is allowed, but medical experts are confident that everything is far from being as simple with mustard plasters as it seems.

Any obstetrician with solid experience and experience will confirm that several decades ago, when abortions were relatively rare and convicted, women got rid of an unwanted baby with a mustard bath and mustard compresses on the stomach and lower back. Increased blood circulation in these areas in half of the cases really led to miscarriage.

If you really want to use a mustard plaster for treating colds during pregnancy, you should proceed from the principle of rationality and safety. AT 1 trimester of pregnancy mustard plaster can work the way it worked before - lead to spontaneous abortion. In the body of a pregnant woman, the amount of circulating blood increases, and the application of a local irritant can lead to a temporary outflow of blood from the pelvic organs, which is theoretically dangerous. If we consider that the medical effect of the method is almost none, and mustard plasters are a distracting tool, is it worth the risk?

In the 2nd and 3rd trimester, the imposition of mustard plasters is fraught with an increase in blood pressure, and many expectant mothers suffer from them without mustard plasters. In a state of hypertension, placental abruption can occur, premature labor can begin. Again, the question is why? After all, the benefits of them will not be so much, as claimed by representatives of the older generation, who themselves grew up on mustard plums and raised their children and grandchildren on them.

If a woman, being in an “interesting position”, is ill, you should not immediately rush to the pharmacy for mustard plasters or pour mustard into your socks. It is much safer and more correct to call the doctor to the house. A specialist will help determine whether this infection is bacterial or bacterial, what its severity is, how the course is, whether there are any complications. It will be possible to pick up alternative methods of treatment when you cough after the doctor has the answer to all these questions.

Any respiratory diseases during pregnancy require compliance with the rules of effective and safe treatment.

• The air in the apartment must be sufficiently humid, so that the bronchial mucus that is produced during the illness in large quantities does not dry out. Otherwise, the likelihood of complications will be much higher.
• Be sure to require abundant warm drink, it will contribute to the dilution of bronchial mucus.
• Any medications that have not been prescribed and approved by a doctor are prohibited in any trimester of pregnancy, especially in the early stages.

A special expectorant massage, also called vibratory, has a good effect. It consists of vibrating tapping on the chest with fingertips.

If, however, the future mother really wants to put mustard plasters, you should follow the rules for their use.

Despite the abundance of tips with which the expectant mother can meet on the Internet in search of an answer to the question of how to put mustard plaster during pregnancy, it should be clearly understood: your decision to be treated with mustard plaster can have negative consequences described above. By making this decision, you take responsibility for the life of the baby in the womb.

You shouldn't put mustard plasters on your feet or put mustard in your socks during pregnancy, even if you used this method for every illness before. Local irritating action in the foot area is fraught with blood flow to the lower extremities and pelvic organs, which, in turn, can result in a miscarriage. For the same reason, it is not recommended to expectant mothers and soar legs.

Laying mustard plasters on the throat, on the mammary glands, the stomach and the lumbar region is strictly prohibited. Put mustard plasters in accordance with the attached instructions, try not to overdo them. If you feel severe itching or pain, you should remove them. During pregnancy, women significantly change the work of immunity, increases the likelihood of an allergic reaction.

If the majority of pregnant women who are carrying their child without complications can decide on the use of mustard plaster themselves, given that they are not officially welcomed, that is, the category of expectant mothers who are forbidden to even think about mustard plaster. These include women with any types of allergies in history, suffering from bronchial asthma.

In addition, the use of mustard plasters is strictly prohibited for skin ailments, when there are acne, rashes, blisters, skin that is too dry, and scratches at the site of the intended imposition. Such treatment is also contraindicated for women with eczema and psoriasis.

According to reviews, mustard plasters, despite the prohibitions, still find their use among expectant mothers. Some argue that the tool is useless and did not help them in any way, others are confident that only thanks to the mustard and recovered. Often, in the opinion of women, doctors themselves cannot come to a common opinion - the therapist recommends mustard plasters to the expectant mother, and having learned about the appointment, the gynecologist categorically prohibits.

The famous doctor Yevgeny Komarovsky says his opinion on the staging of mustard plasters in the video below.