I’ve been lucky to have an overall smooth pregnancy with limited morning sickness and other symptoms. However, the two major things that were more worrying during my pregnancy were an intense rash and two fainting spells. As described by this article, dizziness can occur during pregnancy due to the following reasons:

• Insufficient blood supply for the rapidly increasing circulatory system.
• Higher levels of progesterone that cause blood vessels to dilate and that have effects on blood pressure.
• The growing uterus exerting extra pressure on your blood vessels.
• Overall body temperature increase due to pregnancy, which can contribute to light headedness.
• Changes in blood sugar and higher risks of being dehydrated.

Even though it can be normal for dizziness to occur during pregnancy, you should always keep your medical provider in the loop on your symptoms and also seek medical attention if you experience:

• Blacking out or or losing consciousness.
• Slurred speech.
• Impaired vision.
• If dizziness happens often and is persistent.

My first fainting episode occurred around 11/12 weeks into my pregnancy when I was in Bangkok for a bachelorette party. I stayed behind in Bangkok while the other girls went to a music festival and had signed up for a cooking class with Jerry. The class was mostly in an air conditioned room, but the woks/cooking stations were in a hotter room with exhaust fans. We were having a great time learning how to make coconut milk when I suddenly felt unwell. I felt like I could not concentrate and was also feeling a bit unstable. I turned to Jerry and told him I felt a bit unwell and the next thing I knew I woke up and I was on my knees. He had held me against him, so luckily I did not fall, but I was shocked to see that everyone else in the class was looking at me with a concerned expression. I was kneeling on the floor, sweaty, and had no idea what had happened. The cooking school staff was amazing and took me to the air conditioned room immediately. Another staff member came and told me that she had often been dizzy during her pregnancy, making me feel a bit less silly. She gave me some menthol to sniff and I felt much better after resting. I felt good enough to return to the class but picked the stove nearest to the door, so that incoming fresh air would blow against me. It was a very scary incident and I was really grateful that Jerry was there with me. I told my ob/gyn and he told me to monitor the situation and let him know if it occurred again. The cooking room was very hot and stuffy, so I reminded myself to definitely be more careful in the future.

The second incident occurred in the beginning of my third trimester around 29 weeks. This was actually a very strange incident, because I was sitting at home taking my health coach course on my computer. I was not in a hot room nor doing anything physically demanding. I was sitting at the desk when suddenly I felt very breathless. I tried to take deep breaths, but it did not feel like that was helping and suddenly I was breaking out into a sweat. I tried to walk around, but it felt as if I was going in and out of consciousness in waves. I was on the verge of blacking out, but I always managed to come back after a while. Suddenly I felt a bit better again and we had to break out into practice groups in the class. Looking back, this was silly because I should have left the class and went to rest, call Jerry, or call my doctor, but instead, I continued with the class. As I was going through the practice with my partner, I was suddenly experiencing the same symptoms. Miraculously I was able to finish the practice with my partner even though I felt like I was going to pass out mid-sentence. The class ended and I went to the living room and told Jerry (he got back from his walk with Mister). I looked up my symptoms on the internet and and saw that blurred vision was a warning sign and that I should seek medical attention. I called my ob/gyn and was told to call an ambulance to get to the nearest hospital! This seemed quite intense to me as I felt normal by then, but he had said that he was concerned because my vision was impaired, and this could point to more serious medical issues. I called the closest hospital (a private one) and found out the regular ambulance does not serve them. Therefore we decided that the best thing to do was to have Jerry drive me over (I am not suggesting that everyone do the same thing as we did, I felt fine by then and we decided that it made more sense to get to the nearest hospital quickly by using our own transportation. We were also a bit more wary of going to a public hospital due to the pandemic. If you are still feeling unwell, please do call an ambulance).

At the hospital, I was seen by an emergency physician, who told me that my vitals were normal but that I should see a cardiologist to be safe. The cardiologist performed an ECG and I was relieved to learn that everything was normal. The doctor told me that the issue could be lowered blood pressure and that the chance of a deep vein thrombosis was very low. He said that I may also be breathing less when dizziness occurs due to anxiety and that this can also lead to increased light headedness.

One important thing that cardiologist told me was to make sure that I don’t panic and rush off somewhere when I feel faint. Many people are scared and will try to rush to the bed or couch when they feel faint, resulting in falls and accidents. The best thing you can do is to sit or lay down, so you don’t hurt yourself. Other tips that I think are helpful include:

• Stay hydrated.
• Make sure rooms are ventilated and not too hot.
• Dress in layers and in loose fitting/airy outfits.
• Get up slowly if you have been lying down for long (I always get lightheaded when I stand up too quickly).

These two episodes were quite scary, but I was very relieved that all my results came back normal and that nothing serious happened because of my fainting/dizzy spells! I hope that this information is helpful to you and also allows you to be on the alert for warning signs, so that you can seek medical attention immediately!