What causes shortness of breath in pregnancy?
Your uterus expands during pregnancy putting pressure on your diaphragm. This pressure keeps your lungs from expanding fully causing shortness of breath. Another contributor to shortness of breath in pregnancy is progesterone. Progesterone is a hormone found during pregnancy. Progesterone has many effects on your body and helps to maintain pregnancy. It has a relaxing effect on muscles which helps to keep the uterus from contracting. This relaxing effect actually relaxes the muscles supporting the lungs. Progesterone also changes the body’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide. Normally when you breath, as the carbon dioxide increases, you need to get rid of it. So as your body becomes more sensitive to it, you will feel the need to breath off carbon dioxide. Moreover, this can leave the pregnant mother feeling winded and short of breath.
