Treating Swollen Feet During Pregnancy

Video Transcript

"Want to know how to deal with swollen feet while you're pregnant? Hi! I'm Michelle Collins, certified nurse-midwife and professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University. All pregnant women to some degree will have some swelling in their lower extremities. It's due to hormones causing the fluid to come out of the vessels and pulled in the lower extremities. So, some women will notice that at the end of the day that it gets much worse. Some thing that you can do to help decrease this is to elevate your feet twice a day for twenty minutes with your feet at least higher than your hips. So, if you're just sitting on a couch, laying on a couch or in a recliner, that won't help as much as if your feet are elevated above your hips for twenty minutes twice a day. Also, not crossing your feet at the ankles or crossing your legs will help decrease that edema, that swelling in the lower extremities. Increase your water consumption especially water which foods like pineapple, melon, grapes, asparagus, mushrooms, those things will also help keep the water from so much from staying in your body but from but will help it come out. Wearing comfortable shoes, not your highest heels and your spiky heels but wearing nice, comfortable shoes to walk in and stretching your legs often throughout the day especially if you have a job where you sit or stand for a long period of time. Also, when you're wearing hosiery, it's important not to wear knee high nylons or thigh high nylons when you're pregnant. You need to if you're going to wear stockings, wear the ones that go all the way up and over the belly made for pregnant women. The others just simply put stricture around the middle of the leg or the middle of the thigh and cause more pulling of fluid.If you have sudden swelling in the extremities or in your hands, feet or face, or if you notice that one leg is markedly more swelling than the other, you should notify your midwife or your obstetrical care provider as soon as possible."