Lifestyle

How Pregnancy Changes Your Skin (And What To Do About It)

Getting pregnant, carrying a child to term, and giving birth can cause changes in just about every bit of your body, temporarily and otherwise. This is no less true for your skin. Aside from flushes or hormones, there’s some real stress, especially to areas that see you growing constantly during the nine months. These can leave some lingering after-effects that you might be concerned about.

How Pregnancy Changes Your Skin (And What To Do About It)

Breaking out

You might be surprised to find that you’re having bouts of acne, especially if you haven’t had any since you were a teenager. Your body is flushed with hormones, which do many things including causing your skin’s oil glands to become hyper-productive. As one of the most common skin problems, there are plenty of products that can help you take care of acne, but cleaning your face with OTC face soaps and using topical treatments should be fine, too. 

The pregnancy rash

If you’re having an itchy rash during pregnancy, it’s not likely that it’s something to worry about too much. Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy or PUPPP is the most likely cause and presents as red patches of itchy rashes that typically appear more towards the end of a pregnancy and usually where your skin is being stretched. These go away with pregnancy, but your doctor can help you with a topical steroid cream if they are becoming a serious annoyance.

Those new marks

The vast majority of pregnant women are going to experience stretch marks when they get pregnant and, yes, they will be lingering after you give birth unlike some of the issues named here. These streaks that can run down your breasts, belly, and thighs are natural, but some women can feel self-conscious about them, and stretch mark removal procedures can help a great deal. There are home treatment options, like creams, but they’re better at reducing the appearance rather than getting rid of them entirely.

Patchy skin

Around 50% of all women who get pregnant experience dark skin patches appearing on their face or different parts of the body. This is called melasma, also known as the mask of pregnancy, and is hyper-pigmentation caused by the rush of hormones that usually regulate skin color. Though there’s nothing to prevent this from happening, you can use skin-lightening products after you have finished breastfeeding to restore a little balance. Until then, however, you have to live with it.

Feeling sensitive

Your skin can also be a lot more sensitive than usual, including showing new sensitivities to materials and products that you could use just fine, before. It’s a good idea to use skincare products for sensitive skin during your pregnancy and keep a note of what causes it to get irritated. It’s likely that your sensitivities are likely to go back to normal after childbirth.

Many of the changes that happen during or just after pregnancy can fade away after some time. However, that’s not to say you can’t help them on their way out with the tips above.

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