If you are pregnant for the first time you could be the one out of five expectant mothers who will likely develop varicose veins during their pregnancy. It is not entirely clear whether hormone changes during pregnancy or your family history are more or less responsible for the possible appearance of varicose veins while you are expecting.
If you are in your second or third pregnancy, your risk for developing varicose veins increases and escalates with each subsequent pregnancy. But don’t worry – there is a silver lining. You can protect your veins and legs from the very beginning of your pregnancy by wearing maternity support hose with graduated compression. This will prevent or significantly lessen the chances of developing unsightly varicose veins, swelling or achiness in your legs.
Did you know that during pregnancy the amount of blood in the mother’s body increases by approximately 20%? The larger blood volume and the growing baby both contribute to increased pressure on the venous system of the legs, which has to work harder than ever to return the oxygen depleted blood back to the heart and lungs where it can be re-supplied with oxygen.
Unfortunately hormone changes during pregnancy also cause a relaxing and widening of the veins, further contributing to a slowing of the blood flow back to the heart.
In spite of excellent prenatal care including checking and monitoring of blood pressure, vitamin and mineral supplements, monitoring the heart rate and possible swelling, the veins of expectant mothers do not always get the proper attention.
If this should be the case, consult your physician or gynecologist about the condition of your veins, especially if you are experiencing any symptoms such as heaviness or pain in the legs. If you don’t feel comfortable with the answers you receive, don’t hesitate to ask for a referral to a vein specialist (phlebologist) who is uniquely qualified in this subject matter.
Many women experience telltale signs of heavy and aching legs at the end of the day, especially with the added weight of their pregnancy. If you have such symptoms of tired and painful legs regularly, or if a diagnosis of a venous condition has been made by your doctor, support hosiery with graduated compression is often the recommended treatment of choice to prevent or significantly reduce the occurrence of varicose veins.
The graduated compression applied by support hose or stockings provides a controlled amount of pressure, being the strongest at the ankle area and gradually decreasing going up the leg. Well-designed high quality maternity hosiery can also provide much needed support to the abdomen while reducing the pulling on the shoulders.
Features and Benefits of Maternity Support Stockings or Pantyhose with Graduated Compression:
If you have already tried maternity support hose or compression stockings we would love to hear what you have learned so other women can benefit from your experience. To share you can simply add your comments below or click on the category “Tips and How To” and add your post under “Personal Experiences with Compression and Support Hosiery”. Thank you so much for your input and participation.
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Embarassed By My Leg
When I became pregnant with my daughter, I was busy. I was working a physically demanding job 20-30 hours a week as well as finishing my last year of a BSc in Nursing - requiring me to do 24-36 hours per week of a clinical rotation.
Partway through the pregnancy, I began to develop varicose veins in my left leg. The first ones didn’t look bad and didn’t hurt.
Then they began to get worse.
By my third trimester, I was wearing compression stockings and hoping that the unsightly veins would disappear when I delivered. Thankfully, they mostly did.
I became unexpectedly pregnant with my son when my daughter was just one year old. My first symptom was a juicy varicose vein running across my thigh that made me say to myself - “Hey! I haven’t seen one of those since … oh no!” - and run out to buy a pregnancy test! During my second pregnancy, my veins got much worse much more quickly. Thanks to some incorrectly-fitted stockings, by mid-second trimester I was in agony every time I stood, dissolved into a crying ball from the pain every night when I removed them to shower, and my leg was mangled - my ankle/foot was lumpy and purple, behind my knee was a network of throbbing, bulging veins, and they extended into my groin. It was not pretty. When I attended a Vascular Clinic to seek diagnosis for a superficial blood clot that I developed, the doctor said something along the lines of, “Well, the good news is that even if a piece of the clot were to break off, your veins are so twisty-turny that it wouldn’t make into your deep vein system.” Um, I suppose that’s good?
After beginning on a homeopathic vein remedy, the pain lessened significantly and the swelling became more mild. After I gave birth, the change was even more dramatic.
But my leg is still ugly. I struggle with feeling like it makes me look like an old woman.
I’m 26 years old.
I not only have a stretch-marked belly, but stretch marks behind my knee where the varicose veins bulged out so dramatically and quickly - and there’s no one-piece bathing suit that can hide them!
I have two completely different looking legs. As summertime comes, I struggle with how bizarre my legs and feet will look once I break out my Birkenstock and skirts/shorts. Will people wonder why one ankle looks bruised? Will people notice at all?
I will likely need to wear some sort of compression hose for the rest of my life in order to prevent my varicose-vein prone legs from getting worse. That’s a lot of years. Years of uncomfortable, unsightly, WARM support hose - likely at least over-the-knee, if not thigh-high.
I knew my body would change once I was privileged to grow a life within me; I knew my stomach wouldn’t be the same, I knew my breasts were likely to droop, I knew I was likely to experience some perineal tearing and maybe even some incontinence.
I had no clue that I would have to deal with varicose veins.
Kim