How Does Pregnancy Affect Sight?

*Collaborative Post

Pregnancy is a crucial period in a woman’s life with many difficulties. During this period of 9 months, significant changes take place in the body and in the organism. Many times, various problems have created that concern the regular operation of all the systems. The eyes are often the recipients of these changes. Thus, there may be changes in the pregnant woman’s vision, something that should be taken seriously, as in some rare cases and in situations that need special attention, the child’s labour technique will be done (normal or caesarean section is determined).

Changes in vision during pregnancy

Myopia

Hormonal changes during pregnancy result in frequent vision changes. Thus during pregnancy, myopia may occur, or pre-existing myopia may worsen, resulting in a decrease in visual acuity with or without the glasses we were most likely to be wearing.

Vision changes result from different divisions of body fluids or hormones or both, which return to normal levels after childbirth. Some of the vision changes are due to the cornea’s transient thickening and to secondary changes in the corneal refractive index during pregnancy.

A transient change in adjustment and focus is also possible. So, many women visit their ophthalmologist reporting a drop in vision. Usually, this fall is corrected with the appropriate glasses, but if there is no particular need, mainly for business reasons, it is good to wait even a few weeks after the birth before changing our glasses, if we are already wearing or before wearing a new pair of glasses.

Contact lenses

For those women who wear contact lenses, it is advisable to avoid using them during pregnancy. The cornea changes can make it difficult to apply contact lenses to the eyes and especially the hard ones. Also, because the cornea’s sensitivity and sensitivity decreases during pregnancy, contact lenses’ application becomes more dangerous, precisely because a minor injury or an infection (keratitis) becomes more challenging to detect.

Gestational hypertension-eclampsia

It usually appears after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The pressure can reach very high and life-threatening levels for the pregnant woman. The eyes are directly affected by these pathological conditions. Thus, the so-called hypertensive retinopathy can be created, i.e. changes due to the high pressure of the retina vessels (of the fundus of the eye) and in more advanced stages microbleeds in the seabed as well as swelling of the optic nerve.

Diabetes and pregnancy

Diabetes (high blood sugar) is known to cause problems in the eyes, especially in the retina, causing the well-known diabetic retinopathy (DA). But let’s see, in particular, what we need to know about pregnancy and what expectant mothers should know, especially those who have diabetes or develop it during pregnancy. During the 9-month period, vision may be reduced in those mothers who had diabetes before pregnancy. These pregnant women are at greater risk than those who have high blood sugar levels for the first time during pregnancy.

In conclusion, we would say that all women show changes in their vision during pregnancy, some to a greater extent and others to a lesser degree. However, in all of them, periodic medical examination of their vision is necessary. An experienced and trusted ophthalmologist, such as Aris Konstantopoulos of Aris Vision Correction, will provide pregnant mothers with all that information to prevent and resolve vision problems so that mothers can have a comfortable and standard delivery without complications that may impede them in the future.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.