Eye Exams While Pregnant

Your overall health is always very important; however, when you are pregnant and keeping you healthy means keeping your baby healthy, too, it takes on a whole new level of responsibility. This is true of every aspect of your bodily health, including your eyes.  Some people out there may have heard that getting an eye exam from an Optometrist in Calgary can bring about with it some vague, unspecified risk to the baby, but according to United Health Care this is simply not the case. Getting pupils dilated and having a normal eye exam does not increase the risk to the baby or the mother. Actually, far from being potentially risky, having an eye exam while pregnant can be good for you!

Here’s how: everyone who has been pregnant themselves or who has been around a pregnant mother knows that hormone shifts go with the territory of having a baby. In some women this can lead to cravings, strong feelings, and a wide-ranging variety of bodily side effects as well. One of these potential side effects is a level of vision impairment, like the reason why the eye doctor myth became associated with pregnancy in the first place.

These hormonal shifts can cause a broad range of symptoms in the eyes: things like minor vision impairment can be caused by the cornea swelling. Since this is located at the front of the eye where you may wear contact lenses, this can cause a problem as it often leads to discomfort. You may even notice that your glasses don’t seem to focus right; this is because in some cases the pregnancy has changed your vision enough you may find you need a new prescription.

Why do these things matter? Well, if your glasses or contacts are no longer the right prescription for what you need, this can lead to eye strain, migraines, sensitivity to light, and more. You may be thinking that the pregnancy is giving you some major headaches, but actually it’s a prescription issue. You won’t know unless you see your eye doctor while you are pregnant.

Another potential problem besides migraines is the chance of dry eye; this can result from hormonal imbalance, but dry eye can not only be irritating it can be painful. Rubbing your eyes, or worse, ignoring them, can lead to more pain, eye strain, headaches, sensitivity, and overall discomfort.

This kind of discomfort is totally avoidable as getting an eye exam in Calgary can alleviate many of these eye related issues. Remember, taking care of you is the best way to help take care of your baby.  The less stress and greater comfort you are in the better it will be for your little one.