Hi, this is my first post, so please bare with me while I get to grips with the forum!! Iām 23 weeks pregnant, Iāve had (suspected, it hasnāt actually been confirmed as Iām waiting on an appointment with ENT to come through) MAV for nearly 3 years now. I have a beautiful little girl, aged 3,and Iām 24 weeks pregnant with our second child. Prior to pregnancy I had improved A LOT, I was functioning normally, it was like I had my old life back. The dizziness was still there, but it was very much in the background. In the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy I was horribly sick and really bad with the dizziness too, it did calm down a bit but it has raised itās ugly head again, I do have some kind of viral infection at the moment though (sore throat, cough, temperature) which I imagine is contributing to me feeling worse than I have in a long time. right now Iām having to shift my body weight every so often as it feels like Iām going to fall through the back of the chair.
Iām terrified though, that after Iāve had this baby things will spiral out of control and Iāll get really really bad, so Iām looking for peoples experiences of having MAV and being pregnant, labour and after the baby. (Labour is a worry too, I had gas and air with my first but I donāt really want to feel spaced out when Iām already feeling awful)
Anyway, thanks in advance
K
Hello 
Sorry to hear you have MAV but congratulations on your pregnancy!
I gave birth to twins last november, (they are 17 weeks old) with MAV and i am still here to tell the tale 
Like you i felt rough during first tri, i think the extra hormones of twins didnāt help but first tri is always bad even if you dont suffer dizziness, my dizziness was much worse though. After 16 weeks i felt much better, dizziness reduced and no more sickness, i continued like that until about 33-34 weeks and started to feel rough again, i donāt know if some of this was down to my sheer size (i was massive!) and the stress it put on my body though.
Like you i was petrified of how the birth and after birth hormones would affect me, even more scared than the thoughts of dealing with twins!
I had a c-section and lots of drugs including a spinal block and luckily i felt no worse either during surgery or after birth, maybe even a little better after.
When the babies were a few weeks old i started to feel a bit worse again and i stopped breastfeeding at 12 weeks and i think the hormones must have affected me again, plus the weeks of sleep deprivation! At the moment i have just had my first period, sorry TMI! and feel a little worse again but all in all i feel now pretty much as i was before pregnancy.
I personally would not have avoided pregancy because i have MAV though i know that everyone has MAV at different severities.
Hopefully you wont get much worse either and remember even if you have rough patches, you always get back to baseline eventually, itās just a case of sitting it out. If you breastfeed you may feel better but a bit worse again once you stop/wean.
I found that sticking to the diet was very worth it during pregnancy and drinking tons of water, unfortunately you canāt control your sleep post birth but be sure to get naps whereever you can and look after your body, you will be ok!
Good luck and enjoy your little one xx
Hi Dee,
Since I so liked your answer to my question on triggers, Iād like your take on ābaselineā . You mentioned āback to baselineā. What do you consider baseline? Iām sensing it is not back to your normal life? (I am still trying to learn everything about thisāI am just 8 weeks in.)
P.S. I have 17 year old twins! Time flies!
I have not felt ānormalā since this started 4 years ago swirlgirl but my ābaselineā is about 85% ānormalā i guess.
I have bad times where i feel more like 70%, usually caused by the wrong diet, big changes in weather (itās amazing how i can feel suddenly worse before it rains and as it does i feel it easing) hormonal changes (like before my period) and lack of sleep.
I also have sudden very intense bad times that make me feel around 30% but they last just seconds or minutes and tend to be when i feel lightheaded like i will drop or if someone sits next to me on a chair/sofa and it moves slightly.
Sometimes i have the odd really good day where i perhaps feel 90-95% but its very shortlived and not very often.
I have not tried medications for this.
Hope that helps. x