Feeling faint in the first trimester

I think the first trimester can be quite a difficult and lonely time, yes your nearest and dearest probably know you are pregnant but all day in work when you are by yourself or on the commute surrounded by people who don’t you can feel quite vulnerable.

I kept thinking “I am protecting this special parcel in my body but have to try and act normal” whilst also experiencing these horrible symptoms. I remember always feeling quite anxious on the Luas or Dart going to work for a number of reasons:

• It is always packed in the mornings so very hot and stuffy

• People squeeze up against you or you might get stuck rammed up against a door or seat with it sticking into your tummy

• I felt like I might faint and cause a scene and that someone in work would see and guess I was pregnant!

I remember my escape route was always to plan to get off the Luas or Dart at the coffee shop and pretend I was getting a coffee if I needed an out!

In the end, it wasn’t on public transport that I ended up fainting but in a church, at mass!

It was Easter Sunday, I would have been about five weeks into my first pregnancy, I had told my mum but no one else yet apart from my husband. My mum is in the gospel choir in the church so we were going to watch her sing and celebrate Easter Sunday with my Granny too, she is a big part of the church so she draws us all in.

Anyway, my Granny had saved us a seat … right up front-and-center of course … so we could hear the choir and see Mum waving and smiling happily at us! The church was packed and it was quite a mild and sunny day for April, I remember having a flowy top on over skinny jeans and a blazer.

Naturally as it was mass, there was a lot of standing up and sitting down, in hindsight not ideal for a pregnant person! I remember turning to my husband and saying “It’s very hot in here isn’t it?”, taking off my jacket and then all of sudden I couldn’t see, my eyesight went blurry and I got all dizzy. I kept saying “I can’t see, I can’t see” as we were sitting down, my husband looking worried and perplexed.

Then all of a sudden it was the “Our Father” prayer, everyone stood up, I went to stand up but fainted back into the seat and then proceeded to get sick! The first thing I could lay my hands on was my blazer, so I caught the vomit in my blazer and sat back down saying it was still very hot and not really able to see.

At this stage a bit of a commotion had started as I was sitting in the seat, my husband on one side of me, my Granny on the other both checking if I was ok.

The lady behind us tapped me on the shoulder and said she was a nurse and asked if we needed some help. So off I went down the middle aisle of the church, past the gathered congregation (we were front-and-centre remember!) being supported arm-in-arm on one side by the kind lady from behind us on one side and my husband on the other. 

My mum had noticed the commotion from where she was, up with the choir and flew out the other exit to meet us outside the front of the church. Once we got outside and I got some air and some water I regained my composure and my vision came back. I explained to the lovely nurse lady I was five weeks pregnant and not to worry but she suggested that it would be best to head into the maternity hospital and get checked, just in case. So we decided we would go to Holles Street to be on the safe side.

We headed into the hospital, on Easter Sunday, I was supposed to be hosting my family for lunch that day to tell them the news. I rang my Dad to tell him I wasn’t feeling well and that we would have to cancel and he immediately joked and said “oh, are you in the family way”! I replied with something non-committal but hinted I was as Dad would get a great kick out of having guessed as much.

When we got to Holles Street it was really quiet thankfully, they checked me in and sent us straight to the A&E department on the ground floor, which is also where postnatal women can go if they need any help with anything.

I was quite anxious as we made our way to and sat in the waiting room at the A&E Department. From the start of my pregnancy I had been on high alert, I had experienced a bad health scare five years earlier, I experienced a blood clot in my leg which travelled to my lungs along with some other medical complications at the time, I had not been in good shape! So in the back of my mind, miscarriage was a huge fear of mine and as this was my first pregnancy I just didn’t know what to expect or how to read the signs and signals.

While we were in the waiting room, a couple arrived with a newborn baby, a gorgeous little baby with a head of dark hair. I was so transfixed on the baby in its mothers arms I didn’t look at the father for a few moments, then when I did I realised I knew the man. It was a colleague from work, someone who wasn’t in my immediate department, was more senior to me and that I didn’t work directly with, but who was close to some of the senior members of my department. I immediately clammed up inside, I froze, I managed a “Congratulations” and then turned my head back to my husband. The room was so small, I couldn’t even make a face at my husband to mouth and say “someone from work!”.

In fairness to the guy from work, he completely read the situation, he looked at me with no visible bump in the maternity A&E, saw how anxious I looked and took from my demeanor that I didn’t want to talk about my pregnancy. After a few minutes that couple were seen to and left, I was so relieved, this trip was stressful enough without someone from work knowing my business.

We got called in to see the doctor soon after, I had an examination and thankfully all was ok with the baby. They had done an internal ultrasound, which hurt like hell, but the main thing was that all was ok with the baby, I was so relieved and emotionally exhausted.

A couple of days later I was back at work and I walked past the guy I had seen in the maternity hospital heading into a break room. I smiled and gave a look to say “All ok” and he smiled back as if to say “I hope you are alright”. It’s funny how emotionally intelligent some people can be and this guy had it in droves. I decided to send him a quick message to ensure he would be discreet, so when I got back to my desk I typed “Congratulations again on the baby, she is gorgeous. Thanks for being so discreet about seeing me in the hospital that day, all is ok but I haven’t told anyone in work so if you could keep it quiet for now”, he typed back immediately and said “That’s good to hear, of course, won’t say a word” … I breathed a sigh of relief.

So, although normal and quite a common thing, sometimes a fainting incident in the early stages of pregnancy can be more complicated than you would think!