Dealing With Pregnancy Acne

Sadly, as if teen acne wasn’t enough, pregnancy and acne tend to go hand-in-hand. Over 50% of expectant mothers can also expect acne along with their bundle of joy.

There’s no foolproof way to figure out who’ll get pregnancy-induced acne, but women who’ve had acne problems at some other point, or whose acne flares up with the coming of her menstrual cycle are much more likely to be affected.

Even though this can be a very frustrating time for your skin, you should always take time to remember why you’re going through this process in the first place.

Here, we’ll do our best to lay out some helpful tips and recommendations to make your pregnancy acne go as smoothly and safely as possible.

Pregnancy acne is mainly a result of an increase in your hormones during your first trimester. As your hormone levels rise during this time, your pores tend to get set on overdrive, increasing production of natural oils to an all-time high.

Although, if you’ve made it past the first trimester with little to no problems, there’s a good chance you won’t have to deal with any out of the ordinary acne breakouts a long the rest of the way.

Also, it’s a good idea to remember that it’s completely natural for acne to flare up during a pregnancy, so don’t worry too much. Most of the breakouts that happen during your pregnancy should subside once your hormone levels return to normal.

Being as careful as possible, while treating your Pregnancy Acne

Acne treatment during a pregnancy is quite tricky. Even though you may feel self conscious during this period, it’s not the time to be applying chemical spot treatments, or taking an kind of prescription acne medication.

The last thing you’d want at this point is to feel responsible for having a child born with birth defects, which is why you should avoid using any type of product that’s even remotely known for causing side effects.

Before taking any type of medication, or applying any type of treatment directly to the acne, it’s always best to run it past your doctor first. A few prescription and common treatments you should avoid are:

• Tetracycline – An antibiotic that is known to cause stunted bone growth and tooth problems in newborns.

• Salicylic acid – This is hard to avoid, as it’s a common ingredient in a lot of over the counter acne medicines.

• Tretinoin (Also sold as Retin-A)

• Isotretinoin (Commonly referred to as Accutane)

Accutane is especially dangerous to use during pregnancy. Its use has been known to cause birth defects, as well as miscarriages and SIDS. Of all babies born to mothers who took Accutane during their first trimester, about thirty percent were born with some kind of birth defect.

Due to it’s history of side effects, the US has started a registry for Accutane users, in order to protect women who’re trying to conceive. The new regulations for women on Accutane require them to be on two forms of birth control and take a pregnancy test before getting each refill.

Also, the use of Retin-A isn’t recommended because it is widely known to produce effects similar to those of Accutane.

What can I do during pregnancy to help cut down on breakouts?

This far into your research, you may feel at a loss for what you can do during your pregnancy to help treat your acne. Thankfully, we’ve come up with a short guide of tips on how to naturally minimize breakouts:

To keep your face as blemish-free as possible, wash approximately two to three times a day with a mild cleanser that’s oil-free. A lot of the more natural skin creams and cleansers are oil free, so it’s best to stick with those.

On that same thought though, you should be careful not to over-cleanse your skin, because you want to keep a healthy balance of oil production, in order not to overstimulate the sebaceous glands.

After you’re done washing, rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water, and gently pat dry. If you wish, you can follow that with a moisturizer.

Other tips to help combat acne naturally:

• Drink plenty of water during the day, at least 8 glasses, to help moisturize your skin and stabilize your hormone levels.

• Do your best not to touch your pimples. This only irritates them and can spread the bacteria into new areas, forming new breakouts in the future.

• Whatever you do, get out of the habit of squeezing and popping your pimples. Nine out of ten times this results in acne scars, which in most cases are permanent, requiring laser resurfacing treatment.

Although with these tips, remembering that pregnancy acne is usually a temporary situation can go a long way. It’s best to wait it out, and keep your body in as much of a balance as possible, to help minimize breakouts. Enjoy the ride as much as you can while it lasts.