Headache can be triggered by pressure, infection, and some bad habits. It can attack your head in various forms. Some pregnant women complain that they always experience throbbing headache, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, but they are not sure whether that is the normal phenomenon during pregnancy. Actually, nausea and vomiting are the normal signs of pregnancy, but if you always suffer from headache with throbbing pain, it may relate to migraine.

What is migraine?   

Migraine, a type of headaches, is a throbbing pain usually on just one side of the head. Before onset, most patients usually experience flashing lights, blurred vision, limb numbness and other auras. A few minutes up to an hour later, the headache affects one side of the head with symptoms of increasingly throbbing pain, nausea, and vomiting. The whole process may be accompanied by neurological and mental dysfunction. Staying in a dim and quiet place or sleeping can relieve the pain. However, migraine is a kind of disease that gradually becomes worse and with increasing frequency. According to some studies, migraine patients are more likely to suffer from localised brain injuries, leading to stroke. The more frequently migraine headaches occur, the greater the likelihood of brain damage.

Symptoms of migraine 

The symptoms of migraine can be classified into two stages: an aura stage with specific warning symptoms and an attack stage.

1. Aura 

An aura may occur before or during migraines. The symptoms of this stage can aggravate gradually and last for 20 to 60 minutes, however, most people experience migraines without an aura. Migraine auras may be accompanied by:

 •  Flashes of lights

 •  Numb limbs 

 •  Difficulty speaking 

 •  Vision loss 

2. Attack 

If untreated, migraine usually lasts for 4 to 72 hours. During the attack, you may experience:

 •   Pain on one side or both sides of your head 

 •   Throbbing pain 

 •    Nausea, vomiting, sweating 

 •    Blurry vision 

 •    Sensitive to light and sound 

 

Many women find that symptoms of migraine are aggravated during the first three months of pregnancy, however, headaches may be stable or even resolve themselves during the next six months. This may be related to female hormones during pregnancy.

Causes of migraine   

Experts point out that the explicit causes of migraines are still unclear, but may be related to the following factors：

•  Genetic factor: Since about 60% of patients have a family history, with some of them including epilepsy sufferers, experts believe that the disease can run in families, even if there is no consistent genetic form. 

•  Endocrine factors: Vascular migraine occurs frequently in adolescent females, especially during the menstrual period, and stops at the pregnancy stage. However, migraine could reoccur after giving birth and gradually decrease or disappear after the menopause. 

•  Dietary factors: People who often eat cheese, chocolate, processed food, smoke and drink alcohol are susceptible to vascular migraine headaches. 

•  Other factors: Tension, trauma, anxiety, depression, hunger, insomnia, environmental factors and changes in weather might be migraine triggers.   

According to traditional Chinese medicine, migraine is a meridian blockage caused by pathogenic diseases such as wind and fire, which causes disorder to the Qi in the head. The disease is closely related to the liver and the changes of its meridians status.