Yes, you can take baths while pregnant, but avoid long, hot soaks as they can raise your core body temperature and pose risks; aim for warm, brief baths (around 10-15 mins) with water below 98°F (37°C) to prevent overheating, dizziness, and potential harm to the developing baby, using caution getting in/out and avoiding strong scents or bath bombs.
If you stick to the not-too-hot and not-too-long rule, baths during pregnancy can be beyond beneficial! Improve sleep! Just make sure your 10-minute warm bath is within an hour or two before bedtime!
The water should be warm enough so that you can jump straight in and not inch in bit by bit. Once you're in, if you notice that your skin becomes red or if you start sweating, the water is likely to be too hot.
“Taking a bath in water that's over 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) raises your core body temperature, which can interfere with this development. Specifically, it can increase the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida and anencephaly.”
For those with sensitive or dry skin, even a shallow bath for 5 to 10 minutes can be beneficial without exposing the skin to too much water for too long. So keep your showers to 10 to 20 minutes, wash with warm water, and protect your skin with a moisturizer afterwards.
Water temperature risks during pregnancy
A number of studies seem to suggest that early pregnancy exposure to extremely hot water in hot tubs – when the water temperature is 101 degrees or more – can lead to an increased risk for neural tube defects like spina bifida.
Use Caution with Hotter Baths
Signs that you might have soaked in water that is too hot include symptoms like dizziness, nausea, headaches, and a rapid heartbeat. In such cases, it's advisable to get out of the tub immediately and cool down.
There's no official guidance on bathwater temperature during pregnancy. As a guide, normal body temperature is around 37°C, so your bath shouldn't be much warmer than that (although a bath at 37°C can feel lukewarm). If you want your bath a bit warmer than that, limit your soaking time to 10 minutes.
The good news is that taking a bath when pregnant can help you transition from the day to the night. As well as relaxing your body, a lovely, warm bath will also help to relax your mind. Taking a bath before bedtime means that your body is warm and cosy, and ready to slow down and sleep.
Good news: yes, you can take a bath during your pregnancy. This relaxing moment can even do you a lot of good, especially if you experience tension in your back or legs, which affects about 70% of expectant mothers. The only real precaution to take is water temperature.
Several epidemiological studies over the past five years have reported associations between high temperatures and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, stillbirth, and low birth weight (LBW),3,4 as well as congenital heart defects.
In the first trimester, avoid alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, and high-mercury fish; skip hot tubs/saunas and strenuous exercise; steer clear of raw/undercooked foods (meat, eggs, sprouts) and unpasteurized dairy; limit caffeine (under 200mg/day); don't clean litter boxes; and consult your doctor before taking any new medications or supplements.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, your core temperature should never exceed 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit during pregnancy. It only takes 10 minutes in a hot bathtub, where the water is at least 104 degrees Fahrenheit, to raise your temperature to this potentially unsafe level.
Warm baths are safe during pregnancy — just avoid hot water and limit soaks to under 10 minutes to prevent overheating or dizziness. Skip hot tubs, saunas, and essential oils (unless approved by your doctor), and steer clear of strongly scented or dyed bath products to reduce the risk of irritation or infection.
Sports and activities to avoid while pregnant
Any competitive sports where you have to move your body in a way that may not be safe. Activities with unsafe environments — such as spas, hydrotherapy pools or 'hot' yoga. Activities that involve heavy equipment — such as weightlifting, skiing and scuba diving.
If you're pregnant and your body temperature goes above 102.2°F (39°C) for long periods of time, there is a risk of birth defects or other pregnancy problems, especially during the first trimester.
In general, healthcare experts advise pregnant women to avoid spas, saunas, and hot baths. However, pregnant women can still bathe as long as the water is not too hot. It's recommended to avoid soaking in hot water that could raise body temperature above 39°C (102.2°F) for more than 10 minutes.
According to Energy Saving Trust, sticking to 4-minute showers, with the help of a timer, could save 17,000 litres of water per year. This water saving would save money on both the energy needed to heat the water, and on the cost of the water itself, if you have a metered water supply.
Avoid a bath that's too hot
And soaking in water that's far too hot can lead to dehydration, dizziness, and even fainting, which is certainly not what you've stepped into the bath for at the end of the day.
Heat exposure in any trimester has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm births, stillbirths, and low birthweight infants. In addition, heat exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase the risk of certain birth defects.
First, you can end up feeling lightheaded when you're exposed to too-hot temperatures in pregnancy. “You can faint. Your blood pressure can drop,” Wu says. Second, hot baths may pull blood away from your uterus and placenta to help cool you down, Ruiz says, and your core body temperature may rise.
Nearly all women shower or take baths during early pregnancy; however, bathing habits (i.e., shower and bath length and frequency) may be related to the risk of maternal hyperthermia and exposure to water disinfection byproducts, both of which are suspected to increase risk for multiple types of birth defects.
The "3-2-1 Rule" in pregnancy is a guideline for first-time mothers to know when to call their midwife or doctor for active labor: consistent contractions every 3 minutes, lasting 2 minutes each (or 1 minute long for some variations), for over 1 hour. It helps differentiate true labor from false labor (Braxton Hicks), signaling it's time to head to the birthing center, while subsequent pregnancies often follow the faster 5-1-1 rule.
A pregnancy may also be more likely to end in miscarriage if you: