It is safe to say that you should wear high heels less often when you’re pregnant than when you are not. You can probably get away with wearing your normal high heels in the first trimester, but I would even recommend against that. I would recommend putting your high heels away for the duration of your pregnancy and wearing a two-inch heel or less instead.
Two things you need to know about high heels and pregnancy. First, relaxin, a hormone that your body makes to soften joints in your pelvis also softens all the other joints in your body, including your knees, ankles, hips, and back. Second, high heels change the way your heels, ankles, knees, pelvis, and back manage walking. High heels forces all of these joints into unnatural physiological positions.
When you are pregnant, especially in the last half of pregnancy, you should avoid placing most of your weight on the balls of your feet. Your total body posture will be more normal if you carry your weight more evenly across the whole bottom of your feet from your toes to your heels.
Some women notice their feet getting calluses when they are pregnant. Heels tend to accumulate calluses, perhaps more so during pregnancy. To soften your heels you will need to remove the calluses. To remove calluses, I would recommend soaking your feet in warm water with probably one drop of dish soap in the water. There are small machines like a cheese grater that you can use to peel away the softened callus. I would recommend soaking one foot at a time. If you soak them both simultaneously, the second heel will become dried while you are working on the first foot. You may choose to continue soaking the second foot while you work on the first one though.
I’ve always recommended against a long work day during pregnancy. In other words, a 12-hour shift or even a 10-hour shift should be avoided from the start of your pregnancy. Working three 12-hour shift is definitely not in your best interest. Working five 6-hour shifts would be better for you during pregnancy. If you begin to have trouble with your blood pressure going up, you may have to stop working and get more rest.
Letting go of your high heels may be really difficult for some, but pregnancy is really a good time to find and wear shoes with very little elevation and keep your weight off the balls of your feet.