Congratulations! You’re pregnant! How exciting it must be to know that you are creating a human being inside you. Well, besides being excited, pregnancy could be overwhelming too, especially if it’s your first time on the journey to motherhood. So, to help you ease into this tough but magical journey, we have made a pregnancy guide for you. Read on to know about the signs, stages, and care needed during pregnancy.
Some common symptoms that you might observe during pregnancy are breast tenderness, frequent urination, nausea, and missed or negligible menstrual cycle. Between 20 to 40% of women also experience implantation bleeding. However, please note that each pregnancy is truly unique, and your symptoms may or may not fall under the common criteria.
The best way to find out if you are pregnant is to take a home pregnancy test.
Choosing your obstetrician:
It is important to find an accomplished OB as he/she would be able to guide you through this journey. Experts such as Dr Rahul Sen are known for their impeccable services, which have helped hundreds of expecting mothers during their pregnancies. Pregnancy can be divided into three stages as per its trimesters.
First Trimester: Weeks 1 to 12
You:
At this stage, you would experience many hormonal changes. The rising levels of Estrogen and Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG) might make you nauseous. Studies show that 8 out of 10 pregnant Australian women complain of sickness during the first stage of pregnancy. You could feel extremely tired and sleepy because of rising Progesterone levels. You might have to make more frequent trips to the loo because your bladder will now be under more pressure. At an early stage in your pregnancy, breasts may feel tender and swollen. Furthermore, the areolas will darken and expand. You might also experience random mood swings and many emotional highs and lows in these early months.
Baby:
Your baby is called an embryo for the first 8 weeks of the pregnancy. This is the beginning of life! The little life inside you gets its first heartbeat in this phase. The first trimester marks the development of the heart, lungs, arms, legs, brain, spinal cord, and nerves. It is called a fetus after 8 weeks, and by the time it becomes a fetus, your baby may have developed buds for teeth to grow.
Second trimester: Weeks 13-27
You:
Happy days are here! Yes, the second trimester, brings in higher production of happy hormones. The uncomfortable signs might settle including nausea and mood swings. However, the pelvic pressure could make you uncomfortable, as your baby bump has grown to become slightly visible by this time. As the life inside you grows, you would put on weight drastically and this may cause backaches. Week16 to 18 pleasantly surprise you with fluttering fetal movements. At the 20th week, you are halfway down there, and the moms-to-be are mostly feeling pretty good. In a normal pregnancy, the risk of miscarriages goes down significantly if the second trimester is comfortable and healthy for the mother and the baby both.
Baby:
Your fetus would be 3 to 5 inches long by now, and if you want, you could know the sex of the baby too. By the fourth month, the fetus has eyebrows, eyelashes, and fingernails too. Oh, the tiny details! Though the skin is wrinkly, the baby can bend, flex, and stretch the limbs. So, you can feel the movements getting stronger each week now. By the end of the second trimester, important organs like the brain and kidneys start developing. The baby can pee now!
Third trimester: Weeks 28-40
You:
The baby bump looks bigger every day! However, breathing gets tough as the uterus pushes against the diaphragm. As the blood circulation gets slower you would experience swelling in ankles, hands, feet, and face. Backache and frequent urination might make sleeping difficult. The appearance of stretch marks on your belly, thighs, breasts, and backside might scare you but rubbing some cocoa butter will help. As your body gets ready for labour, a false alarm is common! A discussion about it with your OB is a great idea. The final weeks will make you extremely tired, but you can’t wait to see your baby. Have a birth plan in place!
Baby:
By the 7th month, your baby shows response to light and music as his eyes can open and close now. The fetus is gaining weight, and his lungs and bones are getting stronger. Although the skull remains squishy, body development is on full swing in this stage. In the final month, most fetuses turn into a head-down position as they are ready to be born.
There you go, mommy! We hope this helped you understand the miracle of childbirth, and how your body is going to pull it off. Have a great pregnancy!
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