Pregnancy and Birth Essay

Submitted By cassidymccauley
Words: 4452
Pages: 18

So you think you’re
Pregnant?

How do you know when you’re pregnant?
If you're extremely tuned into your body's rhythms, you may begin to suspect you're pregnant soon after conception. But most women won't experience any early pregnancy symptoms until the fertilized egg attaches itself to the uterine wall, several days after conception.

Symptoms that you just cannot ignore;
 Miss your period - if you’re usually regular and your period is late you should try a pregnancy test.
 Food cravings - this can sometimes be a sign of pregnancy but don’t rely on them as a sure symptom
 Darkening of your skin around your nipples - this means you may successfully conceived although this may be a sign or hormonal imbalance unrelated to pregnancy
 Implantation bleeding or cramping - after about 8 days after ovulation you may experience implantation spotting, a light stain of a pink or brown colour as well as cramping.
 Frequent urination - once the embryo implants and begins producing the hormone human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) you may need to go to the bathroom a lot.
 Fatigue - high levels of the hormone progesterone can make you feel as if you’ve ran a marathon when really you just spent a day at the office
 Tender, swollen breasts - your breasts will probably become tender to touch just like they do before your period but much more so.
 Altered sense of taste - your sense of taste tends to change. The things you once loved may taste horrible to you now.
 Morning sickness - if you’re lucky you may not experience morning sickness until a few weeks after conception. But as early as a couple of days following conception, you may feel sick and throw up.
 A positive home pregnancy test - if you have waited to test until at least the last day of a missed period and 2 lines appears in the test window, you are most likely to be pregnant.

Month 1 This week marks the beginning of the embryonic period. From now until 10 weeks, all of your baby's organs will begin to develop and some will even begin to function. As a result, this is the time when she'll be most at risk to anything that might interfere with her development. Right now your baby is an embryo the size of a poppy seed, consisting of two layers; the epiblast and the hypoblast, from which all of its organs and body parts will develop. The primitive placenta is also made up of two layers at this point. Its cells are tunneling into the lining of your uterus, creating spaces for your blood to flow so that the developed placenta will be able to provide nutrients and oxygen to your growing baby when it starts to function at the end of this week. Also present now are the amniotic sac, which will house your baby; the amniotic fluid, which will cushion her as she grows; and the yolk sac, which produces your baby's red blood cells and helps deliver nutrients to her until the placenta has developed and is ready to take over this duty. If you're taking any medications/prescription or over-the-counter, ask now whether it's safe to keep taking them and be sure to alert your caregiver to any other issues of concern. If you haven’t already, you should start taking a multivitamin that contains at least 400 micrograms of folic acid. The mums tummy would have started grow but only slightly as you can on the picture to the left.
The first trimester of pregnancy is marked by an invisible yet amazing transformation and it happens quickly. Hormones trigger your body to begin healthful the baby even before tests and a physical exam can confirm the pregnancy. You start to feel run down all the time even if you haven’t done much because hormone progesterone soar in the mean time lower blood sugar levels, lower blood pressure and increase blood production can cause you to feel this way. You feel sick occasionally and you throw up from rapidly rising levels of estrogen and progesterone which cause the stomach to empty slowly. You tend to leak urine