Pregnancy Symptoms No One Warns You About
To me, starting and growing a family is the most beautiful thing in the world and is worth every single step of the experience. I even enjoy the bad symptoms of my pregnancy by thinking that what’s causing it, is the person I love the most, and these symptoms are only taking me closer to meeting him. However, I realize that I’m very lucky to be able to find the good in the bad in this situation; if you don’t, don’t be scared, the human body and mind are different for each of us. You may not be enjoying your pregnancy at all times, or at least not all aspects of it, but know that you’re not the only one. A lot of other women feel the same, yet love their baby and turn to be great mothers. The point is, every woman’s experience of pregnancy is different, and so are our feelings and sensitivity toward each symptom - some of us don’t struggle with nauseas, some only during the first trimester, and some all pregnancy long, unfair I tell you.
Nauseas, vomiting, swollen and tender breasts, food aversions, mood swings, and a heavy belly towards the end, are all trade-offs for glowing skin, healthy hair, stronger nails, and bigger boobs. That’s what I was promised, and if it’s your first child, that’s what you think you’ll be getting. As I said, we are all different, and are prone to different stimuli varying from one person to another, but all of these, isn’t what pregnancy symptoms really feels like, and this is what I want to shed a light on. Remember, no matter what you’ve been promised during pregnancy, it does not even come close to what you’ll be getting at the end. Moreover, remember that these symptoms are only here because you’re growing a tiny little person inside of you, how beautiful is this? I’m so grateful to finally have been given the chance to carry and grow our child.
disclaimer: these are symptoms you may or may not experience, all based on my personal pregnancy, not getting them doesn’t mean something is wrong.
Pregnancy Glow vs. Pregnancy Acne
“If your skin clears up and leaves you with a natural perfect glow, chances are, you’ll be the proud mom of a little boy” that’s what I was told and what I’ve read on every pregnancy website (and it’s believed that women expecting a baby girl get the opposite, pregnancy acne). So, we are expecting a little boy, but I haven’t gotten a pregnancy glow. People, especially my husband, tell me that I am glowing more than usual, but truth is, I got a lot of pimples in my first trimester as well as eczema around my mouth. The fact that it isn’t pretty was hardly a concern, truth is, it was painful!
During my fourth month of pregnancy, with the help of (pregnancy safe) antibiotics, and a drastic change in my skincare routine, I managed to clear up my pregnancy acne (mostly).
Conclusion: Don’t wait up for your pregnancy glow to come by, it might never arrive. But remember who’s the cause of these troubles your skin is fighting with!
Stuffy Nose & Nosebleeds
This really is the symptom I was never told about, nor before getting pregnant, nor during; yet to me, it was, and still to this day remain one of the most annoying pregnancy symptoms.
It started at the very first month, and I don’t reckon it’s going to get better any time soon - I even got a nice nasal cautery in my second month of pregnancy.
As you certainly know by now, with pregnancy come tons of changes, mostly linked to the high amount of hormones, which increase blood flow, resulting in the mucous membranes softening and swelling. Yes even the nose, aka “stuffy nose”.
Keeping tissues around becomes quite handy, as constant sneezing and blowing cause nosebleeds. So here you have it, the most annoying symptom. Imagine having your nose blocked by allergies, and this for the next 9 months. Yeah.
Conclusion: You may not be able to breathe properly for about 40 weeks due to your swollen nasal mucous caused by the high level of hormones, but these hormones significantly help baby to develop, so he/she’s all healthy and ready when the time comes!
Poor Quality Of Sleep
People advice future parents to “sleep as much as you can before baby comes”, while my husband takes this advice pretty seriously, I wish getting ahead on sleep time was something I could do.
Growing and carrying a human is quite tiring, which makes falling asleep easy; but when it comes to a deep, restorative sleep it’s a whole other story. Hormonal changes, back pain, heartburn, trips to the bathroom, nausea, stuffy nose, and uncomfortable positions are the main causes to poor quality of sleep pregnant women have to cope with.
This symptom of pregnancy is kind of a kept secret yet is so frequent that it acclaimed the famous name “pregnancy insomnia”.
So know that even if you feel alone in the middle of the night after turning back and forth in your bed trying to find a good position while your husband and pets are fast asleep, remember that we’re pretty much all doing the same thing as you are.
Conclusion: There isn’t much you can do to improve your sleep quality during pregnancy. Take advantage of this moment to bond with baby if he’s awake, and try breathing exercises (if your nose permits), get a good pregnancy pillow or at least put a pillow between your knees to relieve some of your backache.
Vasospasm Of The Nipple
This isn’t an especially common symptom (occurs in 22% of pregnancies), but it’s definitely one worth talking about.
Vasospasm is the intermittent loss of blood flow to some extremities due to a spasm in the blood vessels. It commonly occurs in the toes and fingers, but for the luckiest of us, it can affect the nipples. The constriction of blood flow causes a loss of color (white, blue and red), as well as severe pain (about similar to if someone had carefully applied acid on my nipple).
Thankfully, the danger of vasospasm isn’t comparable to the pain it causes, in other words and in most cases, vasospasm of the nipple isn’t a cause for worry.
Conclusion: It hurts. If you’re suffering from vasospasm, keep your breasts warm at all times as cold is a bad trigger. Generally, breast feeding remain doable, even with vasospasm.
Shortness Of Breath
I know, no one told you about this one either, and yet shortness of breath during pregnancy is one of the most common symptoms. During pregnancy, women need 20% more oxygen to share with their growing baby. Thanks to pregnancy hormones (them again!) which stimulate your brain to increase the depth of your breaths, to let in more oxygen to flow into your body and baby’s, through the placenta and umbilical cord. Those same hormones, also make your respiratory tract swell while relaxing your bronchial tubes and your diaphragm, accentuating the feeling of shortness of breath. On top of this, starting around mid-pregnancy, and/or depending on baby’s favorite position, your uterus may push up against your diaphragm, worsening as baby keeps growing, thus causes the compression of your lungs, and limits their ability to fully extend. All of these result in you feeling like you’ve just finished a marathon after only climbing two flights of stairs.
Conclusion: Hold on, you’ll soon meet with your baby, plus he/she’ll free your lungs and you’ll be back to normal in no time!
Joint Pain
I’ve been told the last month becomes a bit tough, as you feel heavy and “big”; I’m not there yet, and I already clearly feel that I’m heavier, which (partly) causes my joints to hurt. Now this is an inevitable symptom of pregnancy, it may come and go, and it may appear at different stages depending on each individual, but it always comes. Baby growing inside our body is a magical thing, and an experience of a lifetime; but as we know “the best things in life don’t come easy”. The hormones, weight gain, and change in posture combo is a lot of fast changes for our body. Hormones create our muscles to relax, and our mucus to swell; our abdominal muscles are stretched to give space for baby to grow, which makes our lower back muscles less supported, resulting in changing posture. These added to the normal pregnancy weight gain (yes, even a slight one), causes a lot of change to our (already loosen by the relaxin hormone) joints and ligaments.
Conclusion: Once again, hold on! Baby will soon arrive and free you from these very annoying symptoms, and will replace them with lots of love.
Sun Sensitivity
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you can’t go out in the sun, or even spend a good part of the day at the beach; however, you need to be careful when going out, and be very diligent about sun protectors (hats, SPF 50 sunscreen, and an umbrella for that day at the beach we talked about).
With pregnancy comes a lot of changes, we’ve covered that part, and your skin may become, and sometimes remain, completely different. Pregnancy glow is close to being a myth, and your surging hormones (them again) make your skin extra sensitive; for example, you may observe allergic reactions to products you’ve been using for years, or even more likely, you may become susceptible to dark spots linked to sun exposure.
Hormonal changes during pregnancy increase the production of melanin in the skin, which may result in ‘melasma’ better known as ‘the mask of pregnancy’ causing discolored patches to appear on the skin, in most cases the face. Hormones can also make the skin more prone to burning and UV damage, therefore increasing the risk of skin cancer.
Conclusion: Protect yourself every time you go out, and seek shade! We also have a guide for you on how to tan safely as well as the truth on all tanning myths.
Dry Skin
Some expecting mothers find themselves breaking out, others are dealing with drier skin than they’ve ever experienced, and for the luckiest, both, yay. Dry skin is a very common symptom that we don’t hear much about; as always, hormonal changes are the reason for your dry skin - or any change to your skin. The hormonal fluctuations cause the hydrolipidic barrier of your skin (basically, your skin’s shield) to thin, and often can create tiny tears in this protective layer. These tiny tears let the moisture of your skin evaporate quickly off your skin, resulting in dry, cracked, itchy, alligator-like skin.
Don’t worry, it might be a long battle but there are ways to repair and preserve the hydrolipidic layer and we’re currently working on gathering the most efficient ones for you. Coming soon!
Conclusion: This is one of the only symptoms you can actually fix with a new routine, or add-ons to your current routine. And we’re here to help you with this - coming this week.
Hairy Belly
Excessive hair growth is very common in pregnancy. On top of your hair growing faster and thicker, you may also notice the growth of hair in some parts of your body that are usually naturally nice and smooth such as your lower back, glutes, neck, shoulders and breasts, but more commonly your belly. I’m sure you guessed it, this glamorous change is the result of your drastic hormonal fluctuations. Now, before you panic, those hair are not going to last, and will fall off when your hormones regulate themselves after birth. On the bright side, we’re sure you’ve heard or maybe even witnessed how much the hair growing on your head has grown faster, thicker and healthier; this is the same hormones acting the same way for your body and capillary hair (unfortunately, the dreamy hair will also get back to normal after birth).
Conclusion: It’s just a matter of time before your belly (among other things) goes back to their natural state. In the meantime, try to like them… When it comes to your special pregnancy-new hair, you should never try to pluck, wax, trim, or worse, shave as this may make the hair last forever even after having given birth.
Bleeding “Heavily” From Little Cuts
During pregnancy the volume of blood increases by 40 to 50% to nurture and accommodate baby as well as preparing your body for labor and delivery; accordingly, the amount of blood pumped by the heart, increases as well by about the same ratio (40 to 50%). The increased amount of blood circulating in your body (mainly to your uterus, and placenta), is the physiological reason to the so-called “pregnancy glow” - although you may think that the beautiful pregnancy glow you were promised to is just a myth due to your either too dry or too oily skin that came along with pregnancy acne, but you must admit that you got pretty rosy cheeks and a nice healthy complexion now. Anyways, all this momentary excess of blood is causing you to bleed for a longer time as well as more heavily for very tiny cuts that you wouldn’t usually even bleed for.
Conclusion: It’s a common and normal symptom, try to be as careful as you can be when making dinner, and remember, all this increase of blood helps baby grow healthily.
Breast Leaking
We’ve heard of breast feeding moms having to pump milk not only to feed baby, but also to release some pressure caused by high milk production off their breasts. We’re also aware of the necessity of nursing pads to control milk leaking incidents in new moms. Well, if like me, you thought that this will not start before baby comes, you’re not entirely right: as much as your hormones try to balance everything and release what is needed at the right time, sometimes they’re just not as precise as they would like to be. Proclatin is the hormone responsible for milk production after birth, most times, this hormone switches on earlier than planned and your breasts start producing milk; thankfully your sky-high levels of estrogen and progesterone during pregnancy are here to control the damage, which result in very tiny little amount of colostrum leakage. Colostrum is the precious precursor of breast milk, a thick, gold-yellow and creamy milk that baby will feed on for the first couple of days of his life (if you choose to breast feed); it contains high antibodies and is very nutritive.
Conclusion: Don’t worry, as long as it’s a very little amount of colostrum leaking, your baby will still have enough of it when it’s time to feed him/her.
Love
Of course I knew that I would fall completely in love with this tiny human growing inside of me once I get to meet him, or even before as I start bonding with him through my body; but this is way beyond love already.
You hear about parental love, and how selfless, deep, and unconditional it can get, so you think and you imagine it, you can even witness it with your parents and sometimes other parents, but all of this is far from what it really feels; we never know the love of a parent until we become parents ourselves.
I haven’t even seen his face, nor have held his hands, but he has already shifted my world, for the better - all of your priorities and perception of life change.
Conclusion: Be ready to fall in love to a level you cannot even fathom yet and to be handed a whole new vantage point to your entire world and life.