Possible Signs of Pregnancy

Implantation Bleeding

Implantation bleeding, in women who experience it, is typically the first indication of pregnancy. When the embryo implants into the uterine wall, some blood may be released. However, only about 20 to 30 percent of women experience this bleeding, which is really more like a pink or very light red discharge of blood. Any bleeding that is not your period should be discussed with your doctor.

Delay/Difference in Menstruation

When a woman misses a period, often the first thing she does is take a home pregnancy test. A late or skipped menstrual period is the most well-known symptom of pregnancy. Some women may bleed lightly during pregnancy. If this occurs in the first few weeks, it’s called implantation bleeding and should be very light. Heavy bleeding after a period is late or after a pregnancy test has shown you are pregnant could indicate a miscarriage and you should speak with your doctor.

Other factors may also create an irregular menstrual cycle or a missed period. These include:

• Excessive changes in weight and/or diet

• Hormonal imbalances

• Stress

• Going off birth control pills

• Breastfeeding

• Travel, esp. involving changes in altitude

• Illness

• Antibiotics

Swollen / Tender Breasts

A woman’s breasts may become sore, swollen or tender as early as one or two weeks after conception. However, this is also a sign of PMS so, if you experience swollen breasts, you may want to wait until the first day of your missed period to take a home pregnancy test. You may also experience tender or sore breasts if you have a hormone imbalance or recently started birth control pills or other hormone-based birth control.

Fatigue/Tiredness

Extreme fatigue or even feeling more tired than usual could indicate pregnancy and may begin as early as the first week after conception. However, there are multiple other factors that could make a woman tired, so if this is not accompanied by other symptoms of pregnancy, consider other factors first.

• Are you getting enough sleep?

• Are you under stress?

• Could you have a cold or the flu?

Stress, exhaustion, depression, illnesses, a change in exercise habits or even a change in diet can leave you feeling fatigued.

Nausea / Morning Sickness

This well-known pregnancy symptom will often show up between two and eight weeks after conception, and typically subsides at the start of the second trimester. Some women do not experience morning sickness at all, while some feel a degree of nausea throughout pregnancy. Rule out other causes first, including food poisoning, irritable bowel syndrome, stomach disorders, stress and a stomach flu.

Backaches

Lower backaches may be a symptom that occurs early in pregnancy, but it may begin at any time during your pregnancy and last until delivery, or come and go based on your level of physical activity and other factors.

Like most pregnancy symptoms, backaches may be caused by a number of other factors, including impending menstruation, stress, back problems, physical injuries such as pulled muscles.

Headaches

The sudden rise of hormones in your body can cause headaches early in pregnancy but, since headaches are so prevalent in women and have so many other causes, this is not usually a good indicator of pregnancy unless accompanied by other symptoms. Headaches may be caused by:

• Dehydration

• Caffeine withdrawal

• PMS

• Eye strain

• Stress

• Cold or flu

• Seasonal allergies

• Sinus infection

Frequent Urination

Around six to eight weeks after conception, as the uterus grows and shifts, taking up more room in your abdomen and exerting force on your bladder, you may experience frequent urination. Frequent urination in the absence of other pregnancy symptoms, however, could indicate a problem such as:

• Urinary tract infection

• Bladder infection

• Diabetes

Using diuretics or increasing your liquid intake may also cause more frequent urination.

Darkening of Areolas

If you are pregnant, the skin around your nipples may get darker. This may also be caused by a hormone imbalance not related to pregnancy. Areolas may not return to their original color after childbirth.

Food Cravings

As any pregnant woman – or her husband who hit the convenience store at midnight for ice cream, with or without pickles – can attest, pregnancy food cravings are not a myth. They can last throughout your entire pregnancy, but usually don’t appear until the second trimester or late in the first trimester.

Dieting, PMS, lack of a certain nutrients, stress or depression can also cause food cravings. Click here to read about some strange food cravings experienced by the BOL bloggers.

Enhanced Sense of Smell

For moms-to-be pregnant for the first time, an enhanced sense of smell is often one of the oddest symptoms of pregnancy. This evolutionary trait may have developed to help pregnant women detect – and avoid – spoiled foods before they ate them. It can be embarrassing if you have to leave a room because of someone’s intense body odor or want to gag around people with the scent of third-hand smoke clinging to their bodies.

Mood Swings

It’s not just a myth. All those hormonal changes going on in your body can wreak havoc with your mood, too. Of course, mood swings can also be caused by stress or plain old garden variety PMS. Some women actually experience improved moods – or a more stable mood if they previously suffered from PMS-related mood swings – during pregnancy. Others discover that one or two specific individuals “push their buttons” but that people, as a whole, are easier to tolerate.

Increased Hunger

Doctors recommend that women not gain much weight in the first trimester, but you may feel hungrier than usual. To keep weight in check, maintain a healthy diet and eat lots of foods high in fiber, which are filling and will also help alleviate constipation. Drink a glass of water before every meal, too. Pregnant women shouldn’t need to increase their caloric intake to accommodate the growing fetus until the start of the second trimester, when they should eat approximately 300 extra calories per day. You can also maintain a high level of physical activity in the first trimester, which will help prevent excessive weight gain.

Later Pregnancy Symptoms

Some symptoms – such as a backache or headaches – may begin in the first trimester and persist throughout pregnancy. Others appear later.

• Feeling extremely warm / hot flashes

• Varicose veins

• Quickening (fetal movement)

• Shortness of breath

• Stretch marks

• Changes in all areas of your body, including hair, skin and nails

• Blurred vision

• Insomnia

Essentially, “anything goes” when it comes to pregnancy symptoms. If you are concerned about any reactions you’re having or changes to your body, speak with your midwife or obstetrician.

Author: Dawn Allcot

Stretch marks first show up during puberty, and both girls and boys get them. They are caused by rapid gain weight or growth in an area of your body. Collagen, a protein that is partly responsible for skin strength and elasticity is stretched quickly and often leaves scars that are called stretch marks. People who are obese and weight lifters often have stretch marks as well.

Pregnancy is a very common time for a woman to get stretch marks. If she doesn’t have them already on her breasts, they can often pop up because of the rapid increase of growth and fatty tissue that develops as a woman’s breasts prepare to breastfeed her baby. However, a woman’s stomach is the most common place for stretch marks to appear during pregnancy.

Stretch marks generally show up during the third trimester when a woman’s belly begins to rapidly get bigger. During the third trimester the baby is gaining most of his weight, and it is then that he grows at the fastest rate during the pregnancy.

There are several products on the market for pregnant women to use to help avoid getting stretch marks, and to help them go away after your pregnancy is over. Some women swear by them, while others claim that they don’t work. In reality, whether or not you get stretch marks is determined by how much elasticity you have in your skin. If you have a lot of elasticity, you probably will not get stretch marks, or they will at least not be severe.

Stretch marks cannot be remedied gotten rid of by a simple cream. While they may start out a pink or purplish color, they will eventually fade to match the color of your skin, like other scars do. Some people will use artificial tanning sprays and lotions to help make them less noticeable. If your stretch marks really bother you, visit a dermatologist or plastic surgeon to see what options they can make available to you.

If you are lucky you will never get a stretch mark. However, if you do, remember that you are not alone and that most women in the world are just like you and have stretch marks too.

A woman’s breasts are made up of fat, tissue, blood, and milk glands and their sole purpose is for breastfeeding. It is just a coincidence that the men seem to like women’s breasts as much as the babies do.

When a woman gets pregnant her breasts immediately start preparing to feed that baby nine months down the road. Extra blood begins to run through them and the milk glands grow, causing the swelling and pain that a woman might feel. A woman’s breasts will continue to grow throughout pregnancy, although the tenderness should fade after the first trimester. It is normal for a woman’s breasts to be 2-3 cup sizes bigger by the time her baby comes and she begins nursing.

Swollen and sore breasts do not necessarily mean that a woman is pregnant. Many women experience some swelling and tenderness in their breasts every month right before their period comes, or even at ovulation. Sore breasts can also be caused by a hormonal imbalance or starting, stopping, or changing birth control pills midway through a cycle. When in doubt, be sure to call your doctor.

As your breasts get bigger, your nipples naturally get bigger as well. The darkening of the nipples is caused by a temporary increase of melanin, the natural pigment that your body produces that gives your hair, skin and eyes their color. For most women, within a few months of having their baby, the nipples will return to their normal color and size. If a woman is breastfeeding, the nipples may not return to their normal size until after she weans her baby.

Another change in the nipples that a woman may discover once she gets pregnant are the Montgomery’s tubercles (glands or little bumps surrounding the nipples) getting bigger, elevating and becoming more prominent. Not all women experience this, and some may not experience it till the second or third trimester.

If you do not believe you are pregnant, there are other things that can cause these changes in your nipples. Weight gain can cause your breasts to enlarge, therefore causing your nipples to enlarge. If you like to tan, your nipples may become darker. A hormone imbalance may cause your nipples to get darker, or left over melanin from a previous pregnancy may cause this darkening. If you are not sure what is going on with your body, be sure to ask your doctor.

Lower backaches in the first trimester often happen when the egg attaches itself to the uterine wall, and your uterus starts growing in order to support the new pregnancy. The extra pressure can cause the muscles in your lower back to ache. Throughout the second trimester this pain may increase as your belly, while low, starts to get bigger.

By the third trimester, the backache may include your upper back, or may only be in your upper back. By the time you come to the end of your pregnancy, your breasts have grown and weigh approximately 5 pounds more than they did before you got pregnant. Your upper back muscles are working twice as hard to support the extra weight.

If you are in the last days of your pregnancy and suddenly begin experiencing lower back pain, it could be a sign of early labor. Many women have back labor, where the contractions are felt mainly in their backs, rather than the abdomen, causing pain and discomfort. If the contractions radiate from the back to the front, they are most likely true labor contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions generally stay in just the front of a woman’s belly.

Headaches can happen throughout pregnancy, although many women are never affected by them. When a woman gets pregnant, her blood volume increases in order to help sustain the pregnancy. This extra blood can increase pressure in the head and cause headaches. Some women, who have never had a bad headache before, begin experiencing migraines once they get pregnant. If you start getting bad headaches, be sure to check with your doctor to find out what medications are safe to take while you are pregnant.

By the end of pregnancy, a woman might find that her headaches are becoming more frequent. Some women will begin to get them every day, which can complicate other late pregnancy complaints like not being able to sleep.

If you just think you might be pregnant, there are other reasons why you may be experiencing backaches and headaches. If your period is coming, if you are stressed, if you have another back problem, or if you pull a muscle you may find that your back aches more than normal. Impending menstruation, stress, eye strain and dehydration can also cause headaches. When in doubt, always call your doctor.

Are you pregnant? Often, our body gives us the signs that we are pregnant before that plus sign ever shows up on a pregnancy test. How

ever, many signs of pregnancy could also be symptoms of a medical problem or even just premenstrual syndrome, so it’s important to take that test as soon as a positive result is possible.  Possible signs of pregnancy are:

Implantation Bleeding

Implantation bleeding, in women who experience it, is typically the first indication of pregnancy. When the embryo implants into the uterine wall, some blood may be released. However, only about 20 to 30 percent of women experience this bleeding, which is really more like a pink or very light red discharge of blood. Any bleeding that is not your period should be discussed with your doctor.

Delay/Difference in Menstruation

When a woman misses a period, often the first thing she does is take a home pregnancy test. A late or skipped menstrual period is the most well-known symptom of pregnancy. Some women may bleed lightly during pregnancy. If this occurs in the first few weeks, it’s called implantation bleeding and should be very light. Heavy bleeding after a period is late or after a pregnancy test has shown you are pregnant could

indicate a miscarriage and you should speak with your doctor.

Other factors may also create an irregular menstrual cycle or a missed period. These include:

• Excessive changes in weight and/or diet

• Hormonal imbalances

• Stress

• Going off birth control pills

• Breastfeeding

• Travel, esp. involving changes in altitude

• Illness

• Antibiotics

Swollen / Tender Breasts

A woman’s breasts may become sore, swollen or tender as early as one or two weeks after conception. However, this is also a sign of PMS so, if you experience swollen breasts, you may want to wait until the first day of your missed period to take a home pregnancy test. You may also experience tender or sore breasts if you have a hormone imbalance or recently started birth control pills or other hormone-based birth control.

Fatigue/Tiredness

Extreme fatigue or even feeling more tired than usual could indicate pregnancy and may begin as early as the first week after conception. However, there are multiple other factors that could make a woman tired, so if this is not accompanied by other symptoms of pregnancy, consider other factors first.

• Are you getting enough sleep?

• Are you under stress?

• Could you have a cold or the flu?

Stress, exhaustion, depression, illnesses, a change in exercise habits or even a change in diet can leave you feeling fatigued.

Nausea / Morning Sickness

This well-known pregnancy symptom will often show up between two and eight weeks after conception, and typically subsides at the start of the second trimester. Some women do not experience morning sickness at all, while some feel a degree of nausea throughout pregnancy. Rule out other causes first, including food poisoning, irritable bowel syndrome, stomach disorders, stress and a stomach flu.

Backaches

Lower backaches may be a symptom that occurs early in pregnancy, but it may begin at any time during your pregnancy and last until delivery, or come and go based on your level of physical activity and other factors.

Like most pregnancy symptoms, backaches may be caused by a number of other factors, including impending menstruation, stress, back problems, physical injuries such as pulled muscles.

Headaches

The sudden rise of hormones in your body can cause headaches early in pregnancy but, since headaches are so prevalent in women and have so many other causes, this is not usually a good indicator of pregnancy unless accompanied by other symptoms. Headaches may be caused by:

• Dehydration

• Caffeine withdrawal

• PMS

• Eye strain

• Stress

• Cold or flu

• Seasonal allergies

• Sinus infection

Frequent Urination

Around six to eight weeks after conception, as the uterus grows and shifts, taking up more room in your abdomen and exerting force on your bladder, you may experience frequent urination. Frequent urination in the absence of other pregnancy symptoms, however, could indicate a problem such as:

• Urinary tract infection

• Bladder infection

• Diabetes

Using diuretics or increasing your liquid intake may also cause more frequent urination.

Darkening of Areolas

If you are pregnant, the skin around your nipples may get darker. This may also be caused by a hormone imbalance not related to pregnancy. Areolas may not return to their original color after childbirth.

Food Cravings

As any pregnant woman – or her husband who hit the convenience store at midnight for ice cream, with or without pickles – can attest, pregnancy food cravings are not a myth. They can last throughout your entire pregnancy, but usually don’t appear until the second trimester or late in the first trimester.

Dieting, PMS, lack of a certain nutrients, stress or depression can also cause food cravings. Click here to read about some strange food cravings experienced by the BOL bloggers.

Enhanced Sense of Smell

For moms-to-be pregnant for the first time, an enhanced sense of smell is often one of the oddest symptoms of pregnancy. This evolutionary trait may have developed to help pregnant women detect – and avoid – spoiled foods before they ate them. It can be embarrassing if you have to leave a room because of someone’s intense body odor or want to gag around people with the scent of third-hand smoke clinging to their bodies.

Mood Swings

It’s not just a myth. All those hormonal changes going on in your body can wreak havoc with your mood, too. Of course, mood swings can also be caused by stress or plain old garden variety PMS. Some women actually experience improved moods – or a more stable mood if they previously suffered from PMS-related mood swings – during pregnancy. Others discover that one or two specific individuals “push their buttons” but that people, as a whole, are easier to tolerate.

Increased Hunger

Doctors recommend that women not gain much weight in the first trimester, but you may feel hungrier than usual. To keep weight in check, maintain a healthy diet and eat lots of foods high in fiber, which are filling and will also help alleviate constipation. Drink a glass of water before every meal, too. Pregnant women shouldn’t need to increase their caloric intake to accommodate the growing fetus until the start of the second trimester, when they should eat approximately 300 extra calories per day. You can also maintain a high level of physical activity in the first trimester, which will help prevent excessive weight gain.

Later Pregnancy Symptoms

Some symptoms – such as a backache or headaches – may begin in the first trimester and persist throughout pregnancy. Others appear later.

• Feeling extremely warm / hot flashes

• Varicose veins

• Quickening (fetal movement)

• Shortness of breath

• Stretch marks

• Changes in all areas of your body, including hair, skin and nails

• Blurred vision

• Insomnia

Essentially, “anything goes” when it comes to pregnancy symptoms. If you are concerned about any reactions you’re having or changes to your body, speak with your midwife or obstetrician.

Could You Be Pregnant?

If you are Trying To Conceive and are experiencing early signs of pregnancy, this could be good news! If you think you may be pregnant, today’s Home Pregnancy Tests can show positive results as early as a week before your period is due.  If you’re not ready to buy a pregnancy test just yet, enter your last menstrual cycle date into our Due Date Calculator to determine when you ovulated last.  That will give you a little insight too!