Don’t worry, you will most probably not go experience all of these, but many of the signs and symptoms mentioned below might come as a surprise:

• Your hair might become a lot thicker and grow quicker. On your head but also … on your legs and under your arms. Pretty much everywhere.
• You might experience a very dry vagina at first and finding that you need additional lubrication. It might even become too painful to have sex.
• Your labia majora (lips of the vagina) might become very swollen. It can be uncomfortable for instance to sit in the bath because of the swelling and pressure down there
• An unusual low or high libido (sex drive)
• Bleeding or spotting after having intercourse
• Your feet and ankles can start to swell (you might need a bigger shoe size for a while)
• Your hands might feel swollen in the morning (if this happened just report to your healthcare provider so they can check for Carpal Tunnel syndrome which often happens in pregnancy. (Remove any rings if this happens)
• Back Ache
• Heart Burn
• Abdominal cramping (braxton hicks)
• Your abdomen might feel itchy at times (stretching skin can cause this if your baby is going through a growth spurt in the uterus
• Stretch marks along the abdomen and also thighs!
• You buttocks and thighs can increase in size … yes for real!
• Swelling in the face is not considered normal and you should go for a check-up if you are also experiencing other symptoms. A fuller face from pregnancy weight gain is fine, but obvious swelling, especially around the eyes is not.
• Towards the end of the pregnancy you might have excess vaginal discharge, necessitating wearing a sanitary pad all the time. Vaginal thrush is also very common and should be treated.
• Spotting of blood can sometimes occur but should always be checked out by your healthcare provider
• You can get out of breath easily and cannot eat a lot of food in one sitting
• You might pee yourself when sneezing/laughing

You will get different answers if you ask different people. As a midwife I would always advocate for antenatal classes to ensure that you are prepared for the expected and the unexpected. Would you go and write your final exam without studying for it? If your answer is no, then it is a good start. 

Antenatal classes are so much more than showing you how to change a nappy or burp your baby. It is about informing you of the latest evidence-based practices and how you can become part of the decision-making process. Until recently and still for some, mothers believed that they did not have  much of a say and should follow the guidance of their healthcare provider. While it is good practice to consider the advice, no one can force you to make decisions you don’t feel comfortable with. 

The more you know, the better decisions you can make for yourself and your baby. The more you know, the more prepared you are if things don’t go according to plan. The more you know, the better you can look after your own health and the baby’s because you will not ignore early warning signs. The more you know, the better the birth experience and outcome you can have. Knowledge is power and it gives you a great head start.

It is best to start attending antenatal classes anywhere from 28 weeks onwards. If you are expecting multiples, you can even start sooner so that you are prepared for any possible preterm birth. But no one is stopping you from starting earlier than that, if it helps you then why not?

So when asked how far you are pregnant …You tell your friend 15 weeks and she goes “HUH?” so you convert to tell her about 4 months.

Then you get to the doctor or midwife and tell them you are 4 months and they say, “No, in weeks?”and you don’t know so they ask for the date of your last menstrual period or your due date and then they tell you “Okay 15 weeks and 3 days actually”

Why though?

So in actual fact you are about 10 months pregnant and not 9 ….

You probably by now know that a full-term pregnancy is considered 40 weeks. So if you divide 40 weeks by the average of 4 weeks in a month you get to 10 months! Except that every month differs and some months have 5 weeks … so what now?

This is exactly why we use weeks, because 7 days in a week is consistent whereas one month to the next is not. Some have 30 days, some 31 and then some 28 … so in real terms a pregnant month would be around 4.3 weeks which is very inaccurate for many reasons. Certain scans and tests can only be done at a certain point (often a 2 week period) so all accuracy is lost when we measure by months.

Did you Know?

That you are considered pregnant BEFORE you fall pregnant? Due to the ovulation cycles being vastly different from one woman to the next, it is impossible to know when exactly you fell pregnant.

What are the facts?

Remember that the moment you fall pregnant is not immediately after having sex. You also don’t fall pregnant when a sperm fertilises an egg to form an embryo. (You need to ovulate to release an egg. Then that egg needs to travel down the fallopian tube to the uterus.) And somewhere within this period the egg can be fertilised and the embryo implants in the uterus – this is when you are considered pregnant. So can you see that pinpointing the moment you fall pregnant is virtually impossible?

So if you do a pregnancy test a week after you missed your period, you are roughly 5 weeks pregnant!

There are a few ways to work out your due date:

• Method 1 Take a calendar and circle the first day that your last menstrual period started (LNMP). Now minus 3 months. Now add 7 days
• Method 2: Count 40 weeks from the first day of your last menstrual period (LNMP) (full period, not spotting)
• Method 3: If you tracked ovulation: add 266 days to your ovulation date. If you had IVF, add 261 – 263 days after fertilisation
• Method 4: Ultrasound. The most accurate estimation up to 12 weeks because menstruation dates can get mixed up!

Disclaimer: Your date date is an ESTIMATE only (therefore abbreviated EDD) and 37 weeks is considered full-term in most instances and many don’t make it to 40 weeks and many go beyond this date.

TEST YOURSELF: LNMP = 2nd Nov 2021. Do you get 9th of Aug 2022 as your due date? Then you are 14 weeks now.

Short answer is NO 🙂

The shape and size of your abdomen depends on a number of things

• How many pregnancies you have had before
• If you are carrying more than one baby
• The position of the baby in the uterus
• The strength of your abdominal muscles (muscle tone)
• Your weigh
• Your height
• Your body shape/posture
• and NOT the gender of the baby 🙂

A question moms always ask. Again, you will find different answers from different mothers. 

Facts on the table? Baby clothing and accessories are expensive. So plan your budget accordingly. Start looking at prices and perhaps set aside savings every month and go buy everything at a later stage. Perhaps you are waiting for your baby shower and hoping to only buy whatever you didn’t get? But what if the baby comes before the baby shower?

There are lots of factors to consider. You can also start buying some things every month, but it is easy to waste money on bottles, bum creams, nappies, wipes etc. in case it doesn’t work for your baby. So keep your receipts. At the end of the day, you have to decide what works for you. There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

Also, see our nappy discussion below to determine how many nappies you will need.

From other moms: never say no to hand-me-downs! 

As much as you might prefer brand names only, babies and toddlers will destroy the prettiest clothes and blankets with vomit sessions, poop explosions, teething drool, eating solids, crawling and then running around outside, potty training etc. You will want some old clothes at some point to protect your branded ones! Send the kids to school in used clothing so that the mud, paint and other dirt from school does not affect your nice outfits.

If they take forever to start walking, like mine did, you are going to go through pants and leggings at an alarming speed. This is where second-hand clothing comes in very handy!