The 12th Week of Pregnancy: What Every Woman Should Expect

Finally, at the end part of the first trimester of pregnancy, two more to go! Now that you have arrived the 12th week of pregnancy, you may notice that your body is showing the world, in pride that you are really pregnant. Most women are finally showing their bump at the twelfth month. This bump may not be a big, prominent one, but you and the people around you can finally see the difference.  Congratulations and celebrate it!

A pregnant women carrying twins may have a big tummy right now. You may also have a bigger tummy when you’ve been pregnant before.

A lot of miscarriages happen before 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage risk is now lower at 12 weeks of pregnancy. Also, the annoying first trimester symptoms are diminished during this time. No more morning sickness, nausea and vomiting but then again, not all mothers are the same. The pregnancy experience is different from one pregnant woman to another.

Your body experience a lot of major changes and one of these is the increased blood volume (blood and fluid), approximately 75ml of extra fluid, including the amniotic fluid and blood for the baby.

You may discover that you are experiencing more changes in terms of symptoms. You may feel more fatigability due to the increasing weight and may be also due to the increased blood supply to the uterus and baby. You may feel sudden dizziness at times. This is naturally caused by the hormone, progesterone. The decrease in blood flow to your body and brain, along with the typically lower blood sugar levels during pregnancy makes you feel dull and dizzy. Also, because of the increasing weight of your growing uterus, more blood flow pools into your lower extremities when you are walking or standing. It is advised to wear protective stockings to prevent thromboembolism and varicose veins. Another symptom to watch out for is the orthostatic hypotension that is a sudden drop of systolic and diastolic blood pressure due to changes in position. You might feel this sudden dizziness when you suddenly sit from a lying position or when you suddenly stand. This is caused by the venous pooling of blood to your legs. To prevent this, you must slowly change position from lying or sitting to standing position.

Junk foods may be harder to resist during pregnancy.

Some dizzy symptoms may also be due to low blood sugar. A pregnant mother should be cautious about her nutrition and should eat a balanced, healthy diet and on regular schedules.  Skipping meals is a big no during pregnancy. You don’t want to have a dizzy baby as well. What you eat is what the baby eats. So if you eat junk food, fast food, and too much fat or sweets, most likely your baby will be getting these as well. Either your baby becomes malnourished or too big as for the normal size. Now is a great time to evaluate your diet. Make sure that both you and your baby are getting the right nutrients that you need. Nutrients are passed from the mother to the baby via the placenta. Keep drinking plenty of water, fruit juices and fluids to keep yourself well hydrated. Also this will help to combat the possibilities of having constipation when your womb gets bigger. A bigger tummy in the long run will add pressure to the uterus and can be quite disturbing. flatulence can also be irritating and embarrassing at the same time. Avoid gas forming foods and try to eat slowly. The more you eat faster, more air is being swallowed.

Linea Nigra.

You may notice that there may be several changes in your skin. On your face lies what they call, “the mask of pregnancy,” or chloasma. Skin appears darker in areas of the nape, neck, armpits, groins, and the face has a shiny freckled skin spots. This is due to the normal hormonal changes during pregnancy but it’s okay because it will go away when you gave birth. You may also have pimples forming now that you are pregnancy. This can be annoying because the last time you had these breakouts were when you were in your teens. You can now see that your linea alba, the line dividing your tummy in two spheres are becoming more prominent and brownish in color. This is now called, linea nigra, which will go away as well when you deliver the baby.

At this point, you may sometime feel that you are oversized, unattractive and a lot of clothes don’t fit. Do not feel unhappy with these changes. Spoil yourself with some shopping. Modern fashion today allows a lot of choices for pregnant mothers. You can choose clothes from the hip and the cool.

A lot of couples may choose not to have sexual contact during pregnancy. Many pregnant women also refuse their partners while some women may also experience that their husbands are the one refusing to have sexual contact due to the fear of having a miscarriage. There are many misconceptions about having sex during pregnancy. Ask your doctor about it. It’s a case to case basis. As long as your pregnancy case is safe and has no contraindications, there should not be a problem for sexual contact. You might even be surprised that you have more sex drive, as well as for your partner. It may even help the mother to gain self-esteem when she feels unattractive. It may also even strengthen the relationship of the couple.

When you visit your doctor this week, he may use a Doppler to know the fetal heart rate (FHR) You may be shocked that your baby’s heart beat is so fast at 160 beats per minute, almost twice of yours. Knowing that your baby’s heart is beating and being able to hear it calls for a celebration. Discuss with your doctor what hints and tips you need to know to have a healthy pregnancy. He may also advise you to do some exercises, such as the Kegel’s , that will help you in strengthening vaginal muscles and will also prevent you from urinary incontinence when your tummy gets bigger on the next couple of months.

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