Congratulations!

Pregnancy is an wonderful time for you. There are amazing body changes that take place to support your pregnancy and to prepare you for childbirth. With these changes come many symptoms and some challenges. While you are pregnant you are predisposed to some illnesses, some of which are peculiar to pregnancy. Some pre-existing health problems can worsen in pregnancy while some can get better.

At many consultations there are questions raised about pregnancy changes and a common question is: Is this normal?

The purpose of this section is to address many of these questions and also to help you understand how you can stay healthy in your pregnancy.

This information is meant purely as a resource to support what is discussed in your consultations with me (Dr Sykes), not a substitute. If you have any questions about the information below please let us know. We want to hear from you.

Pregnancy changes, challenges and symptoms

 Usually a pregnancy is diagnosed by a positive urine pregnancy test, though we do know women who have been confident they were pregnant because of certain symptoms that they only had when pregnant. The urine test was just to confirm what they knew. These symptoms could have onset before they missed a period!

Pregnancy symptoms vary considerably in nature, severity and duration from one woman to another. One woman can have no symptoms in early pregnancy except an overdue period and have a healthy ongoing pregnancy, while another can have considerable pregnancy symptoms and a failed pregnancy. Generally loss of pregnancy symptoms in the first trimester is a concerning sign and needs immediate attention.

Some symptoms may have their onset with conception and will continue for varying time periods in the pregnancy. They will become apparent during the pregnancy and can be worse in advanced pregnancy.

As well there can be marked variation in symptoms from one pregnancy to the next. Most marked variation in pregnancy symptoms is between the first two ongoing pregnancies. As a general rule the second ongoing pregnancy is characterised by a worse pregnancy (than the first) but a better birth (than the first). This is because of the impact of both the first pregnancy and vaginal birth on the woman's body, and also second time around you are usually busier. In your second pregnancy you are a mother, wife, often have a full-time job, have household duties and are older. Second time you usually show sooner, are more tired, are more emotional, feel more discomforts and have more pelvic heaviness, etc. But first stage labour second time is usually of much shorter duration, and (because of the stretching of the pelvic floor muscles with the first) second stage is usually very quick.

A common question is: "Will I ever get back to normal?"

That answer is: "YES!" (for most women). Most of the pregnancy symptoms are peculiar to the pregnancy period. Most will resolve either immediately after your baby's birth or over the next six months.

Here (see sidebar) in alphabetical order we have listed the most common pregnancy changes and what you can do to be more comfortable.