Common pregnancy complaints

CHANGED APPETITE:

Because of your baby’s growing needs and all the related effects on your body, various things change in your metabolism and digestion. You have a greater need for energy and nutrients. Your eating habits change, probably because of hormonal changes. The mucous membrane of the digestive tract swells due to increased blood flow and hormonal changes. Your weight increases. Your carbohydrate and fat metabolism changes. The same applies to your water and salt balance. It is well known that taste and smell can change during pregnancy. Things you used to like now leave you cold or even put you off completely. The reverse also happens. You can now often get huge cravings at the strangest moments for things you didn’t used to like.

LIGAMENT PAIN:

The womb is attached to the pelvis by a kind of muscles. Due to the growth of the womb or the baby descending into the pelvis, these ligaments come under tension. This can cause a stabbing or nagging pain towards the groin, which sometimes radiates to the lower back. If you have ligament pain, take a warm shower or put a hot-water bottle on your belly. The warmth relaxes the ligaments, which can reduce the complaints.

TIREDNESS:

During the first three months of pregnancy, your need for sleep increases under the influence of all kinds of changes in your body. This can be very annoying because you are used to having a lot of energy and being able to do all sorts of things.

Tips:

• Accept the fact that you can no longer do everything at the pace you are used to.
• Give in to the tiredness and go to bed on time.

NAUSEA:

About half of all pregnant women suffer from nausea. This usually disappears between 12 and 16 weeks. The nausea usually occurs in the morning on waking or shortly after getting up. Sometimes you only notice a full or queasy feeling, which disappears again after a bite to eat.

Tips:

• Before you get up, eat a rusk with a cup of tea.
• Take your time getting up, so don’t rush.
• Make sure you get enough sleep; tiredness makes nausea worse.
• Eat small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals.
• Eat what you feel like.

URINATING MORE OFTEN:

Urinating a lot is not only the result of the womb pressing on the bladder. It is also caused by the heart beating faster during pregnancy, so more blood is pumped through the kidneys. This in turn means the kidneys produce more urine.

Needing to urinate more often mainly occurs at the beginning and end of pregnancy. At the beginning of pregnancy, this is caused by the growing womb, which is then still in the lesser pelvis. When the womb grows larger and therefore grows out of the lesser pelvis, needing to urinate more often will temporarily pass again. At the end of pregnancy, urinating more often is caused by the baby pushing on the bladder, so that it can hold less.

TENDER BREASTS:

Breasts can react very quickly to changes in hormonal balance. Due to the rise in the amount of oestrogen in the blood, the breasts retain a little more fluid than usual. They swell slightly and partly because of this become somewhat more sensitive to touch. Sometimes touch can even be painful.

Another change, which occurs later, is that the superficial veins in the skin of the breasts become visible. This is a sign of the increased blood flow to the milk glands. And finally, the areola, the brown ring around the nipple, will also increase in size.

MOOD SWINGS:

Pregnancy gives rise to a series of physical and hormonal changes. The increased secretion of certain hormones influences your emotional experiences, and even your behaviour as a whole. Whether you enjoy being pregnant or not: periods of feeling good and periods of feeling uneasy alternate.

Emotional reactions during pregnancy vary greatly from person to person and depend on:

• acceptance of the pregnancy
• cultural background
• the attitude of your partner and those around you

SKIN CHANGES:

You can clearly see in your skin that blood flow throughout your whole body increases. In various places, small blood vessels in the skin become visible as bluish threads showing through. Two out of three pregnant women notice something of this.
Tiny veins run everywhere in the skin. They are so thin that you can’t see them with the naked eye. However, due to the increased blood flow during pregnancy, they become somewhat thicker and you can see them. As a rule, this is a red dot with irregular red-blue lines fanning out from it (spider veins). The increased blood flow often makes the skin look a little redder in various places.

STRIAE/STRETCH MARKS:

Striae are the so-called pregnancy stretch marks. They develop because the skin is stretched, causing small tears. The colour is bluish-red (the blood vessels showing through). After pregnancy, scars remain, which fade. Striae mainly occur on the belly, on the outside of the thighs and sometimes on the breasts. Besides stretch (elasticity), factors such as predisposition and hormones can also influence whether or not striae develop.
Contrary to what adverts suggest, expensive lotions cannot prevent striae. If you still want to apply something, you can also use an ordinary body lotion.

SWOLLEN ANKLES:

Swollen ankles are caused by fluid build-up in the ankles and possibly the lower legs. This fluid build-up is called oedema. It is partly caused by blood flowing back to the heart less easily. However, the oedema is also caused by a lot of fluid being outside the blood vessels. When you drink water, most of it goes to the space outside the vessels. This makes your legs swell. Only when you lie down does that fluid return to the blood vessels. Through the blood it reaches the kidneys, which means you need to urinate more, especially at night.

Tips:

• Above all, keep drinking plenty (min. 2 litres/day), because you do need to be able to get rid of your waste products.
• Put your legs up when you sit down.
• Don’t spend a whole day shopping in town any more.
• Take your rings off in time if your fingers also swell.
• Regularly raise your hands and move your fingers vigorously.
• Have treatment from a reflexologist.

LIBIDO (DESIRE FOR SEX):

At the beginning of pregnancy, many women often feel less like having sex. During the course of pregnancy this changes back to a normal or increased libido. At the end of pregnancy, libido decreases again. This is different for every woman.

What complaints can you have after sex?

• Bleeding: Sometimes you lose a very small amount of blood during or after sex. This is usually because a small blood vessel has burst. You then only lose a few drops of blood. Often there is some brown blood loss from your vagina for a while afterwards. That is very normal. Are you losing more blood? Or are you worried? Then call us.
• Hard belly: After sex you may have a hard belly. This is a hard and painful feeling, as if your womb is a hard ball. This is because the muscles in your womb contract during an orgasm. It can take hours before your belly is supple again. It is important that you try to relax: breathe calmly into your belly, make your belly round as you breathe in and then breathe out calmly. A warm shower or a hot-water bottle against your belly can also help you relax.

HAIR CHANGES

During pregnancy, your hair quite often changes. Due to the increased blood flow, the hair follicles are extra stimulated. New hairs grow, while fewer than usual fall out. After a few months this can lead to noticeably thicker hair. But the sebaceous glands of the scalp actually become less active during pregnancy. Your hair becomes less greasy than you are used to.

After the birth you may suffer from increased hair loss. This is caused by your body, under the influence of hormones, starting to function as it did before the pregnancy. The increased blood flow to your hair decreases again, so hair loss increases again. This disappears over time.