Pregnancy: Week 1-16. Test group of 500 European women
Pregnancy is a magical and so far, not well-understood process even though we are trying to make pattern behaviors to follow to bring our babies most healthily. This is why it never becomes a boring subject and there are always some new things to understand, to know and even to compare. Especially to compare, because once we become pregnant, we start comparing everything with situations in other women’s pregnancies, for example why we have such sudden pain, bleeding, “level” of sickness and even our psychological condition...
Now let’s conclude from all that we could find on forums and studies which we read from the moment we find out we are pregnant. Besides these conclusions, here we can read scientific facts made using a study on more than 500 women in Europe. These women are between 160-190cm tall, starting pregnancy weight between 48-95kg. They are all normally active, first-time mothers or with several children, with different professional orientations, ages 19-43; no severe health problems.
In the first 4 months, the majority of women had sickness at any time of the day (then, why it is called morning sickness); loss of appetite and severe need for sleep. They have lost up to 6 kg and just a few of them gained up to 2 kg.
Cure for sickness was dry, mild salty food as bread sticks or almonds, and most of them ate oranges, which is a natural need for vitamin C.
Vitamin C is necessary for the development of a baby’s spinal core and recognizing this need means that women knew their bodies very well. Oranges relieve stress and help to digest which can become a problem since the level of progesterone is raised during pregnancy.
A women’s body is experiencing a new stage as foreign; sickness and tiredness are the ways of our body to respond to this strange condition and to adapt to pregnancy hormones.
Very often, women have bleeding, and according to this study and experiences of many women, only occurring of light blood is a bad sign, especially in the first 11 weeks of pregnancy. If bleeding is darker, it usually means the presence of cyst, medium or hematoma and all these conditions can be well treated where babies will be born very healthy without any problems.
So, dear mothers and you are already mothers, no matter if babies are very small or already born, conclusions are simple:
1.relax, sleep,
2.every morning, eat one orange or two if you like,
3.eat some dry, mild salty snack every 2h to prevent sickness ( which occurs when your stomach is empty)
4. don't worry about weight, babies don’t need you to put weight during first four months, so even if you lose some because of sickness and loss of appetite, it is fine as long as you take enough vitamins during a day (through food, plus supplements)
5. Bleeding when color is darker and brown doesn’t have to present a problem, but make sure to consult your doctor and get proper care, just don’t panic because you will probably just get more pills of progesterone
6. Avoid toxic people and listen to yourself and your body.
Control your blood pressure, make sure it is not elevated.
Control level of TSH levels in the blood (simple blood test). It proves that the majority of women had elevated TSH levels during the first months of pregnancy and after short therapy, it was normalized.
Every morning take a look at your ankles, they should not be bloated even if you have extra weight and your skin color should be equal on both legs. If you see that one leg is partially or completely bloated and reddish, and the other is fine, consult your doctor because it can be a sign of blood cloth and please don’t worry since even a severe condition proved to be well treated and without any consequence. In later pregnancy, bloated legs are fine, we gain more weight and more water is present in the body but they should be equal.
In the case of diabetes, women from this study carried her babies normally with consultations with doctors and regular blood checks, so both babies and mothers were perfect on the day of birth.
Less known fact: During this phase of life, babies will repair many of your less functioning organs (fetomaternal microchimerism), they need all system to function perfectly so please help your babies to do this work more easily by eating right, exercising or walking at least 15 min per day (if your doctor agrees) and what is most important-being positive.
