Prevalent symptoms of early pregnancy

Now that you know how and when to get pregnant it's time to ask yourself, How do I know if I'm pregnant? Many women go through prevalent symptoms of  pregnancy; from morning sickness to missing a menstrual period. However, for some, these signs aren't so obvious. Some women will go through the entire 9 months without knowing they have a baby on the way. So the only way they find out is by taking a pregnancy test or until their water breaks. I'll not only discuss why our bodies put women through this discomfort, but also all of the possible symptoms a potentially pregnant woman would go through in order to know if she's pregnant or not.

Nausea and vomiting is one of the primary signs of pregnancy. It is often referred to as Morning Sickness, but when the time comes you'll realize that these symptoms are an all day occurrence. Morning Sickness commonly appears and relieves during the first trimester of pregnancy (the 6th -12th week). And although it may feel as if you're about to puke up your guts or putting harm to your baby, vomiting is actually a good sign of a potential healthy development. According to Morning Sickness: A Mechanism for Protecting Mother and Embryo, the body puts you through regurgitation in order to prevent any toxins or harmful chemicals from reaching the embryo. Your body evaluates every little thing that you consume. Therefore when it feels that something needs to go, it will try to expel it before it can cause any damage to you. Morning Sickness will do you the favor of expelling foods that you are not aware of being harmful to you. However, this doesn't mean you should eat any and everything, relying on your body to release it for you. Here is a website to inform you of some foods that you should avoid during the progression of your pregnancy: 

 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pregnancy-nutrition/PR00109

http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/foodstoavoid.html

Riding along with Morning Sickness, comes the infamous food cravings and aversions. I'm sure you've heard the disturbing stories about the peanut butter and pickle sandwiches or the random sickness they had at the sight of, their once favorite, Big Mac and  french fries. Food cravings and aversions is one symptom that will definitely have your suspicions up about being pregnant. When a survey was completed by 99 women, 61% of the women had said they had experienced cravings and 54% aversions. But why exactly do we have these cravings? Well referring to the article, Food cravings and what they mean , a few may say whatever food we uncontrollably desire is due to our body lacking the nutrients that are obtained in the item. However, according to the author of Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy, there isn't proof that there is a relationship between cravings and what our body needs are correlated. Therefore, there is technically no real explanation to why pregnant women have cravings and aversions.

Tender breasts is another symptom that comes in the stages of pregnancy. It usually expected to arrive about 2-3 weeks after conception. Just like fatigue, tender breasts are caused by the increase in hormones. On the other hand, experiencing fatigue can also be due to having lower blood sugar levels, lower blood pressure and increased blood production.

For tips on how to manage these early pregnancy symptoms, refer to whattoexpect.com

References:

BabyCenter. Ed. G. W. Bates Jr. BabyCenter LLC., 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. <http://www.babycenter.com/0_food-cravings-and-what-they-mean_1313971.bc?page=1>.

Bayley, Tracy M., Louise Dye, Susan Jones, Martin Debono, and Andrew J. Hill. "Food cravings and aversions during pregnancy: relationships with nausea and vomiting." Appetite 38.1 (2002): 45-51. ScienceDirect. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2011, April 16). In Mayo Clinic. Retrieved March 31, 2013. from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/how-to-get-pregnant/PR00103