50 interesting facts about pregnancy: from conception to the birth of a baby Pregnancy is a magical state that not only affects a woman’s physical condition, but also changes her inner world. During it, a woman will have to realize and understand a lot, and most importantly – to prepare for a meeting with the baby. There are many myths and signs regarding pregnancy. We have collected 50 facts about pregnancy, which you have hardly heard of.
1. The average duration of pregnancy for women is 280 days. This equates to 10 obstetric (lunar) months or 9 calendar months and 1 more week.
2. Only 25% of women manage to conceive a child from the first menstrual cycle. The remaining 75%, even with good women’s health, will have to “work” from 2 months to 2 years.
3. 10% of pregnancies end in abortion. However, women do not even notice most of them and take the bleeding for a slightly delayed menstruation.
4. It is considered normal if the pregnancy lasts 38 to 42 weeks. If less, then it is considered premature, if more – post-term pregnancy.
5. The longest pregnancy lasted 375 days. In this case, the child was born with a normal weight.
6. The shortest pregnancy lasted 23 weeks without 1 day. The baby was born healthy, but his height was comparable to the length of the palm.
7. The beginning of pregnancy is not counted from the day of the conception, but from the first day of the last menstruation. This means that a woman can find out about her situation no earlier than being already 4 weeks pregnant.
8. Multiple pregnancies can be identical or fraternal. The first one occurs after fertilization with one sperm of one egg, which is subsequently divided into several parts, and fraternal – after fertilization with spermatozoa of two, three, etc. oocytes.
9. Identical twins have identical appearance, since they have the same genotypes. For the same reason, they are always same sex. Identical twins have the same DNA; however, they may not look exactly identical to one another because of environmental factors such as womb position and life experiences after being born.
10. Fraternal Twins, triplets, etc. can be same-sex and opposite-sex. They do not have an identical appearance, since their genotypes differ from each other in the same way as in ordinary brothers and sisters born with a difference of several years.
11. It happens that a pregnant woman has an ovulation, and she becomes pregnant again. As a result, children are born with different degrees of maturity: the maximum recorded difference between children was 2 months.
12. Only 80% of pregnant women experience nausea in the early stages. 20% of pregnant women don’t suffer from toxicosis.
13. Nausea can disturb pregnant women not only at the beginning of pregnancy, but also at the end of it. If early toxicosis is not considered dangerous, then the late one may become the basis for stimulating labor or performing a cesarean section.
14. With the onset of pregnancy, a woman’s body undergoes hormonal changes. As a result, hair begins to grow faster, the timbre of the voice becomes lower, strange taste preferences appear and abrupt mood changes occur.
15. The heart o9f a baby begins to function at 5-6 obstetric weeks. It beats very often: up to 130 beats per minute and even more.
16. The human embryo has a tail. But he disappears at the 10th week of pregnancy.
17. A pregnant woman does not need to eat for two: the body needs an increased dose of vitamins and minerals, but not energy. In the first half of pregnancy, the energy value of the diet should remain the same, and in the second half it will need to be increased by only 300 kcal.
18. The baby begins to make the first movements at the 8th week of pregnancy. Although the expectant mother will feel these movements only at 18-20 weeks.
19. During the second and subsequent pregnancies, the first movements are felt 2-3 weeks earlier. Therefore, expectant mothers can notice them as early as 15-17 weeks.
20. The baby inside can somersault, jump, push the walls of the uterus, play with the umbilical cord. He knows how to grimace and smile when he feels good.
21. The genitals of girls and boys up to 16 weeks look almost the same, so before this time it is almost impossible to visually determine the sex.
22. Modern medicine has learned to recognize the sex without visible signs of differences in genitals by the genital tubercle from 12 weeks of pregnancy. In boys, it deviates at a greater angle compared to the body, in girls – to a smaller one.
23. The shape of the abdomen, the presence or absence of toxicosis, as well as taste preferences do not depend on the gender of the baby. And girls do not take their mother’s beauty away.
24. The sucking reflex begins to operate in the womb. So, the baby is happy to suck his thumb already at the 15th week.
25. The baby begins to hear sounds at the 18th week of pregnancy. And at 24-25 weeks, you can even observe his reaction to certain sounds.
26. From 20-21 weeks, the baby begins to distinguish tastes, swallowing the surrounding waters. The taste of amniotic water depends on what the expectant mother eats
27. The salinity of the amniotic fluid is comparable to that of seawater.
28. When the child learns to swallow amniotic fluid, he will be regularly disturbed by hiccups. A pregnant woman can feel it in the form of rhythmic and monotonous shudders inside.
29. In the second half of pregnancy, a baby can swallow about 1 liter of water per day. He excretes the same amount in the form of urine back, and then swallows again: this is how the digestive system begins to work.
30. The baby takes a cephalic presentation (head down, legs up) usually at 32-34 weeks. Before that, he can change his position several times per day.
31. If before the 35th week the child has not turned his head upside down, most likely, he will not do this till the birth: there is too little room in the stomach for this. However, it also happens that the baby turns upside down just before birth.
32. The belly of a pregnant woman may not be visible to others until 20 weeks. By this time, the fetus is gaining weight only up to 300-350 g. (0.77 lbs)
33. During the first pregnancy, the belly grows more slowly than during the second and subsequent ones. This is due to the fact that the first pregnancy has stretched the abdominal muscles, and the uterus is no longer restored to its previous size.
34. The volume of the uterus by the end of pregnancy is 500 times greater than before it. The mass of the organ increases 10-20 times.
35. In a pregnant woman, the blood volume increases to 140-150% of the initial volume. A lot of blood is needed for enhanced nutrition of the fetus.
36. The blood becomes thicker towards the end of pregnancy. This is how the body prepares for the upcoming birth in order to reduce the amount of lost blood: the thicker the blood is, the less of it will be lost.
37. The size of the leg in the second half of pregnancy increases. This is due to the accumulation of fluid in the soft tissues – edema.
38. During pregnancy, the joints become more elastic due to the production of the hormone relaxin. It relaxes the ligaments, preparing the pelvis for future childbirth.
39. On average, pregnant women gain about 12 kg (25 lbs). The weight of the fetus is only 3-4 kg (6.6-8.8 lbs), everything else is water, uterus, blood, placenta, mammary glands (about 0.5 kg; 1.1 lbs each), fluid in soft tissues and fat reserves (about 2, 5 kg; 4.4 lbs).
40. Pregnant women can take medication. But this only applies to those medicines that are allowed during pregnancy.
41. As a rule, the second and subsequent labors are faster than the first one. In primiparas, an average labor lasts about 9-11 hours. In multiparous, an average duration is about 6-8 hours. If labor ended in the period of 4-6 hours in primiparous (2-4 hours in multiparous), then these births are called rapid.
42. The weight of the child almost does not depend on how the expectant mother eats, unless, of course, she is starving until she is completely exhausted. Obese women often give birth to babies weighing less than 3 kg (6.6 lbs) , while thin women also often give birth to babies weighing up to 4 kg (8.8 lbs) and more.
43. About a century ago, the average weight of newborns was 2 kg 700 g. (6 lbs). Today’s children are born larger: their average weight now varies between 3-4 kg (6.6 – 8.8 lbs).
44. The approximate date of birth is calculated only in order to approximately know when the child decides to be born. Only 6% of women give birth on this day.
45. According to statistics, on Tuesday there are more newborns. Saturday and Sunday become anti-record days.
46. Children with entanglement are born equally often, both in those women who knitted during pregnancy and in those who abstained from this needlework. Pregnant women can knit, sew and embroider.
47. Pregnant women can get their hair cut and remove unwanted hair wherever they want. This will not affect the child’s health in any way.
48. In Korea, the time of pregnancy is also included in the child’s age. Therefore, Koreans are on average 1 year older than their peers from other countries.
49. Lina Medina is the youngest mother in the world who had a cesarean section at the age 5 years and 7 months. A seven-month-old boy weighing 2.7 kg (5.9 lbs) was born, who learned that Lina was not a sister, but his own mother only at the age of 40. Read more about it: 5 year-old-mother is it possible.
50. The largest child was born in Italy. His height after birth was 76 cm (30 inch), and his weight was 10.2 kg. (22.5 lbs)
Keep Reading: What foods can you eat during pregnancy and what you should not , How to determine the gender of a child? A boy or a girl?
