By Pregnancy is a revolution for a woman’s body. During the nine months of gestation, the body adapts with various changes, many of which are not obvious to an outside observer.
Pregnancy is a revolution for a woman’s body , as it generates many changes in it, transformations that can be classified as visible and invisible. They are nothing more than adaptations of the body to ensure the normal development of the fetus.
The female body also prepares for childbirth and breastfeeding. So do the woman’s attitudes and behaviors. Everything is activated for the arrival of her child, so that she can feed and protect it.
But what invisible changes occur in a woman’s body during pregnancy? These are transformations that cannot be identified, but which play a very important role in ensuring that the pregnancy is successfully completed.
The role of hormones
Hormonal changes begin early and are due to the placenta secreting hormones into the mother’s bloodstream.
The hormones that play an important role during pregnancy are the following:
- Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone. It is produced only during pregnancy and almost exclusively in the placenta. The levels of hCG found in the mother’s blood and urine increase greatly during the first trimester. In addition, this hormone may explain the nausea experienced by many women in the first two or three months.
- Human placental lactogen (hPL) is a hormone made by the placenta that nourishes the fetus and stimulates the mammary glands in the breasts to feed the fetus.
- Estrogens. This group of hormones helps develop female sexual traits and is normally produced in the ovaries. They are also produced by the placenta to help maintain a healthy pregnancy.
- Progesterone. It is produced by the ovaries and the placenta during pregnancy. It stimulates the thickening of the uterine lining for implantation of a fertilized egg.
Increase in body temperature
Body temperature and sweating often increase during pregnancy due to an increased metabolic rate and increased activity of the sweat glands.
A few extra liters of blood
After a few weeks of pregnancy, changes occur in the cardiovascular system. The woman’s blood volume increases and about a quarter of it drains through the growing uterus to the placenta. There, oxygen and nutrients are exchanged from the mother to the fetus, which is absolutely crucial for the fetus to grow and develop normally.
The heart therefore has to pump a little harder and faster, which is why many women feel an increased pulse during pregnancy. Because the blood supply through the vessels of the uterus increases about tenfold towards the end of pregnancy, the blood vessels are required to expand and adapt, which is called remodeling.
Lack of remodeling can be seen in pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and lack of fetal weight gain.
Changes in the kidneys and urinary system
The kidneys receive a greater amount of blood, so the filtration work also increases. On the other hand, as a consequence of the increase in the size of the uterus, the ureters take a more winding path to the bladder, making urinary infections more frequent.
The gastrointestinal tract is affected
Pregnancy has little or no effect on gastrointestinal secretion or absorption, but has a major effect on gastrointestinal motility. Pregnancy-related motility changes are present throughout the gastrointestinal tract and are associated with elevated progesterone levels.
In addition, the enlarged uterus displaces the intestine, which may affect the presentation of different conditions, such as appendicitis. Knowledge of gastrointestinal adaptation to pregnancy is necessary for accurate interpretation of laboratory tests as well as imaging studies in the pregnant patient.
Glucose levels during pregnancy
A baby’s organs, such as the brain, heart, kidneys, and lungs, begin to form during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. High blood glucose levels can be harmful during this early stage and may increase the chance of the baby having birth defects, such as heart, brain, or spinal defects.
On the other hand, high blood glucose levels during pregnancy can also increase the likelihood that the baby will be born early, weigh too much, have trouble breathing, or have low blood glucose levels immediately after birth.
Deeper than normal breathing (and gasping)
One of the many intelligent changes in pregnancy is that a woman exhales more deeply with each breath towards the end of pregnancy. Progesterone contributes to this.
This helps the woman to ventilate both the additional heat and the waste gases well and thus protects her and the fetus from health damage.
Intelligent adaptations for the development of the fetus
Cholesterol increases by approximately 50%, while triglycerides can increase by up to 200-300%. This is because cholesterol is included as a basic component for the growth of both the placenta and the fetus.
The increase in lipids is a normal adaptation for the placenta and fetus to develop normally , partly because the fetus has received a lot of sugar that the woman herself uses when she is not pregnant.
The placenta leads
During pregnancy, the body accumulates more water than it would otherwise. This fluid is called edema and tends to accumulate in the legs, especially at night and increasingly during pregnancy.
Edema is most often observed as part of normal pregnancy changes, but rapid development of pronounced edema can be identified in pregnancy intoxication.
Changes in the brain
In 2016, a team of researchers from the Netherlands and Spain used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study what happens in the brain during pregnancy. By comparing MRI images taken before women became pregnant with images taken after they had given birth, the researchers found that pregnancy reduces the brain’s gray matter .
Gray matter is the tissue that contains the cell bodies and synapses of nerve cells. Furthermore, volume loss persisted for at least two years after delivery. This remodeling may play a role in helping women make the transition to motherhood .