FAQ’s

The earliest and most reliable sign of pregnancy is a missed period. If you have a regular monthly cycle, normally you get your period about 4 weeks from the start of your last period.

Feeling sick or being sick. This is commonly known as morning sickness, but it can happen at any time of day. If you feel nauseous and can’t keep anything down, contact your GPchanges in your breasts. They may become larger and feel tender, like they might do before your period. They may also tingle. The veins may show up more and the nipples may darken and stand outneeding to pee more often. You may find you have to get up in the nightbeing constipated increased vaginal discharge without any soreness or irritation feeling tired having a strange taste in your mouth. Many women describe it as metallic “going off” some things, such as tea, coffee, tobacco smoke or fatty food.

There isn’t a specific time when pregnancy food cravings start. It’s different for every woman – and you may not necessarily have any cravings.

If you do start having cravings, it’ll probably be in your first trimester (it could be as early as 5 weeks into pregnancy). They’ll get stronger in your second trimester, and then eventually stop in your third trimester.Cravings come in all shapes and sizes. Some women crave fatty foods like chips. Others get pregnancy cravings for things they didn’t like before they got pregnant, or strange combinations of food such as mars bars with bacon.Try to eat as healthily as possible – keep those unhealthy temptations to a minimum! If you find yourself craving things that aren’t food, like toothpaste, coal or even soil, speak to your midwife or doctor, as this may be a sign of a vitamin deficiency.

Antenatal classes are available to give you and your partner lots of helpful information on labour, birth and early parenthood.They’re usually informal, fun and sociable, which makes them a great place to meet other parents-to-be. The friends you make at antenatal classes can become a great support network. You can now find many antenatal courses and workshops online.

Antenatal classes usually start 8 to 10 weeks before your baby is born, and happen once a week for about 2 hours.

You can choose classes that are just for pregnant women, or classes that welcome a partner or a friend. There are sometimes classes especially designed for single mothers or teenagers.

Antenatal classes may include info on:

• Diet: how to stay healthy and have a good diet while you’re pregnant
• Exercise: what types of exercise are good for keeping fit in pregnancy
• Labour: what to expect
• Relaxation: how to relax while you’re pregnant and after you’ve had your baby
• Delivery methods: different birth methods and interventions
• After the birth: how to look after your newborn, and how you can stay healthy
• Emotional wellbeing: how you might feel during and after your pregnancy.

A birth plan is a way of letting your midwife, nurses and doctors know what you want to happen during your labour. It’s a chance to plan things like where you want to give birth, who’s going to be with you during the birth, and what facilities you’d like to use.Things to think about and include in your birth plan:

• Where do you want to give birth? This could be at home, in a midwifery unit or in hospital.
• Do you want someone with you during the birth, such as your partner or a family member?
• If you need a forceps or vacuum delivery, would you want someone with you?
• If a caesarean is necessary, do you want someone with you?
• What birthing equipment do you want to use? This could include mats or beanbags.
• Do you want to use any special facilities, such as a birthing pool?
• Do you want to keep active during labour?
• What position would you prefer to be in while you’re in labour?
• Do you want immediate skin-to-skin contact with your baby, before the cord is cut?
• Are you happy for midwives, nurses and doctors in training to be present during your labour?
• What are your pain relief preferences?
• How do you want to feed your baby?
• Can your baby be given vitamin K if they need it?
• What are the symptoms of pregnancy?
• What is tip-off for a women that she’s pregnant?
• What changes occur to the cervix during early pregnancy?

• Symptoms of Pregnancy :
• Missed period
• Breast tenderness
• Nausea, vomiting or morning sickness
• Headache
• Bloating

Some of the tip-offs that you’re pregnant could include generalized bloating or difficulty in digestion. That’s a big one. Many women begin to feel like they have to urinate very often. Few others are nausea, vomiting, drowsiness and wanting to sleep for long hours.

Many changes happen to the cervix during pregnancy. Early on, the cells on the outside of the cervix become hypertrophied or more prominent. During the first exam, very early in pregnancy, sometimes you can actually see a blue cervix, due to increased blood vessel changes. Sometimes a little bit of bleeding can occur after normal activity or sex. Usually this is not dangerous, but it’s very alarming to a newly pregnant woman. Another change that can happen due to hormonal changes is that the cervical opening can become a little more relaxed. As labor approaches, the pelvic opening actually widens a little bit. The pelvic bones separate ever so slightly, which can cause a lot of discomfort. In late pregnancy, there can be much pressure and pulling and tugging in the pelvic region, which we call round ligament pain, and that’s usually in the groin area.

Weight gain in pregnancy varies from person to person. It also depends on your weight before you become pregnant. Most pregnant women gain between 10kg and 12.5kg (22lb to 26lb), putting on most of the weight after week 20. Much of the extra weight is due to your baby growing, but your body will also be storing fat, ready to make breast milk after your baby is born.

Putting on too much or too little weight while you’re pregnant can lead to health problems for you or your unborn baby. But don’t worry, it’s easy to make healthy food choices. Find out what to eat when pregnant and what foods to avoid.

You’ll get most of the vitamins and minerals you need by eating a healthy, varied diet. But when you’re pregnant (and while you are trying to get pregnant) you also need to take a folic acid supplement. To keep your bones and muscles healthy, it’s best to take a daily vitamin D supplement. This is especially important as many of us are spending more time indoors than usual at the moment. Vitamin D supplements are available from most pharmacies, supermarkets and other retailers. You just need 10 micrograms a day.

Along with the vitamins you should take, there are also some to watch out for and avoid. You should avoid supplements and multivitamins containing vitamin A (retinol) – as too much of it can harm your baby’s development. You should also avoid liver and liver products (including fish liver oil), as they are high in vitamin A.

Keeping active and doing exercise while you’re pregnant is great for you and your baby. You can keep up your normal level of daily activity and exercise regime, as long as it still feels comfortable. Here are some tips for exercising while pregnant:

• You should be able to hold a conversation while you exercise.
• Always warm up and cool down to keep you from pulling any muscles.
• Stay hydrated – drink lots of water.
• You can find online workouts that are safe during pregnancy, check out Sport England’s #StayInWorkOut exercises (scroll to the pregnancy section).
• Other good activities to try while pregnant include walking, yoga, pilates, aerobics and pelvic floor exercises.
• Some exercises, like running and weight training, will need to be modified as your belly grows.
• The best combination of exercise is aerobic and muscle-strengthening, as this helps you breathe properly and allows to deal with the increased weight you’ll be carrying around.
• If you’re not already active, try building it into your daily life by taking the stairs, doing housework or gardening.

What to avoid

• Try not to lie on your back for long periods, as your bump will press on a big blood vessel that brings blood back to your heart, which can make you feel faint.
• Avoid anything that risks you falling, for example: horse riding, skiing and gymnastics.
• Contact sports are not a good idea either – things like squash, tennis, martial arts, football and rugby. where there’s a risk of your bump being hit.

Depending on how you normally like to snooze, you might have to rethink your favorite position while you’re pregnant.
If you sleep on your back, it’s safe to continue during the first trimester, but as your bump gets bigger and heavier you’ll need to sleep on your side, so it’s best to get into the habit as soon as you can.

By the third trimester (after 28 weeks of pregnancy), sleeping on your side is the safest position for your baby as it helps prevent the risk of stillbirth. Don’t worry, if your pregnancy is uncomplicated your risk of stillbirth is low (1 in 200 babies are stillborn) and going to sleep on your side will make it even lower.

It’s ok if you end up in all sorts of positions when you are asleep. The important thing to remember is to fall asleep on your side, as this means you are sleeping safely for your baby. If you wake up on your back, don’t be alarmed, just turn onto your side and go back to sleep.

Try sleeping on one side with your knees bent, it’ll help reduce the amount of pressure on your uterus and help you breathe better. Plus, this position can help relieve backache. You can use pillows under your belly, between your legs, and behind your back if you like.

The flu jab is the safest way to help protect pregnant women and their babies against flu, regardless of their stage in pregnancy, or how fit and healthy they feel.
Pregnancy naturally weakens the immune system, which means it’s harder to fight off infections. As a result, flu can cause serious complications.

You do not need a special diet just because you are pregnant but you should eat healthily as your body has to work especially hard during pregnancy. It is now known that what you eat can have a far-reaching effect on your baby’s health. You should therefore make sure that you have a well-balanced, varied diet and that you eat regularly and often. In the last three months of your pregnancy, aim to increase your daily calorie intake by about 200 calories – the equivalent of a banana and a glass of milk.

The uterus is made of muscle cells. Throughout pregnancy, many changes occur in the uterus. First, these muscle cells start increasing in size and number. They increase in size all the way through to the delivery.
During pregnancy, the uterus grows from about the size of my fist and even smaller in some people, to the size of a large orange or grapefruit, then to the size of a cantaloupe, and then, of course, to the size of a small watermelon at the end.Around nine to 12 weeks the uterus actually goes from being a pelvic organ to being an abdominal organ. We can feel it in the abdominal exam after about 12 weeks or a little bit earlier.

Regular exercise during pregnancy has been linked to less overall weight gain and fat deposits that may help prevent gestational diabetes. Regular aerobic activity prior to or early in pregnancy has also been linked to a reduction in the risk of preeclampsia. A complete exercise program helps to prevent deconditioning, promotes retention of muscle, bone and connective tissue; relieves stress; prepares a mother for labor; helps to maintain posture, increase or maintain range of motion; and may relieve some discomforts induced by pregnancy.
In the absence of either medical or obstetric complications, 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise a day on most, if not all, days of the week is recommended for pregnant women.

Many hormones are responsible for the accommodation of the skin. The collagens, collagenase, even the increased progesterone has some effect on the increased elasticity of the skin during pregnancy.
Some of the most noticeable skin changes during pregnancy involve pigmentation. The “mask of pregnancy” is one that is often written about. It’s a darkening of the skin usually around the sides of the face and the forehead.There can also be a change of the line down the abdomen. It’s usually called a linea alba, which is a white line. During pregnancy it can become a dark line, called the linea nigra. This change sometimes occurs as early as the beginning of the second trimester, and increases and then disappears probably three to four months after delivery.Some other common changes include little spider veins that pop up in the legs and sometimes on the arms and the abdomen. The reasons why these happen are not quite clear. We know that in many women, these spider veins disappear after delivery.

The pigment changes are probably due to the increase in the melanocyte- stimulating hormone during early pregnancy, as early as the first month, which then usually drops off after delivery. We don’t know what levels are associated with women who get a lot of pigmentation.

Another common skin change during pregnancy is definitely acne. You’ll notice outbreaks mostly on the face, but sometimes the shoulders and the backs of the arms. Again, there aren’t any specific hormones that cause these, but increases in both estrogen and progesterone are known to cause acne throughout life.

During the last four weeks of pregnancy, beginning at around 36 weeks and sometimes even a little bit earlier, many doctors will start checking the mother’s cervix. During this time, the cervix will shorten or efface and it will start dilating, or opening. These things progress slowly until actual labor hits.

After about 20 weeks of pregnancy, we encourage pregnant women not to lie on their back anymore. At this point, the uterus is quite a bit heavier and it actually lays on the blood vessels that run up your back, the inferior vena cava and the aorta. The vena cava is the big vessel that carries the blood to the heart, and the aorta’s the big vessel that carries blood away from the heart. They both become compressed, and some people will lose consciousness when pressure’s applied to these vessels. Numbness and tingling can occur in the upper and lower extremities. After about five months, we encourage women to sleep on their sides instead.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. PTSD can develop immediately after an event or it can happen weeks, months or even years later. PTSD can be caused by something like a road accident or long-lasting stress caused by something like abuse in childhood or domestic abuse.

Some women experience post-traumatic stress after pregnancy. This may be caused by having a traumatic birthing experience, miscarriage or neonatal death. This may lead to fear of childbirth in the next pregnancy.

It can be very difficult to come to terms with a traumatic event, but PTSD is treatable. The important thing is to try and confront your feelings with help from healthcare professionals.

• Feeling of sadness and low mood that won’t go away
• Lost interest in life and you’re not enjoying the things you used to
• Problems sleeping, such as having trouble getting back to sleep after caring for your baby at night, even when the baby is asleep and you’re feeling exhausted
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• Low self-confidence
• Poor appetite (not eating enough)
• Feeling very agitated or, alternatively, you can’t be bothered with anything (apathy)

If you’re giving your baby expressed or formula milk, you’ll need to buy some bottles.

• Standard – widely available, and the least expensive option
• Wide-necked – easier to clean, but take up more space
• Anti-colic – reduce the amount of air your baby takes in while they’re drinking
• Shaped – some bottles come with holes in the middle or special handles to make them easier for your baby to hold
• Heat-sensitive – change colour if the milk is too hot
• Self-sterilising – you just need a microwave to sterilise these bottles
• Disposable – sterilised bags that fit inside bottles and are thrown away after feeds
• Glass – more environmentally friendly than plastic bottles, but more breakable You can choose between silicone and latex teats for most of these bottle types.
• Silicone is more durable.
• Latex is softer and more flexible, but needs to be replaced more often.

The teats come in a bell shape, or a bulbous shape that’s designed to feel more like a nipple.

You might want to try both shapes when your baby first starts bottle feeding to see which one they prefer.

The teats often come with different flow rates. To find out which flow rate is best for your baby takes a bit of trial and error. If they’re spluttering or choking with their current bottle, they need a slower flow. But if they’re sucking quite hard and seem to be getting frustrated while they’re feeding, you might want to try a faster flow.

You can also get variflow teats – some of these can be manually adjusted, while others automatically increase in flow as your baby’s sucking gets stronger.

• Talk to your baby about anything and everything
• Spend time together face-to-face
• See if your baby can copy you when you stick out your tongue or blink your eyes
• Respond to your baby when they make noises – try saying things like “wow, you can make loud noises!”
• Sing songs and rhymes with your baby – try songs with actions and lots of repetition, like “round and round the garden”

• Newborn babies can see large shapes and faces when they are near them
• At about 1 month, they may be able to briefly hold your gaze
• Between 4 and 6 months babies start seeing in 3D and can focus on people further away
• By 12 months most babies can see clearly

While you can’t always tell exactly how much your baby is drinking, there are positive signs that they’re feeding well, including:

• Feeds begin with a few rapid sucks followed by long, rhythmic sucks and swallows with occasional pauses
• Your baby’s cheeks stay rounded, not hollow, during sucking and you can hear and see them swallowing
• Your baby seems calm and relaxed during feeds, comes off the breast by themselves when they’ve had enough, and appears content and satisfied after most feeds
• After feeds your breasts feel softer and your nipples should look the same (not flattened, pinched or white)
• You may feel sleepy and relaxed after feeds In the first 48 hours, your baby is likely to have only 2 or 3 wet nappies. Wet nappies should then become more frequent, with at least 6 every 24 hours from the fifth day onwards. If your baby is feeding well, they should start gaining weight steadily after the first 2 weeks (it’s normal for babies to lose some of their birth weight in the first 2 weeks).

Newborns love it when you tickle their face or count their fingers and toes. Most babies love playing peek-a-boo over and over again. When they are really little, they love just wriggling around on the floor – it’s like baby exercise for them and great for their muscle development. Other great ways to play and interact with your baby include:

• Singing to your baby: they love the sound of your voice (no matter how off-key!), so sing a song, nursery rhyme or just freestyle and make your own songs up.
• Talking to your baby: describe the things around you, recite a nursery rhyme or read a book. It doesn’t really matter what you talk about – it all helps with their communication skills.
• Clapping: take turns clapping your hands and their hands together. Clapping is actually a pretty big milestone once they can do it themselves. It requires a fair amount of muscle control, fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination!
• Dancing: put some music on and dance with your baby in your arms. Most babies love the gentle rocking motion and being so close to you. This is great for bonding with your baby and their emotional development.
• Play with toys: encourage your baby to reach for, push and pull their toys. This is a simple way to stimulate your baby and improve their co-ordination.

From birth, all breastfed babies should be given a daily supplement of vitamin D (8.5 to 10mcg). But if your baby is having more than 500ml (about a pint) of first infant formula a day, they do not need a supplement because formula is already fortified with vitamin D. Once your baby is six months old, and up until they are five years, daily vitamin A, C and D supplements are recommended (unless they’re having 500ml or more of first infant formula each day).

When you buy your baby vitamin supplements, make sure you read the label to check they are age appropriate.