Have you ever wondered how it is that you body seems to make room for baby during pregnancy? Or why you feel so crowded for those 9 months?
Well, here are some answers!
During the approximate 40 weeks of pregnancy, a woman’s body undergoes some pretty significant changes! Some you can see, like the bump or the sometimes swollen feet, and come you can not, like the effect on your internal organs caused by your newest addition.
As baby grows he or she occupies more and more space inside the mother. Your naturally elastic belly skin creates some space for baby to grow, but most of the real estate comes from your organs shifting and squishing together…..which explains fun symptoms like the constant need to pee and the heartburn.
Weeks 5-8 – During this time, you may not be able to tell that you are pregnanr from the outside. But on the inside, your bladder has already squiched doen to a fraction of its original size, which explains the shortened time between bathroom breaks.
Weeks 9-12 – If you have a bump, it will probably be tiny because your uterus has started crowding your intestines to make room. That is why it becomes so hard to eat more than a few bites in a sitting.
Around 20 Weeks – By mid pregnancy, your stomach has swung upward by almost 45 degrees! Causing all that heartburn we all know so well.
Starting at 31 Weeks – By the thris trimester, your organs look like they are performing a sideshow contortion act as your liver and lungs get squeezed by your stomach and intestines. Both of which are now several inches higher than they started, contributing to that out of breath feeling.
During the 40 short weeks of pregnancy your body practically creates an entire organ out of nowhere to sustain the new resident. Seeing what goes on inside your body really puts pregnancy in perscpective and knowing those uncomfortable symptoms are a result of making room for your little one, might make them just a little less annoying.
The following clip from The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago shows this whole process in just about 40 seconds!
