Surprising facts about pregnancy
It's no secret that pregnancy changes the human body. When a woman is carrying a baby, her body has to go through many changes to ensure that she and the little one live in complete symbiosis for the next nine months. The mother-to-be's organs will have to shift to make room for the baby, but there are many other subtle changes that aren't obvious at first glance. The fetus also goes through remarkable changes while growing inside the mother's womb and may be more aware of what is going on in the outside world than you realize.
Surprising facts about pregnancy:
- The longest recorded pregnancy lasted 375 days; The longest recorded period for someone to be pregnant is 375 days. A normal pregnancy lasts about 280 days, so in 1945, Penny Diana Hunter's baby was almost a hundred days late!
- The blood volume of a pregnant woman increases by 40-50%. Blood volume increases by up to 50% during pregnancy to help deliver enough oxygenated blood to the fetus.
- Your heart is growing! - to help pump all the extra blood throughout your body, your heart needs to get bigger.
- Your voice may change during pregnancy. With all the hormones circulating through the pregnant body, it's not surprising that other, unforeseen changes will occur. The increase in estrogen and progesterone can cause the vocal folds to swell, meaning some of the higher tones are lost and lower tones may appear.
- The oldest woman to give birth to a child was 66 years old.
- The baby hears you. Around week 18, the fetus is able to hear sounds. At 25-26 weeks, the baby is more sensitive to noises and reacts already in the womb.
- You can get diabetes during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes occurs when a pregnant woman's blood sugar level is too high and her pancreas cannot keep up with delivering enough insulin. It usually disappears after giving birth.
- Most twins are born in Central Africa.
- Couvade syndrome, or sympathetic pregnancy. It was confirmed that men of pregnant women reported similar symptoms, such as nausea, heartburn, abdominal pain, back pain, anxiety and depression.
- Expectant mothers can start producing milk as early as 14 weeks of pregnancy.
- About 1 in 2,000 babies are born with teeth. These are loose birth teeth that sometimes need to be removed by a doctor.
- Many pregnant women in China avoid cold foods like ice cream and watermelon. They prefer hot drinks such as tea and soup, believing that pregnancy is "cold" in nature and that hot liquids help balance yin and yang.
- In Japan, pregnant women can be issued a badge that can be attached to a purse or backpack. The idea is that commuters on trains and buses will see the badge and offer their seats even when the woman is in early pregnancy and not yet as visible.
- Türkiye has the highest rate of caesarean births while Iceland has the lowest.
- Opposite-sex twins (one boy and one girl) account for about a third of twin births.
- You may lactate when you hear a baby cry
- Babies try to cry in the womb
- Your baby tastes the food you eat - Certain strong flavors pass through the amniotic fluid and umbilical cord into your baby’s body. When you eat enough of those foods, your baby can actually taste the flavors! So, if you eat a lot of strong, intense foods — like carrot juice or anchovy and garlic pizza, for example — your baby may develop a taste for those flavors after they’re born.
- Pregnancy brain is real - You’ve probably heard your pregnant friends talk about forgetting things they’ve known for a long time or walking into the kitchen and not remembering what they came for. If you feel like this is happening to you, don’t panic. Pregnancy brain is real!
