Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

The possible signs can all be detected by the expectant mother, herself, and may be described as follows:

1. Stopping of Menstruation. This is usually the first symptom noticed. Although it is possible for the periods to be stopped by any one of several other causes, the missing of two successive periods, after intercourse, is a strong indication of pregnancy in a healthy woman of the childbearing age, whose menses have been regular.

2. Changes in the Breasts. These, also, occur early. The breasts usually increase in size and firmness, and many women complain of throbbing, tingling or pricking sensations and a feeling of tightness and fullness. The breasts may be so tender that even slight pressure is painful. The nipples become larger and more prominent; they and the colored circle of skin around them grow darker, while the veins and the glands that feel like little lumps under the skin become more noticeable. If, in addition to these symptoms, it is possible for a woman who has not had children to squeeze from her nipples a pale yellowish fluid, called colostrum, she may feel almost certain that she is pregnant. But it must be remembered that these symptoms, also, may be due to causes other than pregnancy; that even milk in the breasts may be present in a woman who has borne children, for months, or possibly years, after the birth of her last baby.

3. “Morning sickness,” as the name suggests, is nausea, sometimes accompanied by vomiting, from which many expectant mothers suffer the first thing in the morning. This varies from a little nausea, when first raising her head, to repeated attacks of vomiting during the day and even during the night. As a rule, however, the discomfort is experienced during the early part of the day only. Morning sickness may set in immediately after conception, but begins about the sixth week, as a rule, and lasts until the third or fourth month. It occurs in about half of all pregnancies and is particularly common among women who are pregnant for the first time. On the other hand, one must not forget that many non-pregnant women suffer from nausea in the morning; many women go through pregnancy without any such disturbance, while others are entirely comfortable in the morning but nauseated during the latter part of the day.

4. Frequent Urination. There is usually a desire to pass urine frequently during the first three or four months of pregnancy, after which the tendency disappears, but returns during the later months. The desire may be due in part to nervousness, but is largely caused by pressure made upon the bladder by the growing baby, and not by kidney trouble, as is sometimes believed. For pressure on the outside of the bladder gives much the same sensation as is experienced when the bladder is full of urine. After the baby grows to such a size that he pushes up into the abdomen (we shall describe this later), he does not press upon the bladder and therefore ceases to create a desire to urinate until the last month or six weeks before he is born when he sinks back into the pelvis.

5. Increased discoloration of the colored parts of the skin is another early symptom of pregnancy. In addition to the deepened tint of the nipples and the circles around them, a dark streak appears upon the lower part of the abdomen, extending upward toward the umbilicus, or navel. There are also the yellowish, irregularly shaped blotches which sometimes appear upon the face and neck; dark circles under the eyes and pinkish or bluish streaks on the abdomen.

6. “Quickening” is the name which is commonly given to the mother’s first feeling of the baby’s movements. It occurs about the eighteenth or twentieth week, and is regarded by some doctors as a positive sign of pregnancy and by others as merely a possible sign. The sensation is compared to a very slight quivering, or tapping, or to the fluttering of the wings of a bird as it is held in one’s hand. Beginning very gently, these movements grow more vigorous, as time goes on, until they become very troublesome toward the latter part of pregnancy, amounting then to sharp kicks and blows. Women who have had children can usually distinguish between quickening and the somewhat similar sensation caused by the movement of gas in the intestines; but a woman pregnant for the first time may be deceived.

There are many other possible symptoms of pregnancy, but their value is very uncertain and as we have seen, even the ones described above are not entirely dependable. But if you have missed two periods; if your breasts have grown larger and firmer; if your nipples are stiffer and more prominent and you can squeeze colostrum from them, you may be reasonably certain that a baby is coming.

The probable signs of pregnancy are more apparent to the doctor than to the expectant mother, but there are two which you may easily detect:

1. Enlargement of the abdomen, which is a very important sign, may be noticed about the third month. At this stage a rounded mass may be felt in the abdomen which steadily increases in size as the weeks and months slip by. Rapid enlargement of the abdomen in a woman of childbearing age may be taken as fair, but not positive, evidence that she is carrying a baby. However, complete reliance cannot be placed in this sign, since it is possible for the abdomen to be enlarged by a tumor, by dropsy, or by fat.