Everyone, welcome back Apparently, this is Dr. Mark Boyd. Today we're going to talk about body changes that all women experience when they become pregnant. We're going to do a kind of a practical approach to this, we're just going to do a head to toe approach, and try to address each body part as it relates to you as a pregnant woman. So we're going to start out with the head. Now, all pregnant women will have some feelings that they're not quite on their game when they're pregnant. And this is due to a variety of reasons.

This universally improves as the pregnancy advances. headaches are not uncommon in pregnancy, and it's due to two reasons number one, Pregnancy causes your blood volume to increase by one and a half times. So when you have increased blood volume, this blood comes to your brain as it circulates through your body that can causes you to have headaches. The second issue is nausea and vomiting. Nausea in and of itself typically doesn't cause a headache. However, if you vomit, that act of vomiting can cause you to have a headache.

And then as you lose fluid and become dehydrated, many times women will experience headaches. Fatigue I'm going to address in this issue, because oftentimes women that have extreme fatigue, which is very, very common in pregnancy, oftentimes will associate headaches with or extreme fatigue. Fatigue is universally normal in the first part of pregnancy, then usually, by the end of your first trimester, or in the middle of your second trimester fatigue markedly improves and then later in pregnancy, that fatigue comes back when your baby is 35 weeks and beyond because it's you're carrying around a lot of weight with your baby, your placenta increases fluid that can cause fatigue as well. The next issue we're going to address is your face, your gums, your nose, your ears. Now, again, going back to the increased blood volume, when you have increased blood volume one and a half times than what you have when you're not pregnant, that can cause structures like your gums to be more swollen.

So when you brush your teeth, or floss, it can cause your gums to bleed in your nose hyperemia that means increased blood to your blood vessels in your nose that can cause you have bloody noses, especially in the mornings, especially up north where it's cold and there's a lot of heat. So one thing you can do is decrease your temperature at nighttime. Use a humidifier, US sailing and your nose that can decrease your bleeding and your nose. Even though it's very uncommon, even bleeding from the ears can occur. Now if you have Continue bleeding from your ears, I probably would recommend that you see your health care provider. And again, things like q tips can increase your risk for bleeding from your ears.

The next system we're going to address is your neck, specifically in your neck is a gland called your thyroid gland that sits right here in your neck. And is very important in creating a hormone called your thyroid hormone. your thyroid hormone is important for the growth of your baby. And it's important for you specifically for fatigue and for nausea and vomiting. So if you were to have a TSH drawn by your healthcare provider, and they were to call you and say you have a low thyroid level, those are those are concerns during your pregnancy for the growth of your baby and for you with fatigue and nausea, vomiting, so they would give you a thyroid hormone for replacement. The next lesson to discuss is your chest not in your chest is your lungs, your heart and your breast.

So I want to address each of those all pregnant women, when they become pregnant and they advanced through their pregnancy, their breasts are going to grow. And they're going to grow specifically for the understanding that they're going to nurse their babies at the end of their pregnancy. Now, whether you choose to nurse or not, that's your choice. I do recommend it as the healthcare provider, but your breasts change dramatically during your pregnancy. Patients have asked me in the past for one breast appears to be increasing in size more than the other. Is that normal?

Yes, that's normal. Not exactly sure why that occurs. But anatomically, it's not a concern associated with those bras is you can have breast tissue that even develops underneath your arms. And sometimes you look underneath your arms that's called your accela. And you'll have an increase in tissue and you're concerned about that. That is called the tail of your breast.

And as your breasts grow the tail of your bras can grow as well. In your chest also is your heart because of the increased creased volume of blood flow. Remember I said it's increased by one and a half times, your heart is going to work harder during your pregnancy, you will oftentimes notice that your heart rate is going faster than it was before your pregnancy, that's normal. Someone will even state that their heart feels like it's beating fast or beating an increased beat. That's not uncommon. Now, obviously, if this was a persistent problem, you need to talk to your health care provider.

Also in your chest or your lungs, a lot of women that are pregnant will feel like that they're having shortness of breath. This is a sensation that is normal. It's not a concern. And if you were to check your oxygen saturation, your blood it would be normal. We're going to move on down to your belly. Now obviously, your belly is going to change dramatically.

It's going to grow with a growing uterus. But inside your belly there are several organs that I want to address specifically your intestines. So your intestines are made up of your small intestine, your large intestine. Large Intestine is where you keep your stool before it's evacuated. All women will have some degree of constipation during the pregnancy, and it's due to the increasing size of the uterus. And it's also due to the hormone progesterone.

Progesterone slows your intestines that causes increased gas in your intestine. That will cause a feeling of bloating, this is very, very normal in early pregnancy. Now, the key for that to help move things along or increase fluid, specifically water. You can even use a stool softener that you buy over the counter. And you can use gas sex if you need to. If you feel like you're really bloated, also inside your abdomen, in your lower abdomen is your bladder.

Now, most women know that when they're pregnant, they urinate a lot but they're not sure why. Well that's because your bladder sits right on top of your uterus. And as your uterus is growing, that compresses your bladder between your uterus and the pelvic bone or your uterus and the abdominal wall. This will cause sensation that you have to urinate because your bladder capacities decrease. So as you advance during your pregnancy, you will you will urinate more frequently. Moving on to the vagina, you'll notice an increased discharge when you're pregnant.

This is normal, all pregnant women. Now the key is Is this normal or is this abnormal? normal pregnancy discharged from the vagina typically is a whitish color and has no odor. It doesn't cause any irritation. Does it cause any bleeding? This is normal.

If you were to have discharge that is foul smelling that looks like cottage cheese that causes your your tissue to be irritated or bleeding. You need to see your health care provider. The next issue is your legs. The legs as you advance through your pregnancy are going to become more adaptive. at us, but if you had severe edema, swelling of your lower extremities early in pregnancy, I would want you to see your health care provider. Now, joints I'm just going to mention joints.

It's a concern for someone women, they feel like they have increased discomfort in their pelvic joints and their knee joints, even in their arms or shoulders. Why is that? Well, the laxity of your joints occurs due to a hormone that's released from the placenta. This is very important as it prepares your pelvis for the delivery of your baby. So you will have what's called laxity of your ligaments and your joints. This is a common occurrence.

We've worked through the systems of your body today. I hope this was helpful. We'll see you next time.