Printed on: “The Rising Nepal-Friday Suppliment” 29th August 2008
-By : Sampurna Lata Tuladhar
Getting pregnant is a great desire of every married woman. When the pregnancy test turns positive, you may be excited about spreading the news that you are expecting a baby. Probably, the second person to know that you’re expecting might be your husband.
When to tell others about one’s pregnancy is a hotly debated topic. Sharing the joyous news of your pregnancy is a very personal decision. Some may wait to tell until they have reached a predetermined point in their pregnancy.
The advantages of telling early is you may get lots of support early during the pregnancy, able to share the good news and excitement, more advice from others about practitioners, help with early decisions, if you miscarry, you will have support from everyone.
Disadvantages of telling early are you might get more than necessary advices, good news travels fast, and you may not be the first to tell someone, if you miscarry everyone knows it.
How to know if you are pregnant or not?
Pregnancy symptoms differ from woman to woman. Some women experience symptoms of pregnancy within a week of conception and for some it may require a few weeks more. The most common early pregnancy signs are:
Delay in Menstruation – A delayed menstruation is the most common pregnancy symptom. When you become pregnant, your next period is missed. Many women can bleed while they are pregnant, but typically the bleeding will be lighter than a normal period.
Nausea and Vomiting – Nausea and vomiting may come as early as a week into the pregnancy. This well-known pregnancy symptom will often show up between 2-8 weeks after conception. Many women experience illness in the morning (morning sickness), some in the afternoon or evening, others feel nausea throughout the day. There is no explanation as to why pregnant�
women feel this or even a solution as to how to prevent it. Eating small frequent meals, and snacking on saltine crackers seems to give some kind of relief. Eating protein/carbohydrate at bedtime also helps in decreasing morning sickness. Some pregnant women are fortunate not to be affected with morning sickness at all.
Breast Tenderness and soreness – Breasts may become very tender, swollen and start to enlarge which may begin as early as one to two weeks after conception. The veins within the breast will become more visible. Nipples may start to darken, become more erect and be extremely sensitive. These symptoms are due to increasing amount of HCG hormone that begins at implantation.
Darkening of Areolas – If you are pregnant, the skin around your nipples may get darker.
Frequent Urination – Pregnancy causes the uterus to swell and it will start to enlarge for the growing fetus immediately. The uterus puts pressure on your bladder making you feel the need for more frequent urination after 6-8 weeks of the conception. Many women start to feel this symptom within a week or two after pregnancy has occurred.
Tiredness / Sluggish – Feeling more tired is another pregnancy symptom which may start as the first week after conception. During pregnancy your body goes through some major hormonal changes. HCG levels alone go from 0 – 250,000 mIU/ml in just twelve weeks. Your body temperature is also higher due to the amount of progesterone circulating through your body which will also make you feel a little sluggish.
Light Bleeding – One of the earliest pregnancy symptoms is implantation bleeding. Light bleeding or spotting may occur approximately 6 – 12 days from ovulation; the embryo implants itself into the uterine wall. It usually happens around the same time you would have gotten your menstrual period. Some women will experience cramping as well as some spotting as their period is going to start and assume they have started their period when in fact they are pregnant.
Dizziness and/or Fainting – The growing uterus compresses major arteries in your legs which causes your blood pressure to drop making you extremely light headed. Skipping meals or going too long without eating may cause you to feel dizziness or faint. Low amount of food causes low blood sugar. Blood sugar is the primary source of food for your baby so it will be depleted much more quickly.
Constipation – Pregnancy hormones will slow down bowel functions to give maximum absorption time of vitamins and nutrients. Unfortunately, this symptom usually only gets worse as the pregnancy progresses. Tell your gynecologist so that he/she can adjust your iron dose.
Irritability – Raging hormones along with all the other symptoms may irritate you. This symptom should decrease soon into the second trimester but until then, a healthy diet, moderate exercise and plenty of sleep are required.
Heartburn – The uterus gets swollen and starts to push upward as it grows. The increasing levels of HCG will also slow down digestion making your stomach not empty as fast which increases the stomach acid.
Food Craving – Many women will feel cravings for certain foods when they are pregnant. This can last throughout your pregnancy.
Backaches – Lower backache may be a symptom that occurs early in pregnancy; however, it is common to experience a minor backache throughout the pregnancy.
Headaches – The sudden rise of hormones in your body can cause headaches early in pregnancy.
Pregnancy Tests:
There are two types of pregnancy tests: Urine and Blood. The easiest and common pregnancy test is home pregnancy test (Urine). You can be sure of your pregnancy doubts by testing your urine. Urine test is also a popular test in hospitals and clinics of Nepal. But sometimes you might get negative results even though you are pregnant or you have all symptoms of pregnancy so don’t panic. Go for another urine test after a few days.
A pregnancy test is a test that measures the exact amount of the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), in the bloodstream of a woman to detect pregnancy. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone that is produced by the placenta of a pregnant woman. It is detectable in the blood and urine within 10 days of fertilization. There are two types of blood pregnancy tests, namely, quantitative blood test which measures the exact amount of hCG in the blood and qualitative hCG blood test which gives a simple yes or no answer to whether you are pregnant or not.
“Blood tests can detect a pregnancy earlier than a home pregnancy test”. They can detect it about 7-12 days from possible conception and can also measure the concentration of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone in your blood. If you suspect any symptoms of pregnancy, you must get a pregnancy blood test done to confirm or rule out pregnancy.
Is a blood test for pregnancy more accurate than a urine test?
The latest research presented at Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians revealed that almost six percent of negative urine pregnancy tests can be false that is negative, meaning the women is indeed pregnant despite a negative urine pregnancy test. Initially, the researchers had expected to find urine pregnancy tests as accurate as blood tests.
The research was done in 662 women at Henry Ford Hospital who received both urine and serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) tests for pregnancy. Six out of the 102 women results, tested negative with the urine pregnancy test, yet their blood pregnancy test indicated they were indeed pregnant. Five of these women with false negative tests had serum hCG levels in the range 11 to 97 mU/ml, which is normal for the first month of pregnancy.
Though researchers caution that these false negative numbers may be higher than what is actually found in practice, Henry Ford Hospital now uses blood pregnancy tests as the standard for women less than four weeks past the date of their expected menstrual period. So blood tests for pregnancy are more accurate than urine pregnancy tests. They are 99% accurate.
Home pregnancy tests are around 97% accurate when done correctly. However, a blood test is more accurate, but not necessarily more sensitive. The results depend a lot on the lab, methodology and technique of the blood test performed.
Most medications, both over-the-counter and prescription drugs, including birth control pills and antibiotics, should not affect the results of a home pregnancy test. Only those drugs that have the pregnancy hormone hCG in them can give a false positive test result. Drugs that have hCG in them can be used for treating infertility. Alcohol and illegal drugs do not affect HPT results, but you should not be using these substances if you are trying to get pregnant.
Some interesting facts about pregnancy:
· Your pregnancy is counted from the date of your last menstrual period. So your baby is considered two weeks older before conception.
· You can choose the gender of your baby before conception.
Tips:
· In the modern times, anyone can search for information on pregnancy via internet.
· Don’t panic about the pregnancy test results (Positive or Negative) because they are not 100% accurate.
· Don’t decide quickly about your pregnancy on the basis of other’s decision because they are not as sensitive as you on your pregnancy. People are not responsible for their words because it is Nepal where leaders are not responsible for their words.
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