9 facts about pregnancy

During pregnancy, your body is constantly changing. To ensure your baby is well cared for and can develop properly, it performs incredible feats in a very short time. Many of these changes you can observe yourself, while others happen behind the scenes. We have collected 9 exciting and sometimes curious facts about the 9 months that may surprise you.

1. Powerhouse Uterus

Normally, your uterus weighs between 60 and 70 grams and is about the size of a pear or a clenched fist. During pregnancy, it demonstrates its extraordinary capabilities: it stretches approximately one hundredfold, so that it ends up the size of two soccer balls and almost weighs one kilogram. With this, the impressive organ temporarily becomes the largest muscle in your body.

2. Marks on the skin

Some expectant mothers notice a dark line from their navel to their pubic bone during pregnancy. This is called the linea nigra. Black line , a pigment disorder caused by the release of the hormone melatonin. This hormone, which protects the skin from UV radiation, is produced in increased amounts during pregnancy. The skin around the eyes, nipples, and labia can also become darker. About 90 percent of all women observe these changes during pregnancy. Often, the pigment disturbances fade after childbirth, but it can also happen that some areas of skin remain permanently darker.

3. Unmistakable

The bigger your belly gets, the more your thoughts are probably focused on your baby inside: What will it look like? Will it resemble you or its father more? Until you can see for yourself, you'll unfortunately have to wait until birth. ;) But even in the fourth month of pregnancy, when there might not be much visible from the outside yet, your baby is a true individualist: By this time, its unique fingerprint has already developed.

4. Prepared for breastfeeding

Even during pregnancy, your breasts are preparing to nourish your baby soon. The milk glands grow and branch out, and around the halfway point of pregnancy, your breast begins producing the valuable colostrum. The amount remains so low until the milk comes in a few days after birth that you probably only notice that your breasts are swelling. However, some expectant mothers also lose some milk during pregnancy. This can especially happen when you hear (strange) babies crying. The reason? Your body reacts to the crying by releasing the hormone oxytocin, which in turn stimulates the milk to flow.

5. Little Gourmet

The taste of the amniotic fluid is influenced by what you eat and changes repeatedly depending on your last meal. Vegetables and raw foods contribute to a spicy flavor, while chocolate and fruit give a sweet taste. Your baby swallows about half a liter of amniotic fluid per day – no wonder that their later taste is already shaped from around the 20th week of pregnancy by what you particularly enjoy eating during pregnancy.

6. Pregnant together

Maybe you've also noticed that your partner has gained a little weight or has been experiencing mood swings since the beginning of your pregnancy? ;) What initially sounds like a funny coincidence is a well-studied phenomenon. The technical term: Couvade Syndrome (from French cover = hatch). In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, nausea, digestive issues, or fatigue can also occur – the typical accompanying symptoms of pregnancy. Researchers have found that the concentration of the hormones prolactin and cortisol, which are produced in increased amounts during pregnancy, also in the partner/partner Partner in preparing for the Nachwuchs rises. As a result, about one in five is also physically "pregnant".

7. Baby's Development

Surely waiting for your baby sometimes feels like forever. But did you know that as early as the tenth week of pregnancy, when your baby is only about two and a half centimeters long, its heart, brain, and limbs are already fully formed? Just two weeks later, in the 12th week of pregnancy, all of its organs are also developed. Of course, its development is far from complete: until birth, your baby still needs to grow and mature – and you will need to be a little more patient.

8. Fascination of the Placenta

The Placenta is a true marvel. It is the only organ that your body forms only during pregnancy and that is expelled once it has fulfilled its purpose. Even more astonishing is the fact that the placenta alone produces as much estrogen at the end of pregnancy as the body of a non-pregnant woman does in three years.

9. Exercises for the abdomen

Once it is in the world, your baby cries to attract attention and express its needs. But did you think that babies already cry in the womb when they feel uncomfortable? Researchers have discovered that fetuses make the same movements as newborns when crying, when stimulated with unpleasant, deep tones in the womb. The motor skills for this are already developed from the 20th week of pregnancy. It is not surprising that they practice diligently from then on, after all, crying is vital for babies' survival once they are born.

These are just some of the fascinating things that happen during the Pregnancy happen. They show you that your body instinctively does what is right for you and the development of your child, performing true miracles. If you feel uncertain, just exchange ideas with other (expecting) moms: Bet you that they also noticed some unexpected changes during their pregnancy?