Guide to Pregnancy Hormones

It doesn't seem quite fair to accuse your hormones of causing every bloat, blemish, and emotional outburst during your pregnancy. But the truth is that this potent cocktail of chemicals really is guilty as charged, and everything that's happening to your body these days — both the good, and the not-so-good — can be pinned on them. Here are the important hormones you'll be witness to as you go through your own trials and tribulations.
 
Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle Stimulating Hormone
 
Although these hormones are inactive during pregnancy itself, you wouldn't be in this amazing altered state called pregnancy if it weren't for the crisp conceptual choreography of luteinizing hormone (LH) and its partner, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Both hormones are produced by the pituitary gland in the brain and act early in life to mature the ovaries (and the testes in men); later on, they're the caretakers of your 28-day (give or take) menstrual cycle.
 
First to the gate is FSH: At the beginning of the cycle (just as the last of your old uterine lining is sloughed away in your period), FSH stimulates one of your ovaries' egg-bearing follicles to ripen its cargo and start making the hormone estrogen. Estrogen tells the uterine lining to begin rebuilding and eventually shuts down further secretion of FSH. At the same time, estrogen sets off a blast of luteinizing hormone, bursting the follicle and releasing the egg. The splayed-apart follicle now becomes a structure called the corpus luteum, or "yellow body"; it pumps out the hormone progesterone, which fine-tunes the ripening of the uterus and inhibits LH. Now on its own, the egg makes its way down the fallopian tubes to await the arrival of sperm. If no suitors are successful, it's down and out, leaving your body with your period.  But if a sperm cell and the egg do rendezvous, the game is on.
 
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG)
 
You probably didn't recognize it at the time, but you'd come face-to-stick with the hormone hCG the day that little plus sign showed up on your home pregnancy test. It's manufactured by the cells of the newly developing placenta within days after the fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining and gets the hormonal ball rolling by stimulating the corpus luteum to pump out even more estrogen and progesterone. HCG is found in your urine and your blood, which explains why you can pee on a stick to see if you're pregnant — and why your practitioner may run a blood test to find out for sure. The hormone increases rapidly in the first few months (if you're carrying more than one baby, even more will be chugging through your bloodstream), and your practitioner may check its levels to monitor your baby's progress.
 
The cause of morning sickness: If morning sickness has you sidelined — morning, noon, night, or all of the above — you can also blame the hormone hCG. Surging quantities in the first trimester contribute to your queasiness. Many researchers say it is no coincidence that morning sickness usually subsides around the same time that hCG levels start to decrease, which is around the beginning of the second trimester, when the placenta takes over production of estrogen and progesterone. Talk to your doctor about the newly FDA-approved drug, Diclegis, which is used to treat the condition of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP). Peeing all the time? Blame hCG. And if you're catching every cold and flu within sniffing distance, you have hCG to thank: It suppresses your immune function to reduce the chance that your body will reject the baby.

Nausea During Pregnancy (Morning Sickness During Pregnancy)

What is morning sickness?

That nauseous, queasy feeling in your stomach, which can sometimes lead to vomiting — so innaccurately dubbed morning sickness, because it can hit at any time of the day or night, especially in the first trimester of pregnancy.

What causes it?
Some unknown combination of hormones, increased stress, and other body changes (such as a keener sense of smell, or that metallic taste during pregnancy) can seem to conspire against a pregnant woman, especially in the early months. Nausea during pregnancy could be caused by the increased level of the pregnancy hormones hCG and estrogen circulating in your body, or the relaxation of the muscles of the digestive tract (making digestion less efficient) due to rising progesterone levels, or the rapid stretching of the uterine muscles. Skipping meals and your pregnancy food aversions also can contribute to the empty and nauseous feeling.

What do I need to know?
If you're among the majority of pregnant women who experience morning sickness, you already know the bad news: That while nausea during pregnancy often starts in the morning, it can stay with you 24/7, for weeks, or even months. The good news: For the vast majority of expectant moms, the worst of it is over by weeks 12 to 14. The better news: Nausea tends to be worse in first pregnancies. If you're planning to have a second child, odds are in your favor that you won't feel as sick. The best news of all: Morning sickness won't hurt your baby. In fact, women who do experience some nausea during pregnancy are significantly less likely to miscarry than women who don't experience any (though most women have healthy babies, whether or not they experience morning sickness).

If your nausea is continuous and severe and you vomit several times a day, make sure to see your doctor. You may have a more serious condition, hyperemesis gravidarum, which sometimes requires additional treatment to protect both you and your baby.

What can I do about morning sickness?

• You may also want to talk to your doctor about taking Diclegis, a new drug approved by the FDA to treat the medical condition of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), commonly known as morning sickness. You'll likely be prescribed to take two tablets daily at bedtime, and if your symptoms are not mitigated, your dose can be increased to a maximum of four tablets daily with the approval of your doctor.
• Follow the Pregnancy Diet. Concentrate on that dynamic duo, protein and complex carbs, which are good for keeping nausea at bay — especially when eaten in combo.
• For now, stick to foods that appeal, even if it's the same foods over and over and over again. Avoid eating (or seeing, or smelling, or even thinking about) any dishes that trigger the queasies (spicy, fatty, and acidic foods may be particularly challenging, as well as anything with a strong aroma). Chances are you'll be able to find a few healthy foods that you can keep down (or at least contemplate coming fork-to-face with) — and that will take care of most of your nutritional requirements until a more varied diet becomes palatable. Don't worry too much about getting your Daily Dozen in the short term, since your baby (and his or her needs) is pretty tiny now. And remember, that no one food has a monopoly on any one nutrient — so if you turn green at the thought of anything green, get your vitamin fix from a sweet, juicy cantaloupe instead.
• Be a grazer. Eat six to eight small meals throughout the day rather than three large squares — when your tummy's empty, the acids have nothing to nibble on but its lining, which increases nausea during pregnancy. Plus, smaller meals are easier to digest — and less likely to trigger the queasies (or to overflow via vomiting).
• Eat in bed. Stock up your nightstand with trail mix, crackers, and cold cereal — and raid it last thing at night (so that your tummy won't be completely empty when you wake) and first thing in the morning (to stop those queasies before they start). You can even have a little nocturnal nibble if (or rather, when) you wake up in the middle of the night to pee. Focus on fluids — which are always more important than solids in the short term (particularly if you've been vomiting). They may also be easier to get down (and keep down) than solids — so try drinking your nutrients in soup, shakes, and smoothies.
• Try foods with ginger (shown in more than one scientific study to reduce nausea and vomiting in pregnancy), such as ginger snaps, real ginger ale, ginger tea, ginger candies, or ginger drinks.
• Go for the old standby, saltines, if nothing else seems to satisfy the nausea in you.
• Take your prenatal vitamin in the evenings, and make sure it's iron-free, at least until the morning sickness during pregnancy passes. Take it with a meal and consider a coated or chewable one which may agree with your stomach more. Ask your practitioner about taking vitamin B6, which is linked to stress reduction and nausea relief. If you're really not feeling well, you can consult with your doctor about taking pregnancy-safe nausea medication which was approved by the FDA in 2013. However, the same drug was pulled off the market 30 years previous, and while studies have since found the main side effect is simply drowsiness, this is still something to be aware of as you talk over your options with your practitioner.
• Try acupressure (including seasickness or Relief bands), which has been shown to lessen nausea during pregnancy.
• Try any of the classic stress-reduction techniques, like meditation or prenatal yoga. Or explore acupuncture, which also has been shown to reduce nausea in some women.

The Prepregnancy Diet

Are you gearing up for baby-making? Here are five things you can do to improve your diet and safeguard your (and your baby-to-be's) health.

1. Become a fool for folic acid (folate). Studies show that the earlier you start getting enough of this vital vitamin — ideally, during preconception — the lower the chances that your baby will develop neural tube defects (such as spina bifida). Where can you find folic? Most leafy green vegetables and whole grains are naturally full of it — plus, it's added to most refined grain products (by law). Want extra insurance? Taking a prenatal supplement is an easy way to buy it — and when it comes to folic acid, you can't be too careful (after all, a three-salad-a-day habit is a worthy goal — but one you may not always manage to reach). Since you're in this for the long haul, and even after you've overhauled your eating habits, a supplement can be the most realistic way to fit folic acid in day after day after day (especially once you find those days filled with nausea). Choose a prenatal supplement with 400 to 600 mcg (micrograms) of folic acid to be sure you're getting your fill.
2. Junk the junk food. Reduce refined sugars and white flour (in the form of your usual suspects — cookies, doughnuts, Danish, cake, candy, and almost anything else you might grab from the vending machine, the coffee cart, the convenience store racks, the pastry shop display case…you get the picture). Slash saturated fats (sub a side salad for the fries; grilled chicken for the extra crispy) — less is better for your baby, plus a high intake of such fats appears to increase the risk of severe pregnancy nausea and vomiting. (Uh, thanks but no thanks.)
3. Relish the right stuff. Increase all the good things that your body (and your baby-to-be's body) needs: green leafies (those delicious salads), yummy yellows (apricots, carrots, papaya, mango), hearty whole grains (whole-wheat bread, brown rice, oatmeal), and low-fat dairy. (Got milk? Yogurt? Cheese? You should!)
4. Stop being a meal skipper. Are you always more interested in catching the train than breaking for breakfast? Working through lunch instead of eating it? Skip a meal when you're eating for two (which you soon will be) and baby skips it too. Get into the three-squares habit now so that when baby's on board, he or she will be getting a steady supply of nutrients throughout the day.
5. Take a clear-eyed look at your dietary habits. Might any of them stand in your way of eating well? Do you think you might have an eating disorder that needs prepregnancy treatment, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia? Are you on a restricted diet (either self-imposed or due to a chronic condition) that might need to be adapted once you're eating for two, such as macrobiotic, vegan, or diabetic? Now's the time to discuss any of these factors with your practitioner — and to enlist the help of a dietitian if your eating habits need reshaping. Support groups (especially in the case of an eating disorder) can also help you get your nutritional status back where it should be.
Learn how decreasing your caffeine intake can increase your chances of conception.

If you're interested in boosting your fertility, these tips — on everything from foods you should eat to natural treatments you can try — may help speed your path to pregnancy.

Now that you’re ready to jump on board the baby bandwagon, it’s only natural that you’d like to get the show on the road and make that baby a reality as soon as possible. But getting pregnant isn’t always as easy (or as fast!) as one might hope, and you may want to give your fertility a little (or a big!) nudge. Luckily, there are ways to up your odds of getting pregnant, which means you don’t have to just sit — or lie — idly by and wait for nature to take its course. Instead, you can take some steps that may help give your fertility a boost.
Some fertility-boosting tactics just make good sense. For instance, it’s important to have a healthy lifestyle (which includes eating a nutritious prepregnancy diet ) at all times, but especially when you’re expecting to expect, since a healthy lifestyle will prime your body for conception and help prepare it for the baby-making marathon it’s about to undergo (aka pregnancy). Other fertility-boosting tactics may not seem as obvious to you (like trying natural fertility treatments such as acupuncture, hypnosis, or chiropractic), yet they may turn out to be exactly what you need to conceive. And then, there are still other baby-making strategies that may need some clarification. For instance, when it comes to getting pregnant, old wives’ tales and rumors run rampant on the Internet (e.g., do you really need to lie down with your legs up after sex in order to conceive?), and you’d be wise to read up on what’s fact and what’s fiction before you pin your hopes on any one tactic.
Of course, in looking for ways to improve your pregnancy odds, you also don’t want to forget about a very important part of the baby-making equation: Your partner. (Hey, this isn’t all on you!) What can he do to make sure his health and his little swimmers are in tip-top shape for conception? What foods should he eat and what activities should he avoid? You can find the answers to all of these questions and much more in this section. Read on to learn what you can do to increase your odds of getting pregnant.
Find out how you can boost your fertility naturally.

Learn how long it typically takes to get pregnant and when it's time to seek help.

You've decided to take the plunge into the trying-to-conceive pool. Good for you! But as you come up for air, you might start feeling a little worried. What if I can't get pregnant? What if something goes wrong? How long will this take? These nagging fears are completely normal and extremely common, but the good news is that for nine out of ten women, the stork will arrive without any special medical intervention. So take a deep breath (it'll be good practice for that Lamaze breathing down the road) and consider these stats:

• You have a 25 percent chance of getting pregnant with every cycle, provided you don't have any undiagnosed fertility issues.
• Over the course of a year, your chances of conceiving are 75 to 85 percent (again assuming no underlying complications).

So what does all that mean for you (especially since you probably don't want to do the math to figure out probabilities)? It means that you'll very likely become pregnant within several months of enjoyable effort. It may happen faster if you know your cycle and learn to identify when you're ovulating. Eating well and staying healthy can also play a role, as can your age. If you're under 25, you have an 86 percent chance of getting baby on board within a year of trying. From age 25 to 29, your chance of conception drops only slightly, to 78 percent. Overall, infertility rates are a mere 5 percent during this decade. Between ages 30 and 34, your likelihood dips a bit to 63 percent — still a very healthy possibility. At 35, you still have more than a 50 percent chance of getting pregnant naturally within a year's time.
When should you seek help? If you're over 35 and haven't conceived after six months of trying, you should consider seeing a specialist. At least half of couples who are evaluated for suspected infertility will end up, after treatment, with a successful pregnancy. A reproductive endocrinologist or other specialist can help determine whether the problem lies with the prospective mom (35 percent of the time), dad (also 35 percent of cases), or both together (20 percent). The upshot? If you're just starting out on the road to conception, try to keep the pressure off for the next six months to a year and enjoy the ride. You'll sprout enough gray hairs a few years down the road when your child first learns to climb stairs and escape from the crib!

What to Wear During Pregnancy

Maternity clothes have come a long way, baby. Just a short generation ago (check your mother's photo album and you'll see), a pregnant belly was something to be hidden, not celebrated. Pitched in tent-like dresses that could sleep a family of four comfortably, swathed in stifling polyester, rubbed and pinched by uncomfortable elastic waistbands and tummy panels, covered in floral prints and ruffled styles that women under 65 generally wouldn't be caught dead in (just pregnant). Not a pretty picture (as your mother's photo album will almost certainly confirm, if she didn't already destroy the evidence).
Fast-forward to the 21st century, and the expectant-style scene could not be hotter (or cooler, since all that polyester went the way of tent dresses). No longer is pregnancy fashion an oxymoron — or even a stretch (even those stretch pants are a lot cuter, and those stretch panels a lot more comfortable). Bellies are out of the closet and they're wearing clingy tops, body skimming dresses, low-rider jeans, sexy swimsuits, even cropped T-shirts (which give a new meaning to "baby tee").
Sure, even with all of these fashion statements available, there will still be days when baggy sweats will say it best and feel most comfy. But more often than not you'll embrace the opportunity to channel your inner fashionista — even as your waist size passes your spouse's. And fortunately, you lucky girl, you can. All it takes is some carefully selected clothes and some fashion savvy. Here's some straight-up advice about what you need — and what you don't need (or shouldn't consider touching with a 10-foot-hanger) when building that wardrobe for two.

First Trimester of Pregnancy

You may not look pregnant yet, but chances are you're feeling it. That's because a flood of pregnancy hormones is prepping your body to play baby hostess for the next nine months. And that means you could be in line for a bunch of wacky pregnancy symptoms from breast changes to bloating to fatigue to flatulence. Sure, you might be less than thrilled with some of the stuff you'll be coping with (did we mention heartburn and constipation?), but remember that these temporary discomforts are part of the incredible process that's happening inside: You're growing a child!
 
During the first trimester alone your baby changes from a single fertilized cell (a zygote) to the embryo that implants itself in your uterine wall to a peach-sized bundle of growing limbs and body systems. So much happens in so little time: Organs take shape, baby starts to move (around week eight of pregnancy), and hair follicles and nail beds form. More major first-trimester milestones include the formation of muscles, the production of white blood cells to fight off germs, and the development of vocal cords (I want Mommy!).
 
For Mom, a lot happens quickly in the first trimester as well. At some point, you'll likely have a routine ultrasound to make sure things are progressing as they should, and a screening (done through a blood test between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy) to look for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome and congenital heart defects.