How To Know If You Are Pregnant – Learn To Identify The 18 Common Symptoms Of Pregnancy

Are you pregnant? Find out if you are pregnant by checking out the 18 common pregnancy symptoms below.

1. Nausea or morning sickness: Morning sickness are the nauseating feelings and vomiting you experience during pregnancy. Most pregnant women experience morning sickness from the first month of pregnancy onwards. Morning sickness probably got it’s name due to the fact that most of the nauseating symptoms start in the morning right after you get out of bed when your blood sugar levels are low. However, it may happen at any time of the day.

2. Headaches: If you have never experienced regular headaches before pregnancy, be prepared for some throbbing pain in your head and neck during pregnancy. Changes in your body’s hormonal patterns is the primary cause of headaches during pregnancy. Other causes like stress, poor posture, lack of sleep, dehydration and low blood sugar levels may lead to headaches too.

3. Dizziness and fainting spells: During your pregnancy, it is normal for your blood pressure to drop lower than your normal levels. When this happens, you may experience some dizziness and fainting spells in extreme cases.

4. Mood swings: With your hormones raging, it is common for women to feel quick-tempered during their pregnancy. It takes some time to settle into your new life by adjusting to all the changes in your body and lifestyle.

5. Fatigue: If you feel fatigued and experience some or all of the symptoms mentioned in this article, you have a good chance of being pregnant. The extra weight that you carry, hormonal changes and increased energy consumption to support a new life in your body saps your energy making you feel fatigued very often.

6. Food cravings: Craving for food that you normally would not eat could be a sign that you are pregnant. Many women crave for salty and sweet food while some develop a strange craving for high carbohydrate or spicy food.

7. Weight gain and bloating: The combination of your baby’s growth and your increased food intake will cause you to put on weight and your clothes to fit tighter than usual. As most women put on weight mostly on their hips and thighs, an unexplainable increase in the size of your tummy could indicate that you are pregnant.

8. Heartburn: Hormones created during pregnancy may relax the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which opens the valve to allow stomach acids to flow up into the esophagus causing a burning sensation.

9. Lower back pain: As your baby grows in size, the additional weight pulls your spine to the front of your body and causes you to experience some back pain from time to time.

10. Constipation: Hormonal changes during pregnancy slows down the movement of food through your digestive system which results in constipation. This is not a clear sign of pregnancy because anyone can have constipation without being pregnant but if you do not get constipated often, this could be a symptom of your pregnancy.

11. Constant urination: Your growing baby in the uterus puts a lot of pressure on your bladder and you may find yourself visiting the loo more frequently than usual.

12. High Basal Body Temperature (BBT): If your BTT stays in the high range for 18 days or more, it is very likely that you are pregnant.

13. Cramping: As the uterus grows and stretches, it is normal to feel cramps that feel similar to menstrual cramps.

14. Spotting: Slight bleeding occurs during implantation of the fertilized egg to the lining of the uterus. A lot of women confuse this with their period but this happens usually before the period starts and the discharge is lighter than normal.

15. Darkening of the areolas: Your areolas could darken and increase in diameter during pregnancy. This is caused by your body’s preparation for your breasts to produce milk.

16. Tender or swollen breasts: It is common for women to have sore, tingly, tender or swollen breasts during pregnancy. This feels like a greater version of how your breast feels before your period.

17. Missed periods: If you have been sexually active and you missed a period, it is a good indication that are you are pregnant. A pregnancy test should be taken to confirm if the missed period is really caused by your pregnancy.

18. Positive pregnancy tests: Only a positive urine test or blood test can give you solid indication that you are pregnant. Positive pregnancy tests: However, these tests are not 100% accurate all of the time, therefore you might want to visit a doctor to conduct further tests.

It is possible that you may have some of the symptoms above and not be pregnant. Only a positive pregnancy test and a doctor’s examination can prove without a shadow of a doubt that you are pregnant.

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