As we all know, giving birth isn’t a small feat. Over the course of nine months, your body will change in unimaginable ways – many of which we just don’t expect when we first get that positive result from the pregnancy test.
As the title of today’s post may have already given away, we are going to take a look at six of the biggest ways your body adapts during the pregnancy period. Suffice to say, it’s not just a bump that you’ll be gaining – but a whole host of other changes.
Changes to your breasts
This is probably one of the more expected changes that your body will experience, but changes to your breasts aren’t necessarily due to the “extra size” you have gained through your bump.
The biggest change in this regard tends to occur because of the milk that is being produced within them. It usually results in them becoming slightly swollen, and this can last for a few days after you have given birth. However, after this point things don’t really return to normal. On the contrary, your breasts will probably sag, and this isn’t the look that anyone wants.
This is the reason breast lift surgery is so popular amongst new mothers. Of course, there needs to be a period of time before this occurs, but it’s worth mentioning that it can be resolved in the long-term.
You might lose hair after giving birth
Perhaps the most interesting point here is that the typical person will lose 100 hairs per day. It’s only when you enter the pregnancy phase that this number drops significantly, with hormones naturally being the reason behind this.
However, after you give birth, prepare for a change. The body almost starts to compensate for “saving” all of that hair during the early days, and this results in a little more hair loss after pregnancy.
On the plus side, it won’t be too long until the normal growing cycles return.
You might suffer from back ache
This next point is probably not surprising. After all, your back needs to support a much greater load than it has ever been used to, and this can mean that it prompts an aching sensation. Not only that, but as a woman’s posture tends to worsen during pregnancy, this can simply heighten the problem.
Fortunately, on the most part, these pains start to clear up after a few weeks of giving birth.
Your energy levels might be all over the place
Unfortunately, there’s no hard and fast answer for this next point. In other words, while some new mothers may experience exceptional highs in energy, others might suffer a real slump.
If we hone in on the first point, some studies have been carried out to try and back this up. One of these studies found that a woman’s aerobic capacity increased by as much as 20% for the first few weeks after giving birth. At the same time, with a new born now to care for, some new mothers feel as though this is the toughest time of their life in relation to energy levels.
Regardless, expect a big change.
You might start to sweat more than you ever did
Before the alarm bells start ringing, this next point isn’t going to be permanent by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, there’s a perfectly logical reason why you might experience an influx of sweat during the first few weeks after giving birth.
In short, over the course of your 9-month pregnancy, you will have accumulated a lot of fluids. After you give birth, a lot of these fluids are no longer needed, and this means that your body needs to get rid of them somehow. Ultimately, sweating is the answer.
You can experience all sorts of changes to your skin
Again, there’s no full answer with this next point – what happens to one woman might not occur to another. In short, everyone will experience some sort of change to their skin though.
For example, many women have an area around their eyes which is masked with a shade of tan. Well, when you give birth, this tends to go.
Then, others might experience acne during the nine-month period. Fortunately, after giving birth, this is also something that tends to stop.
Other women might start to have really dry skin after birth but, as you may have already guessed, this is something else that should clear up pretty quickly.
