What to expect when you're expecting (59 page)

Occasional headaches

Occasional faintness or dizziness

A little rounding of your belly; your clothes feeling a little snugger

Emotionally

Emotional ups and downs (like amped-up PMS), which may include mood swings, irritability, irrationality, inexplicable weepiness

Misgivings, fear, joy, elation—any or all of these

A sense of unreality about the pregnancy (“Is there really a baby in there?”)

If this is your first prenatal visit, see
page 124
. If this is your second exam, you’ll find it will be a much shorter visit. And if those initial tests have already
been taken care of, you probably won’t be subjected to much poking and prodding this time. You can expect your practitioner to check the following, though there may be variations depending on your particular needs and your practitioner’s style of practice.

Weight and blood pressure

Urine, for sugar and protein

Hands and feet for swelling, and legs for varicose veins

Symptoms you’ve been experiencing, especially unusual ones

Questions or problems you want to discuss—have a list ready

“I have indigestion and heartburn all the time. Why, and what can I do about it?”

No one does heartburn like a pregnant woman does heartburn. Not only that, but you’re likely to keep doing it—and doing it at least as well—throughout your whole pregnancy (unlike many early pregnancy symptoms, this one’s a keeper).

So why does it feel like you have a flamethrower stationed in your chest? Early in pregnancy, your body produces large amounts of the hormones progesterone and relaxin, which tend to relax smooth muscle tissue everywhere in the body, including the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. As a result, food sometimes moves more slowly through your system, resulting in indigestion (a feeling of fullness and bloating in the upper abdomen and chest; heartburn is a symptom of indigestion). This may be uncomfortable for you, but it’s actually beneficial for your baby. The alimentary slowdown allows better absorption of nutrients into your bloodstream and subsequently through the placenta and into your baby.

Heartburn results when the ring of muscle that separates the esophagus from the stomach relaxes (like all the other smooth muscle in the GI tract), allowing food and harsh digestive juices to back up from the stomach to the esophagus. These stomach acids irritate the sensitive esophageal lining, causing a burning sensation right around where the heart is—thus the term heartburn—though the problem has nothing to do with your heart. During the last two trimesters, the problem can be compounded by your blossoming uterus as it presses up on your stomach.

It’s nearly impossible to have an indigestion-free nine months; it’s just one of the less pleasant realities of pregnancy. There are, however, some pretty effective ways of avoiding heartburn
and indigestion most of the time, and of minimizing the discomfort when it strikes:

Bringing up Reflux