Becoming Pregnant - Things You Need to Know

Early signs of pregnancy

- A missed period
- Tender or swollen breasts or nipples
- A strange metallic taste in your tongue
- Frequent urination
- Mood swings
- Morning sickness which is nausea and perhaps vomiting
- Unusual tiredness
- Faint and dizziness
- Increase in vaginal discharge
- Cramping that's similar to menstrual cramping

Confirming the pregnancy

If you have one or some of the early signs of pregnancy above, have the pregnancy confirmed immediately. You can have you doctor done an urine sample, or you can even use home pregnancy testing kit from drug stores.

Calculating your delivery date

Pregnancy lasts about 266 days from conception to birth. Although the average pregnancy is 40 weeks, a normal pregnancy can be anything from 38 to 42 weeks.

What to avoid

Avoid smoking, alcohol, raw food, and any form of medication unless prescribed by your doctor.

- Smoking deprives the baby of oxygen. Babies of smoking mothers usually are premature and have a low birth weight. Smoking also increases the chances of having miscarriage, stillbirth or malformed baby.

- Drinking alcohol seriously affects the developing baby.

- Raw food can be contaminated with harmful bacteria that's dangerous to your baby.

- Many drugs can have harmful of unknown effect on the baby. So always consult your doctor before taking any medication.

- There are many other risks from birds', cats', and dogs' faeces. They may contain toxoplasma that can seriously harm the unborn baby.

Make sure you take the information listed above into you consideration when becoming a pregnant.