1. How do you know? Signs of Pregnancy
Your Preggers….
How do you know?
Signs of Pregnancy

2. The first early pregnancy symptoms are sometimes hard to read
The first early pregnancy symptoms are sometimes hard to read. They can include any of the following:
Implantation Bleeding a few days after ovulation *
Full or Tender Breasts
Needle-Like Sensation or tingling in your areolas, like they’ve fallen asleep
Darkening of Areolas
Constipation
Frequent heartburn or indigestion
Skipped or Very Light Period *
Fatigue - going to bed early too often*
Sleeplessness
Nausea (research has shown this is the number one indicator for most women)
Frequent Urination
Positive Pregnancy Test * - the only sure pregnancy symptom
Some pregnancy symptoms occur earlier than others, indicated with the asterisk*.
These symptoms can be experienced as early as 11 days dpo to 14 days dpo (days post ovulation), around the time your period would normally occur.

3. Choosing a care provider
The Midwifery Model of Care
Vs.
The Obstetrical Model of Care
Midwifery focuses on the normalcy of pregnancy, and its potential for health. Birth is viewed as a natural process that has profound meaning to many people and should be treated as normal until there is evidence of a problem.
The medical management model focuses on the pathologic potential of pregnancy and birth. As a specialty of medicine, the main focus of obstetrics is diagnosis and treatment of pregnancy complications and management of diseases that affect pregnant women and the fetuses they carry.
Time and again research shows the benefits of midwifery model of care: Cochrane review: Midwife-led versus other models of care for childbearing women
Hatem M, Sandall J, Devane D, Soltani H, Gates

4. 1st Trimester: Part 1 Week 8 By now, most women know they are pregnant through one of the previous signs/symptoms.
What’s happening with the mother’s body?
feeling a bit blah now. Most moms complain of bloating and indigestion in the second month. This is due to the digestion system slowing, allowing the bloodstream to pass more nutrients to the baby. This also takes some energy from the mother, leaving the mother to feel very tired.
What’s happening with the baby?
The baby is about one inch long from crown to rump. The tail that is present in an early embryo will diminish by the end of this month. Arms and legs are starting to form. The baby’s skin is somewhat translucent and veins are clearly visible throughout his body. His/Her heart has divided into two chambers and is efficiently pumping now. He/She makes spontaneous movements and the yolk is starting to form into the placenta. The baby’s head is proportionally large as his brain grows rapidly and ears start to form on his head.
**weighs one thousandth (0.001) of an ounce

5. Week 8

6. Between 7 - 10 Weeks the sex of the fetus is developed
a,b | Between 7 and 8 weeks of gestation, genetically male and female embryos develop similarly and show sexually undetermined genitourinary structures. By weeks 10 (c) and 12 (d), male embryos show outgrowth of the glans penis and initiate closure of the urethral folds and scrotum. Female embryos show less outgrowth of the glans clitoridis and differentiation of the minor and major labial folds (week 10, e; week 12, f)

7. Sex and Pregnancy Part 1
Nausea, breast tenderness, anxieties about miscarriage, tiredness…does this sound sexy to you?
The majority of women during the first trimester are both NOT feeling sexy, nor are they enjoying sexual touch.

8. 1st Trimester Part II 3 Months
What’s happening to the Mother’s body?
Most moms may actually start feeling better from your extreme tiredness and nausea around this time. Others will hang on to it for awhile longer. Additionally most women’s abdomen may start expanding. The woman’s placenta will take over the production of hormones around this time as well. The fundus is formed.
What’s happening to the baby’s body?
The baby's brain is not the same size it will be at birth, BUT it does have the same structure. Bile is being secreted by this time. S/he weighs about 14 grams and is approximately 3.54 inches in total length. The baby has its reflexes and also practice movements in the digestive tract - most notably it now has its sucking reflex (the strongest and most distinct reflex humans have.) All of this in preparation for extrauterine life.

9. 3 Months

10. 2nd Trimester 5 Months What’s happening to the Mother’s body?
The mother’s uterus will hit the belly button at about 20 weeks and the mother may begin to feel achy and itchy around her lower waist and sides of the abdomen. This is due to stretching ligaments. - Hello STRETCH MARKS. :(
Common physical symptoms this month include constipation, heartburn, indigestion, bloating, headaches, dizziness, breathlessness, nasal congestion, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, hearty appetite, leg cramps, mild swelling, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, faster pulse, easier or more difficult orgasm, backache, skin color changes, protruding naval, fewer mood swings, and forgetfulness. The mother’s linea alba, which was a light colored line that has always been there but invisible, will more than likely become darker from hormones turning it to your Linea Negra.

11. 2nd Trimester 5 Months What’s happening to the baby’s body?
The baby is now 7-9 inches long, almost half of her birth length; s/he weighs almost 1 pound. A white, greasy protective coating called vernix caseosa (wrinkle cream!) has just begun to form on your baby's skin. The baby looks pink, translucent, and quite wrinkled. S/he may have some head hair and eyebrows by now. S/he can make facial expressions, frowning and grimacing expressively. Ears are well developed and s/he can hear voices and mother’s heartbeat. S/he has regular sleep and wakeful periods as s/he develops her daily patterns.
If your baby is a boy, his testicles have started to descend into the scrotum. If you are having a girl, her uterus is fully formed and she has six million eggs in her ovaries, which is six times the number she will have at birth. She is beginning to develop a vagina.

12. 2nd Trimester 5 Months

13. Sex and Pregnancy 2nd Trimester Let’s get it on….
By the beginning of the 4th month the tissues around and inside the vagina have “ripened” and remain like this throughout pregnancy. William Masters and Virgina Johnson describe them, in Human Sexual Response, as engorged in a way similar to that during sexual arousal. They have become thicker and swollen, rather as a soft fruit ripens. Even the color has changed from shades of pale pink and red to purple, violet and blue as a result of increased blood supply. This means that the woman is in a permanent state of gentle sexual arousal. She might also feel much more moist.
Additionally the pressure on the genital organs from about the 4th month is so great for some women that sometimes they say they feel constantly horny.
SPECIAL NOTE - not all women feel this way. Most notably the kind of medical care and support from their partner that they are receiving influence her feelings greatly regarding this.
This was taken from Sheila Kitzinger’s “A New Approach, Women’s Experience of Sex, The Facts and Feelings of Female sexuality at Every State of Life.”

14. 3rd Trimester 8 months What’s happening to the mother?
Mother may have trouble eating a normal-size meal as baby takes up so much room and pushes on the internal organs. On the other hand, mother may have less heartburn and have an easier time breathing when your baby starts to "drop" down into your pelvis. Lightening. This can also make the mother feel like she needs to pee more often, walking may be more uncomfortable, and mother might feel vaginal pressure. (some women report feeling like they are carrying around a bowling ball between their legs)
The liver, transverse colon, stomach, and spleen (which is behind the upper portion of the stomach) are crowded into the vault of the abdominal cavity. The small intestines are crowded above, behind, and to the sides of the uterus. The diaphragm is pressed upward, reducing the vertical diameter of the chest cavity sometimes as much as 4 centimeters
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely BABY is in a head-down position. VERTEX position

15. 3rd Trimester 8 months What’s happening to the baby?
Baby is packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. S/he now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. S/he's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. The baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

16. 3rd Trimester 8 months
Cervix is long and posterior at this point - a protective measure

17. Sex and Pregnancy 3rd Trimester
Perhaps not so sexy any more….
Typically indigestion and heartburn peak around this time and therefore the mother might not feel very sexy. Additionally, shortness of breath, lower backache, leg cramps, and over all general discomfort can be felt by many women. Each woman is different and again her medical care AND how her partner feels will greatly influence how she feels.

18. Get this thing out of me…
Braxton Hicks - the orchestra is warming up….
Labor consists of 3 Stages:
1st stage - Dilating of the cervix to 10 cm
2nd stage - Pushing the baby out
3rd stage - delivery of the placenta
Some call breastfeeding and attachment the “4th stage”

19. Where and With Whom?
Hospital Births vs Birthing Center vs. Home Births
Routine procedures
Hospitals and/or Birthing Centers: IV, Induction, blood pressure check, monitoring of baby and mother’s cxts, blood samples, walking around or not, routine vaginal exams, residents/students, changing of shift for nurses, limited space of room, analgesics (epidural,) time limit of labor, sometimes restricted movement for pushing for mother, restricted use of music or candles, restricted use of nourishment (many hospitals ban eating.)
Home Births: intermittent monitoring
Birth is sometimes likened to sex in the sense that the same hormones of the body are used for both acts - ask yourself where you would like to give birth - at home or in the hospital?
Contrary to popular belief, homebirths are just as safe as any other option. NOTE the expansiveness of homebirths and how they can be uniquely created to fit each woman/couple.

20. The Hormones of Labor:
Four major hormonal systems are active during labor and birth. These involve:
oxytocin, the hormone of love (most common hormone involved in the human orgasm;)
endorphins, hormones of pleasure and transcendence;
epinephrine and norepinephrine, hormones of excitement; and
prolactin, the mothering hormone. (also contributes to breastfeeding.)
Note that these are only possible if labor is allowed to go on as “normal” - if and when drugs are introduced these hormones no longer follow their intended/potential path

21. Undisturbed Birth
Undisturbed birth is exceedingly rare in our culture, even in birth centers and homebirths. Two factors that disturb birth in all mammals are firstly being in an unfamiliar place and secondly the presence of an observer
Taken from Ecstatic Birth

22. Home Birth - your best chance at undisturbed birth
Wear what you want
Be supported by whom you want
Listen to what you want
Walk/lie where and how you want
Light candles if you want
Have sex if you want (the use of semen to ripen the cervix)
Eat/Drink what you want
Give birth in water
Option for vaginal exams or not
Personal attention and care
Baby is never taken away from you - Michel Odent’s “cocktail of love”
Present- midwife, doula, partner, friend, mother, sister, friend, other children
Cocktail of Love= Michel Odent considers the role of an "orgasmogenic cocktail" of hormones in the various "orgasms" in human life, including the "fetus ejection reflex", "˜milk ejection reflex", and "sperm ejection reflex". He argues that these moments in human life are related and are equally integral to the wellbeing of humanity.

23. Hospital birth and/or Induced labor
Roughly 30-40% of all births in America are currently being induced/disturbed/augmented. Why?
How
Pitocin, Continuous monitoring, Epidural, Cervidil, Cytotec, catheter, oxygen clip, staff, students (shift changes,) cesarean surgery, early separation of mother and baby (mandatory 2 hrs in some Manhattan hospitals)
How sexy do you feel now?
More than likely an OB will be your care provider. Might not even see that OB until you are pushing. Explain all of the augmentations

24. What a Hospital Birth can look like:

25. What a Home birth can look like:
Notice baby is NOT far from mother. Foot in front of pic