Pregnancy Articles

Studies have shown that depressed pregnant women have twice the risk of preterm delivery than pregnant women with no symptoms of depression. These tips will help with with depression.

Progesterone is produced in the ovaries. Specifically, something called the corpus luteum produces the progesterone. Later on, the placenta will take over the role of trying to maintain the progesterone levels during the first trimester. Progesterone has a specific role to play in the pregnancy process. Progesterone helps to prepare the lining of the uterus for the implantation of a fertilized egg, for example. Progesterone helps to provide a lining in the uterus that is rich in nutrients for your baby. Progesterone also helps to create the mucus plug during pregnancy. Progesterone even plays a role in helping to raise the basal body temperature after you ovulate.

Going into pre-term labor during the second trimester is never an easy thing. The fact of the matter is that going into pre-term labor is risky for both the baby and for the mother. Any number of things might cause a woman to go into pre-term labor during the second trimester.

Your baby will, obviously, gain some weight during the second trimester. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the second trimester, your baby can weigh as little as just two ounces. By the end of the second trimester, however, your baby may weigh as much as 20 times more, and be right around two pounds or even more!

During the third trimester of pregnancy a developing fetus grows quickly and gains weight rapidly. The brain and central nervous system are in an important stage of development. Harmful substances, such as alcohol, can affect the growing baby's development at any time during pregnancy.

It is not uncommon at all for your senses to go through certain changes during the second trimester, as well as through out the rest of your pregnancy. While it is true that those sensory changes typically happen earlier on in pregnancy, during the first trimester, many women don't experience changes to the senses until some time during the second trimester. Of all of the senses that change during the second trimester, the sense of smell and the sense of taste seem to be the most pronounced, although changes to the other senses during the second trimester are not uncommon at all.

HCG levels during the second trimester of pregnancy don't change anywhere nearly as drastically as they are known to change during the first trimester of pregnancy. Still, hCG levels do change during the second trimester. To understand the changes that take place to hCG levels during the second trimester, it is important to understand exactly what hCG is and how it progresses not only during the second trimester, but throughout your entire pregnancy.

Morning sickness affects more than seven out of every ten pregnant women. For many of these women, morning sickness comes out as an occasional nausea, that might hit for a few minutes a day and then pass. However, for some women, morning sickness will last all day. When this happens, it can be difficult to find anything that can help with the morning sickness. Fortunately, there are things that you can try to help with your all day morning sickness.

The fetal heart rate will change during the second trimester, just as it changes throughout the various stages of pregnancy. In fact, the fetal heart rate can change on a moment-by-moment basis, in response to various stimuli or various conditions that can be affecting your baby. While your baby's heart rate does tend to spike briefly around the age of ten weeks of pregnancy, by the time that the second trimester rolls around, your baby's heart rate will not change much until after your baby is born.

Healthy eating and nutrition during the second trimester of pregnancy is just as important, if not maybe even more important, than it is during the first and the third trimesters of pregnancy. It is critical that a pregnant woman focus on her health and nutrition. The fact of the matter is that she is in complete control over the nutrients that her developing baby is getting, and by making the right health and nutrition decisions during the second trimester, she is helping her baby to grow and develop the way that she should.