Pregnancy Symptoms

If you suspect that you are pregnant, take a look at some of these early pregnancy symptoms below. However, none of these pregnancy symptoms are conclusive. To be definitely sure, take a home pregnancy test (most are 99% accurate).

Morning Sickness

Morning sickness usually won't hit you until about 6 weeks after conception, although it can come on as early as 4 weeks for some women. It usually ends by the 16th week of pregnancy, when your level of pregnancy hormones is lower. Unfortunately, some women experience morning sickness throughout their pregnancy.

Even though the name implies that "morning sickness" only happens in the morning, it can occur at any time during the day or even in the night. Morning sickness affects approximately 50 to 80% of all pregnant women, so you are definitely not alone.

Symptoms include nausea and vomiting. If severe, morning sickness can cause dehydration and weight loss. Read more about morning sickness here.

Breast Soreness

Breast Soreness is an early, but very common pregnancy symptom (starting 4 to 6 weeks after conception). Shortly after conception occurs, your body is producing more of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. These are the same hormones released during your menstrual cycle, but in bigger quantities, which can cause extra tenderness of the breasts. As with morning sickness, the tenderness diminishes significantly after the first trimester.

Your breasts may feel sore, tingly and unusually sensitive to touch. They may also be swollen and start to enlarge.

A sports or maternity bra can come to your rescue. These types of bras provide gentle support without restriction.

Frequent Urination

During pregnancy, the enlarging uterus puts pressure on a woman's bladder, causing frequent urination (usually only small amounts of urine).

Another factor is that, during your pregnancy, the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidney and ending up in your bladder.

This pregnancy symptom usually occurs within a week or two after pregnancy has occured.

Dizziness

Dizziness is quite common in early pregnancy. To improve the blood flow to your baby, your blood vessels relax and widen (due to pregnancy hormones). As a side effect, your blood pressure drops making you extremely light headed.

It is more common in the first trimester, but dizziness may occur later in your pregnancy as well because your growing uterus is putting pressure on several of your blood vessels, effectively obstructing the blood flow, especially when lying down.

Don't skip any meals, and preferably eat several small meals during the day to reduce these symptoms.

Feeling Tired

Your body is producing significantly more hormones and needs time to adapt to these changes. Additionally, alot of energy and resources are being spent on making your baby. You may feel tired, exhausted even, and may want to sleep all the time.

This pregnancy symptom can start as early as 1 week after conception. You should start to gain your energy back once you approach the second trimester, although fatigue can return sometime around your 7th month.

Headaches

Due to the sudden rise of hormones and increased blood flow traveling through your body, headaches are a common symptom of early pregnancy.

Vaginal Discharge

A vaginal discharge may be present during pregnancy. It's probably leukorrhea, an odorless or mild-smelling whitish discharge. This is the same discharge that you occasionally found in your underwear before you were pregnant, only now in much larger quantities due to increased estrogent production and greater blood flow to the area around the vagina.

If the discharge smells, burns or itches, it may indicate an infection which could lead to an abortion or premature labor. Contact your doctor immediately and get yourself examined.

A significant increase in vaginal discharge towards the end of your pregnancy may indicate that you're very close to going into labor.

Missed Period

A missed menstrual period is probably one of the more reliable and widely known signs of pregnancy, but it is not conclusive.

A minority of women experience a small amount of bleeding around the same time as the expected menstruation. It therefore is often confused with having a period. Implanation bleeding typically is lighter and shorter than a normal period.