There is no escaping the fact that our emotions are definitely influenced by our hormones.  There is no condition more hormonal than pregnancy.  Your estrogen and progesterone levels are going up at rapid rates.  You have more worries and excitement.  There is the wonderful expectation of a little baby coming soon to your family, but there are also the concerns of another mouth to feed and how that child will grow up.  These are very real reasons to be happy and concerned at the same time.  In combination with your skyrocketing hormones this leads to frequent changes in your emotions during pregnancy. Talk out these emotional changes with your friends and family.  Anyone who truly cares for you will understand how you’re feeling.

Pregnancy hormones bring many changes to your body, including changes to skin appearance.  A combination of hormonal influences and changes in your body’s immune system can darken certain areas of your skin.  Your breast nipple and the aureola surrounding it become darker.  You can get a line of pigmented skin extending from your belly button to your pubic area that becomes dark.  This is called “linea nigra”.  You can also develop what is termed the “Pregnancy Mask”.   This is almost a butterfly darkening of the skin in your cheeks and across the nose.  We are not sure why this occurs, but some women also experience it on the birth control pill.  So it is clearly related to the hormones.  It is not unattractive, merely a sign of your fertility.  Enjoy your new appearance.

One of the changes to your skin during pregnancy is that the tissue around your nipple, called the areola, will darken.  This is absolutely secondary to the hormonal and metabolic changes that occur during pregnancy.  While the areola lightens up after pregnancy, they never go back to the color they were before you became pregnant.