Hormone changes during pregnancy can affect your hair.  It can also affect your developing baby’s hair.  Folklore has it that women who have lots of heartburn during pregnancy have babies with increased hair at birth. Indeed, this seems to be true.  The hormones that cause your esophagus to relax also cause heartburn.  These same hormones increase hair growth in your baby.  Your hair typically grows quicker during your pregnancy.  That’s because hormones influence the growth phase of your hair follicles, leading to increased hair growth.  After pregnancy, your hair growth will revert to normal and you may lose a little bit of hair as the hair follicles go back to a resting phase.  Breast feeding also seems to make your hair grow quicker.

There are many sources of pelvic discomfort during pregnancy.  Your pelvis is expanding in preparation for delivery.  Your hormones make your ligaments more elastic, bones in the pelvis will separate more easily allowing the passage of the baby’s head and body.  However, this means you may experience sacroiliac joint dysfunction more readily and that can be a source of pelvic pain.  Also, pregnancy is frequently troubled by constipation.  The bloating can make you feel uncomfortable.  The baby’s head pressing on your bladder can also make you feel a sense of unease. You can help relieve constipation by drinking more fluids and eating a higher fiber diet.  If the bladder is the source of pain, make sure you urinate frequently, on schedule, perhaps every two hours, to keep your bladder relatively empty.   Unfortunately, there is very little you can do about the separation of pelvic bones during pregnancy until after…

Cramps are common in early pregnancy.  They come from the implantation of the embryo into your uterus.  They also occur because your uterus starts to grow fairly quickly in early pregnancy.  Frequently, these feel like premenstrual cramps.  You may experience compression type pain deep in your pelvis; it’s typically nothing to be worried about.  A good index of pain severity is whether or not the pain keeps you up at night.  If it does, that is usually the mark of more serious pain and you absolutely need to call your OB.  However, anything that is on par with the typical menstrual cramps can usually be safely ignored.

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.