Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Dizziness or fainting

While the likelihood of fainting is low, approximately one in 20 pregnant women will experience some form of lightheadedness or dizziness. During pregnancy, your blood vessels dilate dramatically, and in the first trimester, your blood volume may not have expanded enough to fill all of this space, resulting in lower blood pressure that may cause you to feel extremely lightheaded. Skipping meals and allowing your blood sugar level to drop may also cause you to feel dizzy or faint. Because blood sugar is the primary source of food for your baby, it will decrease much faster during pregnancy, so don't go too long without eating!

Heartburn and Constipation

Of all the symptoms experienced by newly pregnant women, heartburn and constipation might be the worst! These uncomfortable conditions occur for two reasons. Pregnancy hormones slow down digestion in order for your body to absorb as many vitamins, minerals and nutrients as possible from the food you eat. The slower digestion may cause extra stomach acid to be released to aid digestion, leading to a feeling of heartburn. In later trimesters, heartburn and constipation can also be caused by your expanding uterus pushing against your stomach and other organs. Your doctor may recommend a pre-natal vitamin with digestive enzymes (from pineapple and papaya fruits) to help with this symptom. Be sure to drink plenty of water and eat lots of fruits and veggies to ease heartburn and constipation.

A missed period

Perhaps the most obvious sign of early pregnancy is a missed period. If you're usually pretty regular and your period hasn't arrived on time, this may be what motivates you to look for the other early symptoms of pregnancy. Although it's hard to wait, you shouldn't take a home pregnancy test until 2 or 3 days after your missed period to ensure it is as accurate as possible. If your result came out negative and your period still hasn't arrived after a week, you should take another test.

Consistently high basal body temperature

If you've been trying to get pregnant, your doctor may have suggested you check your basal body temperature (your temperature when you first wake up in the morning) every day. If you notice it's consistently higher than usual for more than two weeks, something is definitely going on with your body. Take a home pregnancy test to find out if you're expecting!

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