Pregnancy

Knowing you are pregnant sooner affords you an early start on a healthier pregnancy for both you and your baby. Most women know the basic early signs of pregnancy, especially a missed period. But that's not the only sign. If you're wondering whether or not you're pregnant, it's probably time to take a pregnancy test – especially if you're experiencing any of the following early pregnancy symptoms.

Why Early Pregnancy Detection Matters The first few weeks of pregnancy are critical to fetal development, so early prenatal care is important to healthy birth weight and baby survival.

For obstetricians, three is certainly a magic number. We tend to think of pregnancy in trimesters, each composed of about 13 weeks. A lot happens in each trimester, and here I’ll outline what is occurring and what you might notice, during each of these phases.

From the earliest moments of conception, your body is already starting to undergo monumental changes. One of the very first is production of the pregnancy hormone, hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin), which can be detected in your blood and in your urine.

Many healthy changes that a woman makes before pregnancy will not only impact the health of her pregnancy, but also her ability to get pregnant in the first place. I often find that when asked to think about their future baby, women often make lifestyle changes more willingly.