Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mama Maya acknowledges
Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
Speaker 1: is recorded on.
Speaker 2: I am pregnant.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hallo Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
Speaker 1: more manageable. I'm Grace Rubrey. I'm pregnant for the first
Speaker 1: time and number two's are now every second day.
Speaker 2: I'm Yana Pittman.
Speaker 3: I'm a former Olympic athlete, i am a mummy to
Speaker 3: six kids, and I'm training to be an obstitrician.
Speaker 1: Each week, Janna and I will hold your hand week
Speaker 1: by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes blocked miracle
Speaker 1: that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy seed
Speaker 1: to a pumpkin. Week sixteen sixteen, this is getting big.
Speaker 1: What songs are we now, Well.
Speaker 3: It's now the size of an avocado, which you probably
Speaker 3: should be having some more of grace if your bowels
Speaker 3: aren't working, but.
Speaker 2: Or a small remote control.
Speaker 1: And knock you at thirty three to ten.
Speaker 3: Yes, Or we're now moving into some animals, a small
Speaker 3: guinea pig, a.
Speaker 1: Small guinea pick. So when they get all of these
Speaker 1: shapes and sizes and fruits. Is it measuring length or
Speaker 1: girth length?
Speaker 3: So we start measuring crown rump length initially, and then
Speaker 3: we move soon to the head of the head of
Speaker 3: the top of your babies head, to their little legs,
Speaker 3: to their toes. So there's a variation in time of
Speaker 3: when we actually look at just their bottom and as
Speaker 3: they start stretching out their whole thing. It's not quite yet,
Speaker 3: but you'll see as we come along, we'll all of
Speaker 3: a sudden jump ten centimeters.
Speaker 2: And be like, hang on a second, the maybe didn't
Speaker 2: grow tens and es.
Speaker 3: No, we change the way we measure the baby, so
Speaker 3: at the moment, it's still crown crump length.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes Tom, I've seen ones that it's like it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of celery and you're like, what.
Speaker 3: How No, at the moment they're around eleven to twelve centimeters,
Speaker 3: and we've got a weight now, so we've got abound
Speaker 3: an eighty five to one hundred and ten grams, so.
Speaker 1: What what ways that you don't have to have any
Speaker 1: chocolate bar?
Speaker 2: Think about it?
Speaker 3: Eighty grams so sometimes one hundred grams, right, I'd love
Speaker 3: one right now.
Speaker 2: Though, Let's move on, right, Jool and I'm not even pregnant.
Speaker 1: Well, what's happening to them? What are they're getting heavier?
Speaker 3: What is that as a result of Yes, they can
Speaker 3: now wriggle their fingers and their toes, which is quite cute.
Speaker 3: And they're starting to have early expressions, not that we'll
Speaker 3: be able to see them, but the facial muscles are
Speaker 3: starting to work. The umbilical cord is mostly formed. It's
Speaker 3: getting thicker though, and longer because it gets what's called
Speaker 3: Woban's jelly, which is like a fatty outer layer, and
Speaker 3: it'll supply your oxygen and your nutrition to your baby
Speaker 3: for the rest of pregnancy.
Speaker 1: What's happening to me and what's happening to our body?
Speaker 2: To you? Yes?
Speaker 1: To me, what's happening to me?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: This is the time we sort of said that people
Speaker 3: say they start feeling.
Speaker 2: Now, if someone said it to me, I go, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3: Most don't feel their baby move, but some people do
Speaker 3: say that this is starting to happen. You might find
Speaker 3: you have that increase in libido or a bit of
Speaker 3: a dropping elevedo now, so again we'll have to talk
Speaker 3: about that ups and downs. The leg cramps are coming in, yes,
Speaker 3: and the Varraco's vein. Interesting, Yeah, not fun.
Speaker 1: On all parts of you. You did mention varicose veins
Speaker 1: in like uncomfortable areas, But are we looking just at
Speaker 1: legs first or are they up for grabs anywhere.
Speaker 3: It depends on your genetics predisposition. So some people have
Speaker 3: quite thin vein walls and they can get varicose veins
Speaker 3: all over their legs. It can be hemorrhoids. They're also
Speaker 3: veins and that sort of pelvic congestion area. So it
Speaker 3: comes around because you've got an increased bloo volume. We've
Speaker 3: talked about that several times, ongoing hormonal control. So those
Speaker 3: progesterone really relax those vessel walls. So if you've already
Speaker 3: predisposed with thin vessels and you've got of wobbly the
Speaker 3: valves inside the vein that usually stop the backflow from
Speaker 3: the blood going to the heart. The increased pressure of
Speaker 3: the uterus as it grows on what's called the iliac vessels,
Speaker 3: So they're the big vessels around that take all the
Speaker 3: waste products back towards the heart. If they're being squashed
Speaker 3: by the pregnancy, the blood has to go somewhere, so
Speaker 3: it backflows and it actually increases the diameter of those
Speaker 3: vessels and they become tortuous and wrigley. For most women
Speaker 3: it's legs, so they even get pain and cramps in
Speaker 3: their legs, and you can actually see there's sort of
Speaker 3: tortuous looking blue vessels on the skin. Now it doesn't
Speaker 3: actually it looks. It's a small risk factor for DVT,
Speaker 3: but it's not your main risk factor. They're deep veins,
Speaker 3: are superficial veins. It was my main symptom in pregnancy.
Speaker 3: So I had legit, as I said in one previous episode,
Speaker 3: testicles in my vagina on one side, so I had
Speaker 3: a single side and what we call a volvle variosity,
Speaker 3: and not a single person had ever spoken about it.
Speaker 3: I felt like I was the only person on the
Speaker 3: entire planet that experienced this until now. I've seen lots
Speaker 3: of vaginas, and I've seen lots of women who have them,
Speaker 3: but nobody talks about it, Which is why I was
Speaker 3: really keen and hopeful that you might let me discuss it,
Speaker 3: because if you are experiencing this, you are absolutely not alone.
Speaker 3: It's really common, and I want to reassure you that
Speaker 3: after pregnancy it.
Speaker 2: Almost goes away.
Speaker 1: Will you see them, You're like, oh, yes, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so you know if you have them.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you could have small ones you may
Speaker 3: not notice, but that cares. If you have small ones
Speaker 3: you don't notice, then you don't need to know about it.
Speaker 3: I woke up in the middle of the night one time,
Speaker 3: felt this real release of pressure down the left right
Speaker 3: side of my leg and woke up with these terrible veins,
Speaker 3: like really really bad leg veins. And then the volvile
Speaker 3: ones came, and unfortunately each pregnancy, they got worse and
Speaker 3: worse and worse.
Speaker 1: Is this normal?
Speaker 2: Is normal?
Speaker 1: It could be completely unrelated, or it could be I'm
Speaker 1: not quite sure, but I around this time, I did
Speaker 1: go to an optometrist just because it was time to
Speaker 1: get it check up, and there was a burst blood
Speaker 1: vessel in my eye, like not visually that you could see,
Speaker 1: but somewhere at the back. And she did say that
Speaker 1: could be as a result of pregnancy, or it could
Speaker 1: be a sign of gestational diabetes asolutely I had had
Speaker 1: my I had had my gestational diabetes test the following
Speaker 1: week and I didn't have it. And then she said,
Speaker 1: or it could be the force of vomiting that you.
Speaker 2: All three okay, very well, she's very good. I like it, okay, and.
Speaker 1: She did read me for three months. Time to go.
Speaker 1: Let's just double check that it's fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that's is if you do have
Speaker 3: pre existing diabetes, pregnancy makes everything worse. So we actually
Speaker 3: check women who have type one diabetes. For example, we
Speaker 3: actually prefer them to have really planned their pregnancy and
Speaker 3: really had good type sugar control because we know that
Speaker 3: the kidneys and the eyes can be quite significantly damaged.
Speaker 3: So we actually have that they have to have that
Speaker 3: check twice in pregnancy because of that exact thing. But
Speaker 3: your constant romity, grace, think about the pressures and you're
Speaker 3: leaning over in a toilet bowl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: It'll also happen potentially when you push your baby out.
Speaker 3: Burst all the blood mistles in my eyes when I've
Speaker 3: got pushed the baby out, so as your.
Speaker 1: Eyes or sneezing, because I've definitely noticed enough tick and
Speaker 1: sneezing as well, can that burst them? Well?
Speaker 2: Again, I can't think that comes about.
Speaker 3: Because you've got more and more blood flow to your
Speaker 3: nose and to everything. It's gonna leak and you're you're
Speaker 3: gonna have more congestion. You have nasal congestions really common
Speaker 3: in pregnancy. Again, increased blood flow, so anything that you're
Speaker 3: concerned about, I think it is just better to get
Speaker 3: your GP to get it checked. But eye health is
Speaker 3: something that often gets not talked about in pregnancy and
Speaker 3: is really really important to make sure that you're not
Speaker 3: in your eyes for life.
Speaker 2: So it's something to look after.
Speaker 1: So we have talked a lot of is this normal?
Speaker 1: But I've just got one more to add, which is constipation,
Speaker 1: which it hasn't gotten better from the start, So what
Speaker 1: can we do? One is this normal? To what can
Speaker 1: we do?
Speaker 3: Sadly, in pregnancy, you have slowed transition of your bow,
Speaker 3: so you'd hope that well some people get don't get
Speaker 3: me get the runs as well, so it's not every
Speaker 3: woman yet again highlights how different pregnancy is. So that
Speaker 3: at least fifteen times so far. But we often have
Speaker 3: a slowed bow transition, so the food you're taking takes
Speaker 3: longer to absorb and go slower through your body. To
Speaker 3: make sure that you're optimizing the amount of nutrients you
Speaker 3: can remove from that food, we often vomit less, so
Speaker 3: you're more dehydrated, you are circulating more volume, so you
Speaker 3: got to try and keep that volume up. And women
Speaker 3: are just really chronically problematic with constipation. So it's probably,
Speaker 3: i'd say it is probably the most common symptom of
Speaker 3: the second and third semester is women say, oh, it
Speaker 3: cannot open my bows throwing. We often say, hey, Grace,
Speaker 3: why don't you start taking an iron supplement that's going
Speaker 3: to help you constipated? Hey have some on densitron for
Speaker 3: your nausea constipated. So the combination of all those things
Speaker 3: means women are struggling and then, unfortunately, let's go one
Speaker 3: step further. You then get hemorrhoids, which hurts when you're
Speaker 3: past stool, or you get an anal fisher, sorry, lady's
Speaker 3: taking it really low below the table today, which is
Speaker 3: basically a little cut in the anal verge of of
Speaker 3: your bottom, and it hurts like stink to pass the stool,
Speaker 3: so we get scared of passing, and so that you
Speaker 3: don't and it goes two or three days. It's a
Speaker 3: much bigger stool when it does come out, and it
Speaker 3: hurts even more. So you have that sort of reflex
Speaker 3: like a little toddler no, not want it to open
Speaker 3: your bouth. So key to that hydration and can I
Speaker 3: overcoal and colock so if you need.
Speaker 1: It that a'll just sounds so terrible.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you didn't want me to be honest.
Speaker 1: No, it's good. It's good. It is, and I hope
Speaker 1: people just feel not alone if exactly they've gone down
Speaker 1: one path to help another which has shut down something else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what is it like one step forward to two steps
Speaker 1: back exactly?
Speaker 2: And keep moving.
Speaker 3: Actually, one of the things is you need to keep exercising.
Speaker 3: So that sort of walking and things can certainly help
Speaker 3: those bowers keep moving as well.
Speaker 1: I will say when I do my big make eight
Speaker 1: k walks in the morning, it does helps. It does help.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And a coffee sometimes ironically it's another old wives table,
Speaker 3: but it can sometimes help.
Speaker 2: I was not too much.
Speaker 1: But and what are some important things to check off
Speaker 1: on our list this week?
Speaker 3: Okay, so now we're getting closer to starting to book
Speaker 3: that morphology.
Speaker 2: It takes about an hour the morphology. It's long, and.
Speaker 3: It's the really in depth review of the structures of
Speaker 3: your baby. And so it can for example, at our
Speaker 3: hospital where I work out, it can be three weeks
Speaker 3: wait to.
Speaker 2: Get into that appointment because our guys are so.
Speaker 1: Great because you've only got that window to do it in.
Speaker 1: Do you need to.
Speaker 2: Book booking events?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, so I think that's probably my biggest one,
Speaker 3: to make sure you've had that booked. And a discussion
Speaker 3: around bleeding. Again, any bleeding in pregnancy, particularly at this gestation,
Speaker 3: needs to be followed up because that placenta is starting
Speaker 3: to grow and not all placentas are in the right spot. Now.
Speaker 3: I have a bigger chat about that later, but if
Speaker 3: you're having bleeding, it's really important now where at a
Speaker 3: point where we want to get this pregnancy to a
Speaker 3: viable gestation where you contact your birth team and just
Speaker 3: let them know.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the ultrasound places being really good. Are
Speaker 1: the women's specific ones in every state.
Speaker 3: Lots of them, So there are often women's centered places,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't mean the others aren't great. You might
Speaker 3: have an amazing sonographer at one of the other places,
Speaker 3: but it's just more that if they concentrate on women's
Speaker 3: imaging all the time, that's what they do all the time.
Speaker 3: If you came to our hospital and there was an
Speaker 3: abnormality on it. We would probably get it redone, but.
Speaker 1: My took it this week. Helpful to everyone. But it's
Speaker 1: a travel tip. I had an overseas flight early on
Speaker 1: in my second trimester around this week, and I was
Speaker 1: quite anxious about flying on a plane because of blood volume,
Speaker 1: and because I was feeling sick, and because of a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of things. So I did get the compression
Speaker 1: bands great, well, compression socks, and I also got travel
Speaker 1: sickness mean okay, fair, And then I also packed snacks
Speaker 1: in my carry on and things that I knew just
Speaker 1: in case if the meal wasn't coming to me, that
Speaker 1: if it didn't vibe with what I needed, that I
Speaker 1: had some of those safe snacks like twisties or like
Speaker 1: some crackers and cheese and things like that. So if
Speaker 1: you are stressed, especially of going to another country, there
Speaker 1: are some things that that's what you can do. But
Speaker 1: I do want to ask about the compression socks. Because
Speaker 1: we do have so much more blood. Are we more
Speaker 1: worried about blood clots?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, DVTs are much more common in pregnancy. Well, I mean,
Speaker 3: I you think about it when you got asked if
Speaker 3: you're going on the pill, for example, we know hormones
Speaker 3: can play a role in that. So pregnancy is one
Speaker 3: of the big times in life where you are at
Speaker 3: risk of a DVT. So traveling overseas is always better
Speaker 3: to just keep aware of it. Long haul flights move
Speaker 3: around on the flight, yes, where your support stockings. Media
Speaker 3: Australia make some really good ones or SRC and even
Speaker 3: belly Band makes some good ones. So there's a couple
Speaker 3: of good companies out there that support pregnants are specific
Speaker 3: for pregnancy, not just whack on some stockings. But obviously
Speaker 3: if that's what you can afford, that's what you do.
Speaker 2: I want.
Speaker 3: I also touch that VOLV variicosities, which we talked about already.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of things like what's called a V
Speaker 3: two supporter compression therapy. So there are things out there
Speaker 3: you can I mean I said against V two supporters.
Speaker 3: They make a huge difference to allow them. You can
Speaker 3: wear them on the plane, you can wear them every
Speaker 3: day from work, when you get out of bed. Some
Speaker 3: women may even need to wear these compression stockings that
Speaker 3: you only did it for the plane almost every day
Speaker 3: for that support.
Speaker 2: But it's very important.
Speaker 1: I didn't have that many medications. I just had vitamins.
Speaker 1: But are their problems with traveling with medications that are
Speaker 1: vital for you and your pregnancy.
Speaker 3: Well, you just never know how long you're going to
Speaker 3: be going for something that might happen. So I think
Speaker 3: it's always good to take your you know, whatever medications
Speaker 3: and multivitamins and things you're on for pregnancy away with
Speaker 3: you and keep them in your hand luggage, and keep
Speaker 3: your favorite company of pajamas in your hand luggage because
Speaker 3: you know, we always look at it lose our baggage
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: I do actually have one more question, when do you
Speaker 1: need the letter to be able to fly?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: When is it no longer safe? Because I was looking
Speaker 1: up things and like I was one shop assistant who
Speaker 1: obviously was this shop assistant and knew nothing was like
Speaker 1: are you allowed to fly? And then it just like
Speaker 1: flew out of your head. Yes, So when should you
Speaker 1: stop flying?
Speaker 3: That is a really difficult question to ask, because I
Speaker 3: mean the situation will be very dependent on whether you've
Speaker 3: got a higher risk or a low risk pregnancy. So firstly,
Speaker 3: do you feel safe to fly or not? You know,
Speaker 3: I think the airlines also have their fairly specific rules,
Speaker 3: some say thirty two weeks, some say thirty four weeks.
Speaker 3: I saw a lad in the day flying at thirty
Speaker 3: six weeks. Don't think I would have done that personally,
Speaker 3: because going into labor on the plane is not something.
Speaker 1: Is that the right if you go into labor?
Speaker 2: Mainly because what's going to happen if you have a baby.
Speaker 1: On a plane? Hello? Is there a doctor on the plane.
Speaker 3: So it's the safety, you know, if something We don't
Speaker 3: want to go into this right now. But labor can
Speaker 3: be dangerous, Okay, there's no way of getting around. These
Speaker 3: babies one hundred two hundred years ago didn't make it
Speaker 3: through like so it's ideal if you've got a low
Speaker 3: respregnancy you can have a wonderful home birth. I'm a
Speaker 3: big home birthing advocate, but you want to have access
Speaker 3: to maternity services if something goes wrong.
Speaker 2: Not really easy to do an.
Speaker 3: International long haul flight over the over Japan. So I
Speaker 3: think it's more a if your waters break your high
Speaker 3: you know you've got a member.
Speaker 2: It's all inside fluid.
Speaker 3: You flying it autitude with its increased pressures and changes
Speaker 3: that just flying later in gestation. Alis don't want to
Speaker 3: risk the potential bad outcome that.
Speaker 1: Maker We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump.
Speaker 1: We have so many episodes of this series filled with
Speaker 1: tips and stories from women and experts who've been through
Speaker 1: it all before.
Speaker 3: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Speaker 3: bumb related in this podcast feed.
Speaker 1: And while you're there, we'd love if you could give
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Speaker 3: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
Speaker 3: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 2: We'll catch you next time. Bye.
Speaker 1: This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with
Speaker 1: Huggis