Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mama Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3: I am pregnanty.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Hello Bump.
Speaker 2: We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more hopefully manageable. I'm
Speaker 2: gracery Ray, I'm pregnant for the first time and at
Speaker 2: week seven, I vomited for the first time.
Speaker 1: No, I'm young a Pittman.
Speaker 3: I'm a former Olympian, I'm an obs and guyany trainee,
Speaker 3: and a mother of six small humans.
Speaker 2: Each week, Yano and I will be holding your hand
Speaker 2: week by week through the mysterious, perplexing, and sometimes nauseating
Speaker 2: miracle that is pregnancy. Week seven, Okay, what size is
Speaker 2: the baby at?
Speaker 1: I like this one. It's the size of a blueberry.
Speaker 2: This week, I loved the blueberry because you can actually
Speaker 2: get a lentil. We did this at home. We got
Speaker 2: a sesame seed, a lentil, and a blueberry, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: and that's a big jump from lentil to blueberry. Yes,
Speaker 2: it could also be a pearl or a mini marshall,
Speaker 2: a peanut, M and M.
Speaker 3: Really, it's ten to fourteen millimeters, so I mean that's
Speaker 3: more than a centimeter now, so that's to me, that's
Speaker 3: substantial point something there.
Speaker 2: So what are those sea monkeys they start to grow?
Speaker 2: It was like that, which is ironically what it also
Speaker 2: looks like. What is happening to them? What have they
Speaker 2: grown in the last week?
Speaker 3: So developmentally, your baby's brain is now even more formed.
Speaker 3: It continues a whole of pregnancy, so one of the
Speaker 3: th we see lots of milestones in other areas of
Speaker 3: the baby, but its brain actually is from wadigo. So
Speaker 3: that's why it's important from a protective thing with alcohol
Speaker 3: and things like that in pregnancy to start thinking really
Speaker 3: closely now about what you're taking in. A little one's
Speaker 3: face is now more defined. So it's even got lenses
Speaker 3: in its eyes that are starting to develop, which is
Speaker 3: nuts considering it's it's fairly early in pregnancy that it doesn't
Speaker 3: need to see for quite a while. And the little
Speaker 3: one's liver is now starting to make some red blood cells.
Speaker 2: It's interesting what they actually start to develop first, like
Speaker 2: a brain, little nubs, nostrils, Is this correct that? Like
Speaker 2: respiratory is one of the last things that they develop.
Speaker 1: To be at a qu developed.
Speaker 3: So the whole system starts to develop, but the alvoli,
Speaker 3: which is a little air sax inside the lungs of
Speaker 3: what you need to sustain that oxygen exchange, that's very,
Speaker 3: very late. So that's why pre term babies really struggle
Speaker 3: with breathing. And we often offer steroids for babies under
Speaker 3: thirty four weeks because they actually have what's called nos
Speaker 3: and facts affectant, which is basically a little it's a
Speaker 3: product that props open the alveola to help them breathe.
Speaker 3: So obviously at this gestation, guys, unfortunately there is no
Speaker 3: way your little one.
Speaker 1: Would survive outside of you.
Speaker 3: But it is a discussion as we get through these
Speaker 3: episodes that we will talk a little bit more about.
Speaker 3: But yes, amazing that all these structures are already developing
Speaker 3: so early in pregnancy.
Speaker 1: What happening? What's happening to me?
Speaker 2: And in terms of what's happening to us, I'll go first,
Speaker 2: I've started vomiting. At week seven, I did start vomiting.
Speaker 2: And it's always by definition morning sickness. I was the
Speaker 2: absolute definition of morning sickness. It was in the morning,
Speaker 2: it was before eating. Yeah, I would wake up. I
Speaker 2: wasn't quite fatigued. Oh that, you know, jet lag feeling.
Speaker 2: We spoke about it. I was waking up at like
Speaker 2: three am, very needing to eat, and then that's when
Speaker 2: i'd vomit and sort of have like interimittent having to
Speaker 2: have toast, and then I'd vomit and sort of do that,
Speaker 2: and then I'd push through the first or three hours of.
Speaker 4: The morning and then I could function.
Speaker 1: Ish ish, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's the big word. Yeah, And again, so much
Speaker 3: variation in pregnancy. We have some women who even at
Speaker 3: this stage, have to start seeing their doctor more frequently
Speaker 3: because they can't keep anything down. And so while we say,
Speaker 3: and I know everyone said this before, but while we
Speaker 3: say morning sickness, we definitely have people that have all
Speaker 3: day sickness, all night sickness, unable to cope with anything, sickness.
Speaker 1: And it's real.
Speaker 3: And so I think until you've experienced it, it's very
Speaker 3: well to go, oh, yeah, she's pregnant, But no, for
Speaker 3: some women, it is unbelievably debilitating and unfortunately only gets worse. So, yes,
Speaker 3: what did you do to help through that couple of weeks?
Speaker 2: At this stage, it always kind of knew I hadn't
Speaker 2: gone to a dark place about it, which we'll get
Speaker 2: to when it's It's not that it was exciting, it
Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is the thing that you see
Speaker 2: in the movies. It was definitely worse than I thought
Speaker 2: it was going to be in terms of it was
Speaker 2: only vomiting in the morning, but the nausea was all day.
Speaker 3: And wretching as well. Like, sorry, someone's pregnant, listening to
Speaker 3: that probably just make them ratch.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I even list the things that made me ratch that
Speaker 2: could make people feel sick.
Speaker 4: What worked? Twisties? Twisties?
Speaker 1: You know, whatever you need right now.
Speaker 4: Is do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I do want to talk about the guilt
Speaker 2: of what you're putting in your body when you are
Speaker 2: feeling nauseous, because we hear all these things about having
Speaker 2: folate and making sure you're having this vitamin and this
Speaker 2: fidamin this vitamin, but then all you're able to eat,
Speaker 2: and at time of recording, I'm twenty eight weeks and
Speaker 2: I'm still a lot of veggiemite and cheese on toast.
Speaker 2: But there is a lot of guilt about what you're
Speaker 2: able to put into your body. Do you have any
Speaker 2: helpful tips for women who might be feeling guilty, don't.
Speaker 3: Feel guilty, and it's very eating and I know it's
Speaker 3: easier said than done, but ultimately this point of time,
Speaker 3: it's a survival. And like we say, it's not always
Speaker 3: going to be like this. We know that sometimes for
Speaker 3: some women it is the whole pregnancy of my mum unfortunately,
Speaker 3: but you know she was growing in an Olympian so
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: She had to kind of little legs there to show she.
Speaker 3: Lost eleven kilos in pregnancy. She was that sick with
Speaker 3: it so and I always remember her complaining about it.
Speaker 3: When I was pregnant, I didn't have it as bad
Speaker 3: that hum No, and then when I had the twins
Speaker 3: it was shocking. So the guilt has to be removed
Speaker 3: because you can't. You can only do what you're doing,
Speaker 3: and there's enough to worry about just getting up in
Speaker 3: the day and not vomiting or finding ways obviously there
Speaker 3: we're going to go through the medical ways to help
Speaker 3: with vomiting. There's lots of things, So I think the
Speaker 3: key there is reach out. If your noise is so
Speaker 3: bad that you're not coping with daily life, it's time
Speaker 3: to see your GP because there is actually things we
Speaker 3: can do and by the time you wait till thirteen
Speaker 3: or fourteen weeks, when it's out of control, You've lost weight,
Speaker 3: you're feeling sick, you're dehydrated.
Speaker 1: It's not going to hurt the baby.
Speaker 3: By the way, guys, I'm just going to put that
Speaker 3: in straight away because we always have women saying, well,
Speaker 3: I have an eaten for you know three months, have
Speaker 3: I hurt my baby?
Speaker 1: No, you haven't. The little parasites they will steal everything
Speaker 1: from you. They'll steal your coups in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're taking it from you. Is that why some
Speaker 2: women like lose their teeth because they've stripped.
Speaker 1: The cows everything.
Speaker 3: They're vitamin D they strip out your stiff at your
Speaker 3: iron levels.
Speaker 1: So even if you're eating.
Speaker 3: Adequate red meat, you will still likely have lower iron
Speaker 3: in pregnancy. But that's what they're there for, and that's
Speaker 3: why you can be reassured that if you're eating twisties
Speaker 3: for lunch, so be it, because oultimately you need to
Speaker 3: eat something that's going to reduce your nauture and hopefully
Speaker 3: by the way, I'm a big believer in bananas, so
Speaker 3: I might be in Australian Banana's ambassador, so I apologize
Speaker 3: the throwing of them, they'll love me. But it's actually
Speaker 3: more than that. They've got great FOL eight levels, they've
Speaker 3: got great B six levels, they've got good levels of
Speaker 3: other nutrients and vitamins to actually allow you. So I
Speaker 3: actually think it's almost the perfect natural remedy for nausea,
Speaker 3: but also has some good support, great fiber and vitamin
Speaker 3: C and things to actually make sure you're supporting yourself.
Speaker 3: So you do your best you can, you put in
Speaker 3: the bits of the food when you can, and other
Speaker 3: times you just need.
Speaker 1: To give yourself a break.
Speaker 2: Is this normal?
Speaker 1: Normal? I have a funny one.
Speaker 4: This one great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't have to be honest and say if
Speaker 3: it happened to you. But your nipples change color often
Speaker 3: around this time in pregnancy, and it's interesting and that's
Speaker 3: mainly mainly because you have an increase in again in
Speaker 3: those hormones of pregnancy, progesterone and esugen, but they actually
Speaker 3: also affect your melotone and your melanin. Not melotone that's
Speaker 3: what makes you sleep. You need some of that too,
Speaker 3: your melanin production, which is the pigment making hormone responsible
Speaker 3: for skin color, and so your melanosites live all over
Speaker 3: your body, but they're concentrated in places like in nipples
Speaker 3: and eventually a linear albur if you get the cu
Speaker 3: the lineup and dagger tummy, and so quite often people
Speaker 3: say around this time they noticed dark nipples.
Speaker 4: Mine didn't go dark, they started changing shape.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, maybe it was a few weeks later, But
Speaker 2: how I've described them is just like they just look
Speaker 2: keen for.
Speaker 1: Headlights.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we will already be starting to have fullness in
Speaker 3: your breasts because they all have that breast tissue starting
Speaker 3: at some point to get ready to obviously sustain pregnancy.
Speaker 3: We're also laying down more fat already, guys, so we
Speaker 3: do have that. You know, in early pregnancy, even though
Speaker 3: the baby's still small, you are starting into on a
Speaker 3: little bit of weight, and that's largely for if you
Speaker 3: do have nausea and things like that, you will sustain
Speaker 3: and be able to use the fat stores you've got
Speaker 3: for baby and for protection around whether the growing pregnancy
Speaker 3: will be around your abdomen.
Speaker 2: Is this where you can also get a bit of
Speaker 2: water retention because I noticed, like I wasn't drinking. So
Speaker 2: sometimes when you're fake, like if you had a big weekend,
Speaker 2: your face is inflated. I did notice my face was
Speaker 2: like a bit more swollen, just more water retention, and
Speaker 2: it felt like is that normal?
Speaker 1: You can thank the progesterone again for that. Everything.
Speaker 3: It's called the laxicity hormone because everything gets more relaxed,
Speaker 3: and we'll talk about Varico's veins and things like that
Speaker 3: in coming episodes, but it is the one that responsible
Speaker 3: for your hips opening. Everything sort of relaxing and dropping down,
Speaker 3: including the walls in your vessels and then lik fluid
Speaker 3: out a bit more.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Unfortunately, bloating in your tummy and everywhere is something
Speaker 3: that you will likely contend with in pregnancy, even now
Speaker 3: at seven weeks.
Speaker 2: Okay, what can we do? What's something on the to
Speaker 2: do list? What are some practical things apart from twisties?
Speaker 3: This is the time we need to have definitely done
Speaker 3: your blood tests by so. I know we've mentioned it before,
Speaker 3: but now it's time you should have had your dating scan.
Speaker 4: I have had my dating scan.
Speaker 2: I went to We talked about it in a previous episode,
Speaker 2: going to a women's specific ultrasound, which everyone recommended. Along
Speaker 2: the way, like I was seeing a nutrition as she
Speaker 2: was like, they're the best in the business I was
Speaker 2: seeing my GP. She's like, everyone goes there, even the
Speaker 2: gynecologists and obstetricians.
Speaker 4: They go there.
Speaker 2: And when I went in, I can see why that
Speaker 2: was because they just were so good at taking you
Speaker 2: through the steps. They knew the anxiety that each new
Speaker 2: parent would have and how to cross those things off
Speaker 2: the list.
Speaker 4: So I walked in, they said, we.
Speaker 2: Might not see the flicker of the heartbeat, we might
Speaker 2: not see this, it could be too small, but what
Speaker 2: I'm looking for is this. And then she basically put
Speaker 2: the wand on me and was like, Okay, I can
Speaker 2: see that. I can't remember if she said fetus, but
Speaker 2: she's said I.
Speaker 4: Can see it. There's just one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is important.
Speaker 4: We're going to have a good scan.
Speaker 2: And then that was the first ten seconds of the
Speaker 2: appointment and then you just get to like relax. And
Speaker 2: one thing I did want to ask is if you
Speaker 2: spend a bit too much time online. There is some
Speaker 2: commentary about internal versus external ultrasounds and people saying you
Speaker 2: can say no to an internal, which I didn't say
Speaker 2: no to it because I think they're the medical professionals
Speaker 2: and they are checking, so they're checking for your cervix,
Speaker 2: making sure it's closed and long, that you're not going
Speaker 2: to have pre term labor is. Any of those tests
Speaker 2: can be done externally.
Speaker 3: The reason we do internal scans is often if we
Speaker 3: can't see enough externally. So at twenty weeks, I would
Speaker 3: strongly recommend an internal exam. Okay, so that's a few
Speaker 3: weeks away, but that is when the cervix can really
Speaker 3: be picked up. At this point, your cervix is likely
Speaker 3: to be long and closed. So at eight weeks gestation,
Speaker 3: if they can see everything they need trans abdominantly maybe
Speaker 3: not as important, but again, when it's external, they can't
Speaker 3: really closely. I'm using my fingers now to show really
Speaker 3: closely show the crown rump length, and that's what we
Speaker 3: want to know.
Speaker 1: How old is this little baby?
Speaker 3: Because would you believe all babies at this gestation are
Speaker 3: the same size. So it's not until like week twenty
Speaker 3: and onwards that we actually start seeing some variation between
Speaker 3: babies and when we can look for things like growth
Speaker 3: restriction and things like that, so it is a more
Speaker 3: accurate internal exam. I certainly had it because I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: it doesn't bother me, you know, it's just and it's
Speaker 3: not uncomfortable guys. I mean some people might say, you know,
Speaker 3: if you've got faginismus or any problems with your pelvic floor,
Speaker 3: you might might want to avoid it. But they put
Speaker 3: a little condom over the like it basically looks like
Speaker 3: a skinny tube. They gently put it against the vagina
Speaker 3: and then they push it inside, so it's very gentle.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's.
Speaker 2: Worth better than a peraps me like, I wouldn't even
Speaker 2: put it in the same category.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I don't think you're going up that far.
Speaker 3: Well, at the old time probaty needs to go to
Speaker 3: the point where they can actually see the pregnancy. So
Speaker 3: it goes in very gently, it comes out the same
Speaker 3: and you do get very good, robust pictures of your baby.
Speaker 3: But I can tell you if you go to one of
Speaker 3: those great old sound companies, if they feel like they
Speaker 3: need it, they'll do it. They won't do it unless
Speaker 3: they they think it's required. But I think it's important
Speaker 3: to why do we have a dating scan? So firstly, yes,
Speaker 3: is the pregnancy viable? Is there any the concerns we
Speaker 3: need to see? Is there one baby or as there more?
Speaker 3: I can tell you when I found out I had
Speaker 3: two heartbeats.
Speaker 1: It was a bit of a shock at your dating
Speaker 1: dating the two sacks as well, Grace.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest, I actually scanned myself before and
Speaker 3: kind of already recognize it was possible, but they confirmed their.
Speaker 4: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: No, don't do that at home. Don't do that at home.
Speaker 3: In fact, on that note, no dopless please, guys. Okay,
Speaker 3: we will talk about it again later. So the other
Speaker 3: reason to do it is we're not thinking.
Speaker 1: About it yet.
Speaker 3: But if at some point in your pregnancy we need
Speaker 3: to birth your baby early, you need to know what
Speaker 3: gestation it is, because there's if we're going to talk
Speaker 3: about all the embryological changes as your baby grows through
Speaker 3: to term, which is when you're roughly between over thirty
Speaker 3: seven weeks, but if there's a chance your baby comes early,
Speaker 3: or for example, even more importantly, around that viability age,
Speaker 3: which is twenty three weeks in pregnancy, it's really important
Speaker 3: to know if you're twenty two weeks and four days
Speaker 3: or twenty three weeks in four days. And so that's
Speaker 3: why that to ultrasound is essential.
Speaker 2: Does it matter when there's a sliding scale of two
Speaker 2: days either side.
Speaker 3: Okay, so when you're dating your pregnancy, if you have
Speaker 3: a really regular period, we actually still use your your
Speaker 3: cycle rather than the ultrasound unless there's a variation of
Speaker 3: more than three days. So if there's a huge variation
Speaker 3: or someone has any regular cycle, we'll use the dating scan,
Speaker 3: but we like them to kind of marry up. So
Speaker 3: it's nice to know when was your LMP your last
Speaker 3: mental period and does it correspond on is it the
Speaker 3: same as your dating scan within two to three days.
Speaker 2: I think it's also important to say in the dating
Speaker 2: scan they can see a heartbeat flicker, but they never
Speaker 2: you can't hear it.
Speaker 4: You don't expect to hear it, which was good.
Speaker 2: They told me that sort of first stump that you're
Speaker 2: not going to get that moment of hearing that, but
Speaker 2: not for a few weeks.
Speaker 3: No, we don't want to because it's it's ULTRASI it's
Speaker 3: very safe in pregnancy, but there's certain wave forms and
Speaker 3: things that you don't want to use until later in pregnancy.
Speaker 3: So it's actually you can see it and visually see it,
Speaker 3: and so they don't want to. Yeah, that's way outside
Speaker 3: the scope of this and I'm still learning it to
Speaker 3: be honest. As a trainee, I've been wonderfully lucky to
Speaker 3: have done an ultrasound course already, but it's something that's
Speaker 3: not safe to do at that point in pregnancy, which
Speaker 3: is why we don't do.
Speaker 2: It for the talkkit this week. This is a toolkit
Speaker 2: that was given to me by other people, and I
Speaker 2: just I think I want to bring it up because
Speaker 2: it didn't work. So people will also tell you it's ginger.
Speaker 1: Okay, it does work a little bit. It's about it's
Speaker 1: all those old wives tales.
Speaker 4: Though, yeah, I don't know. I've got a buye to
Speaker 4: be quick ginger.
Speaker 2: Really, I think I thought it worked because I was
Speaker 2: taking something and now it's probably a what's it called?
Speaker 4: Where now I see ginger.
Speaker 1: And you hate it? It's a version again.
Speaker 2: Now I have an aversion to ginger because of this stage.
Speaker 2: If everyone being like, that'll fix you, like ginger, Tea's
Speaker 2: have the pregnancy team with the ginger yea.
Speaker 3: I mean anecdotally, it's one of those what's in science?
Speaker 3: What's the science behind it? Some science? But look, I
Speaker 3: think we need to dedicate an episode to ginger, not
Speaker 3: ginger grace, goodness, to what you can do so lots
Speaker 3: and lots of naturopathic over the counter stuff, but there's
Speaker 3: also stuff medically that are required that we can give
Speaker 3: you to really really change that platform.
Speaker 4: Yeah great.
Speaker 2: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We
Speaker 2: have so many episodes of this series filled with tips
Speaker 2: and stories from women and experts who've been through it
Speaker 2: all before.
Speaker 3: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Speaker 3: Bump related in this podcast.
Speaker 2: Feed, and while you're there, we'd love if you could
Speaker 2: give us a flame star rating and maybe leave us
Speaker 2: a review, or even share this episode with a friend.
Speaker 3: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
Speaker 3: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2: This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with
Speaker 2: Huggies Bye Bye