Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mom and Maya
Speaker 1: acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
Speaker 1: podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 2: I am pregnanted.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
Speaker 1: more manageable. I'm gracery, very pregnant for the very first time,
Speaker 1: and I can no longer open my fridge without drive reaching.
Speaker 2: And I'm Miana Pittman. I'm a former Olympian, I'm a
Speaker 2: mother of six babies, and I'm training to be an
Speaker 2: obstitrician and a gynocologist.
Speaker 1: Each episode, Jana and I will be holding your hand
Speaker 1: week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a very weird miracle that is pregnancy week six. Yanna,
Speaker 1: how big is our baby? Our baby? I have your
Speaker 1: baby seven to be good, I have six been.
Speaker 2: It's now about the size of a lentil seed.
Speaker 1: See this is where it starts to contextualize, doesn't it
Speaker 1: a lentil seed? A lady bug?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well let's go factual four to six millimeters. So
Speaker 2: it's made a massive big jumps from las week. It's
Speaker 2: it's almost a huge, but it's a huge compared to
Speaker 2: last week when it was only a millimeter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like it's an object now, yes, absolutely
Speaker 1: not just the clump of cells exactly.
Speaker 2: And if you had an early ultrasound you would now
Speaker 2: probably see a little thing in there, maybe not a heart,
Speaker 2: but yet hopefully but maybe not again. I don't want
Speaker 2: you to have it. We're still waking ladies. Another week please,
Speaker 2: but yes, it is growing nicely.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can book it, but not bookase, but for
Speaker 1: week seven, thank you. I love it. And what's happening
Speaker 1: with the baby? How are they developing?
Speaker 2: And as we've kind of just touched on, the biggest
Speaker 2: thing is it's heart starting to beat, which I think
Speaker 2: is a massive milestoning pregnancy like that is to me
Speaker 2: makes it it's real, the little heart beating in there.
Speaker 2: The other olgans are also continuing to grow, including the
Speaker 2: digestive system, which is really weird to think, and it's
Speaker 2: respiratory system, so how it's going to breathe. And there
Speaker 2: might even be some facial features that are starting. We
Speaker 2: can't see them on ultrasound, but the things like the
Speaker 2: eyes and ears, and they starting the most weird and
Speaker 2: wonderful places. They actually start on the complete outside of
Speaker 2: the baby's head and then the eventually they'll move around
Speaker 2: invert in woods.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it's quite a weird. My app talks about
Speaker 1: it's grown its nostrils, but doesn't have its nose. It's
Speaker 1: just holes, which again makes it feel like elucision. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I can't deny that. Unfortunately, what happened, what's happening to me,
Speaker 1: and what's happening with us, what's happening with our body?
Speaker 2: Increasing from last week more and more and more and
Speaker 2: more nauseous, and guys, at six weeks, it's gonna get worse,
Speaker 2: So we peek around the nine to ten week mark
Speaker 2: and then hopefully will get better. Continued fatigue. I actually
Speaker 2: found this week the most fatiguing, and I felt like
Speaker 2: it really feels like bad jet lag and you cannot
Speaker 2: get off the couch. And interestingly, for some women it's
Speaker 2: worse in your first pregnancy and it gets a little better,
Speaker 2: and I found that. I found my first pregnancy was
Speaker 2: not for six I was in the middle of my
Speaker 2: Olympic career and couldn't train, couldn't do anything. Whereas I
Speaker 2: had my sort of subsequent pregnancies, I found a little easier,
Speaker 2: so hang in there. If it's really tough, try and
Speaker 2: outsource at this point, like you know, get someone to
Speaker 2: come and help you, because you really need that sleep.
Speaker 2: You know, you are growing a whole human inside, and
Speaker 2: expect some moodswings. There is definitely some ups and downs
Speaker 2: going on this week. Some tears are not unusual.
Speaker 1: Let's say at week six, that was the last point
Speaker 1: I could go into my kitchen just so hyper aware
Speaker 1: of the smells. And I think for me, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I was jet lagged feeling, but I definitely
Speaker 1: the hangover feeling was just all through the day, and
Speaker 1: then the nausea was definitely ramping up. But everything, as
Speaker 1: you've said, was really getting a lot more intense.
Speaker 2: And I think it's also important to heart that everyone's
Speaker 2: symptoms are different, So don't freak out if you don't
Speaker 2: have any symptoms, Like someone, oh my god, it mustn't
Speaker 2: be real. It's not happening. I need to go and
Speaker 2: see my doctor really quickly. Someone won just get lucky.
Speaker 2: They just get lucky and they don't have much And
Speaker 2: you know, and if you're expecting multiples, which means twins
Speaker 2: or more babies, sometimes your symptoms are going to be worse,
Speaker 2: So I think it's again no comparisons.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point. There's a woman, one of
Speaker 1: the women here in their Mum and me are office.
Speaker 1: She was like, I was one of those lucky ones,
Speaker 1: never had no orders. I never had anything, but I
Speaker 1: had a baby who didn't sleep. So it gets you
Speaker 1: any I've.
Speaker 2: Had all of that, to be honest, Sometimes you get
Speaker 2: both is this normal?
Speaker 1: Is normal? Is it normal? I have a question about
Speaker 1: I still have period cramps at this point.
Speaker 2: It's your use for us getting used to accommodating a
Speaker 2: growing pregnancy. So you can imagine that it's especially if
Speaker 2: it's your first time. You haven't had that expanding little
Speaker 2: thing inside stretching the walls or the muscles of the
Speaker 2: uterus and the surrounding ligaments outside the uterus that are
Speaker 2: slowly going to expand up. So we get a lot
Speaker 2: of what's called round ligament pain. Not normally around the
Speaker 2: six weeks. I mean some women do, but it's more
Speaker 2: often a little bit later in pregnancy. But yes, all
Speaker 2: these sort of aches and pains and things. Again, changes
Speaker 2: in hormone levels. Sometimes there's even the bit of fluid
Speaker 2: in the pelvis and things that can actually cause from
Speaker 2: the ovulatary syst so where you actually ovulated, from which
Speaker 2: it starts to produce progesterones to support the pregnancy. We
Speaker 2: call it the corpus lutium if you want to be
Speaker 2: really medical about it, but can also leak fluid and
Speaker 2: irritate the abdomen. So it's also important to think though,
Speaker 2: if you are having pain, not just cramps, it is
Speaker 2: probably better to keep a close eye on it. And
Speaker 2: if you're concerned about it, just call someone, call your
Speaker 2: midwife or your GP to have a discussion about it.
Speaker 1: And what about bloating? Is that okay, so it's still bloat,
Speaker 1: it's not pregnancy, but it's not pregnancy.
Speaker 2: I'd love to be but no, at six weeks you'd
Speaker 2: be really unlikely. In fact, it's impossible. Let's just go there.
Speaker 1: It's just blown or constipation. Yeah, me too, So that
Speaker 1: gets worse and worse. I thought I was having round
Speaker 1: ligament pains and my midwife was just like, no, that's
Speaker 1: just your bounds just working really slowly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, transition slows down unfortunately because of progesterone, one of
Speaker 2: the main hormones of pregnancy.
Speaker 1: But it's not as gratifying and there's no schedule anymore.
Speaker 1: No fluid, keep you fluid up.
Speaker 2: Okay, I think there's one of the big key messages
Speaker 2: there to try and keep those bowers a bit more regular.
Speaker 1: And what are some good things to do? What's on
Speaker 1: our to do list this week?
Speaker 2: Well, as you know, we talked about booking your ultrasound.
Speaker 2: I think it's pretty important. This time in pregnancy is
Speaker 2: a little hard because you're just kind of in the
Speaker 2: waiting game. So you've got lots of things coming up
Speaker 2: in the future that you need to do. But at
Speaker 2: this point, you know what, I think you need to
Speaker 2: think really closely. You kind of touched on it with
Speaker 2: the abdominal cramps and things.
Speaker 1: If you bleed.
Speaker 2: Now, twenty to forty percent of women will bleed in pregnancy,
Speaker 2: particularly in the first tromester, and that's quite a lot,
Speaker 2: and it's not always a concern. It could be still
Speaker 2: implantation bleeding. It could be sometimes we get what's called
Speaker 2: a subcoreonic chemotoma, which is it's big words of guys,
Speaker 2: but it's just a bit of like a bruise around
Speaker 2: where the baby is, around the amigniotic sack. Most of
Speaker 2: the time they resolve. So even if you see that
Speaker 2: on your ultrasound next week, ninety percent of the time
Speaker 2: it goes away.
Speaker 1: What's the best thing to do in that case? If
Speaker 1: you do notice that you're spotting, is it? Are you
Speaker 1: at the level of we go to hospital or you
Speaker 1: book a GP appointment?
Speaker 2: Every woman's individual. I've been down to d many, many,
Speaker 2: many times for someone spotting in pregnancy because there's a
Speaker 2: lot of anxiety and really wanting the pregnancy for me.
Speaker 2: You cannot do anything right now, guys, So if you
Speaker 2: are bleeding in early pregnancy, our concern is if you're
Speaker 2: bleeding heavily enough that we need to monitor you from
Speaker 2: a blood loss perspective. So I think GPS the right
Speaker 2: place you don't want to sit in a NED for
Speaker 2: four or five hours waiting to be seen by one
Speaker 2: of us. Was in guyning doctors. So if your GP's concerned,
Speaker 2: they'll send you in. We often have what's called an
Speaker 2: early pregnancy Assessment clinic. Most public hospitals have one, so
Speaker 2: if you concerned, your GP can refer you to see
Speaker 2: one of the doctors. But at least it means you
Speaker 2: have an allocated appointment to see someone roughly within an
Speaker 2: hour of getting there rather than four or five in
Speaker 2: a ned. But the biggest thing there is if you
Speaker 2: haven't yet got a diagnosed pregnancy on ultrasound and you
Speaker 2: have pain and cramping. Unfortunately, we have to raise that
Speaker 2: not all pregnancies end up in the uterus. Sometimes pregnancies
Speaker 2: can unfortunately end up in the filopian tubes, the ovaries,
Speaker 2: and even the abdomen or your cervix. They're called it
Speaker 2: topic pregnancies. So if pain and bleeding comes together and
Speaker 2: you haven't confirmed the pregnancies inside the uterus, that is
Speaker 2: a time it's an ed visit straight away.
Speaker 1: If we're you're having our dating scan, it's seven weeks.
Speaker 1: But if you do have an ectopic pregnancy, is it
Speaker 1: at risk of rupturing before that seven weeks before they
Speaker 1: catch it?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: And at what point is it you've just lost the
Speaker 1: pregnancy or you're at risk of losing the filopian tube.
Speaker 1: I know this is scary things.
Speaker 2: That's important. Yeah, So often ectopic pregnancies grow slower than
Speaker 2: into uterine pregnancies, which means a uterus maybe inside the uterus.
Speaker 2: So the highlight there is if you have any pain
Speaker 2: and bleeding, which you're concerned about, go to ED or
Speaker 2: at least to you GP for a discussion, and if
Speaker 2: they're concerned, they'll send you in. Most of the time,
Speaker 2: even though it's early, we'll do an ultrasound to check
Speaker 2: and because you can still see a gestational sackle or
Speaker 2: at least a pregnancy, a clear cystic structure inside the uterus,
Speaker 2: that will likely be a pregnancy. Things to be concerned about,
Speaker 2: which not not for you guys to worry, but more
Speaker 2: for me to worry about, is if the baby has
Speaker 2: a heartbeat already and it's in the tube, if there's
Speaker 2: already bleeding inside the pelvis, that's unfortunately a time when
Speaker 2: we will say, look, we wouldn't manage you medically, so
Speaker 2: we can give often given an injection in the arm
Speaker 2: to manage them, which is called methotrexate, or we take
Speaker 2: you to theaters and unfortunately sometimes have to remove the
Speaker 2: fallopian tube. Big discussions. Okay, so this is a conversation
Speaker 2: probably outside of our pregnancy podcast, but if you are
Speaker 2: concerned about that, it's always, always, always better to come
Speaker 2: to hospital and get checked, because it's not the loss
Speaker 2: of the tube I'm worried about. You've got another one okay,
Speaker 2: And ironically, even if you lose one tube, you still
Speaker 2: have a ninety percent chance of getting pregnant because that
Speaker 2: amazing second tube floats around, would you believe inside, and
Speaker 2: the actual egg has some chemo receptive factors that actually
Speaker 2: allows it to find the other tubes. So even if
Speaker 2: you opulate from the left ovary but don't have a
Speaker 2: tube on that side, most of the time the other
Speaker 2: filopian tube will collect it. So that's not your concern.
Speaker 2: My concern is your bleeding becomes so heavy that your
Speaker 2: life is compromised. So and topic pregnancy is absolutely not
Speaker 2: something to wait for, even if the pregnancy is very
Speaker 2: much wanted.
Speaker 1: I think that's probably overall advice for pregnancy is that
Speaker 1: there's no dumb questions.
Speaker 2: Yes, I agree, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's the best advice for this week. Yeah, no dumb questions.
Speaker 1: Always ask cups will always be safe because also a
Speaker 1: medical professional would have heard it all before.
Speaker 2: Exactly and they can reassure.
Speaker 1: You in the toolkit. This week, I've got drink lots
Speaker 1: of water because it's starting to feel hot just living,
Speaker 1: and also to just do outdoor dining just in case
Speaker 1: if you're at a restaurant pick a table outside.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because of the heat.
Speaker 1: The heat, you don't know what smells are going to
Speaker 1: come past. You don't know if someone is going to
Speaker 1: order something next to you that's now repulsive to you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was too I've got.
Speaker 2: Largely because we need to prepare for the next few months.
Speaker 2: I think it's time to also think about who's going
Speaker 2: to be around with you around the time of birth.
Speaker 2: So just invite that person to your outdoor dining experience
Speaker 2: or a couple of people you know. You can do
Speaker 2: it as in a bit of an interview style, but
Speaker 2: it's you're going to need your family and friends around
Speaker 2: you for pregnancy and birth, and so probably time to
Speaker 2: start thinking about who those people are going to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, find your confidence. We hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Hello Bump. We have so many episodes of this
Speaker 1: series filled with tips and stories from women and experts
Speaker 1: who've been through it all before.
Speaker 2: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser, with audio production
Speaker 2: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time. This episode of Hello Bump
Speaker 1: was made in partnership with Huggies Bye Bye