Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mom and Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and
Speaker 2: waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 1: I am pregnant.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
Speaker 2: more manageable. I'm Grace Ruvery. I'm pregnant for the first time,
Speaker 2: and I have just had eight days in a row
Speaker 2: with no vomiting. Is this forever?
Speaker 1: It's fantastic news. This is Yanna Pittman.
Speaker 3: I'm a former Olympian, mother of six babies and training
Speaker 3: to be an obstitucian and gynocologist.
Speaker 2: Each episode will be holding your hand week by week
Speaker 2: through the mysterious, perplexing, and sometimes celebratory miracle that is pregnancy.
Speaker 2: Week twenty six. How big is the baby this week?
Speaker 1: Pers, I just want to celebrate. That's amazing, Thank you, Sorry,
Speaker 1: that's excellent.
Speaker 2: I mean twenty six weeks in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot to have gone through. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: just honor that. That's huge anyhow, But I'll take it.
Speaker 2: We're stoked.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, your baby at twenty six weeks is the size
Speaker 3: of a turnip.
Speaker 2: I thought maybe a fancy bottle of sparkling water.
Speaker 1: Oh that is a little more fancy. I like it.
Speaker 1: A bandicoot was the animal theme. It was really hard
Speaker 1: to find one this week.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that. And how long are they?
Speaker 3: Thirty six centimeters roughly and now weighing between six hundred
Speaker 3: and eighty and nine hundred grams. This is whether variation
Speaker 3: is really going to start kicking in.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 3: It basically means that the baby's size will be a
Speaker 3: little bit dependent on you and your partner.
Speaker 1: So we call that constitutional growth.
Speaker 3: So if you're really tall and you know, you're likely
Speaker 3: to have a tall baby and a bigger baby. If
Speaker 3: you're petit, you're not likely to grow a ninety eight
Speaker 3: centile baby.
Speaker 2: Is whether your partner has a big head? Does that
Speaker 2: come into it at this point?
Speaker 3: Look, some genetics do play in mind, but you got
Speaker 3: to remember that the baby has very soft bones in
Speaker 3: its brain and the Fontenelle's crossover to allow that. So
Speaker 3: my midwife, who I love, has always said, your body
Speaker 3: will make a baby that's suited for you. So you
Speaker 3: know it's cardious, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Obviously there's reasons like GDM, which you should have been
Speaker 3: tested for by now twenty eight weeks that means sometimes
Speaker 3: babies can be bigger if the diabetes is unconstroy roll.
Speaker 3: But if you've got a really low risk ongoing normal pregnancy,
Speaker 3: the chances are your baby's size is going to fit
Speaker 3: you beautifully great.
Speaker 2: I do look at my partner's head and go, oh,
Speaker 2: dear God, Yes, but my body knows what it's doing.
Speaker 2: It does as it does, it does, And what else
Speaker 2: are they developing?
Speaker 3: So your little one can now suck, see here and taste,
Speaker 3: which I think is a big milestone. That's a lot
Speaker 3: of sensory changes. And other boys testicles are now fully descended,
Speaker 3: so they should if they come now have little balls
Speaker 3: outside of their body.
Speaker 2: And if they are born premature, are you waiting for
Speaker 2: them to drop?
Speaker 3: If they're born twenty five twin like, we do that
Speaker 3: in an exam. Afterwards we check for testicular development and
Speaker 3: often they won't be there. They look they start around
Speaker 3: twenty six weeks, so you might have a baby that's
Speaker 3: had them earlier, but by twenty eight weeks they should
Speaker 3: be fully descended.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3: Some little boys are born without that, so you will
Speaker 3: actually even a full term little boy may not have
Speaker 3: a testicle that might have one, or they might be
Speaker 3: quite higher, but it is something the pediatrician will check
Speaker 3: at birth.
Speaker 2: What what's happening to me and what's happening to us?
Speaker 1: You're bigger, you're hungrier.
Speaker 3: Yes, you might have started noticing that abdominal separation a
Speaker 3: little bit more and you might be finding it now.
Speaker 3: It's hard to sit up now. I think that's a
Speaker 3: really important conversation. Is the amount of women I see
Speaker 3: reef themselves up, you know, big, big sit up.
Speaker 1: It's really bad for your abdominant abdomen.
Speaker 2: There's some noises that are happening from the body when
Speaker 2: I do sit up, or if I drop something on
Speaker 2: the ground, Yeah, to pick it up exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hear.
Speaker 3: So we want to roll over or if you're on
Speaker 3: the ground, if you're picking up something off the floor,
Speaker 3: get down onto your hands and knees, pick it up,
Speaker 3: and then get back up and stand. So, particularly the
Speaker 3: sitting up though, you guys want to roll over to
Speaker 3: your left side and then use your arm to push
Speaker 3: yourself up. Starting that now before your baby gets really big,
Speaker 3: we'll really try and protect those abdominal muscles down the track.
Speaker 2: Is this normal normal? So? Is this normal I'm getting
Speaker 2: quite tired, like quite fatigued, like eyes. It's that bone
Speaker 2: tired where you can't necessarily go and have a nap,
Speaker 2: but your body just starts to feel tired, as well
Speaker 2: as being a bit more sensitive to heat and needing
Speaker 2: more airflow in my life.
Speaker 3: This normal look, I mean, the fatigue can happen to
Speaker 3: anybody at any point. Your body's going through a remarkable
Speaker 3: change of growing your baby. So are you still working
Speaker 3: full time? Some people are, some people aren't. Are you
Speaker 3: up all night with nausea? Are you getting up to
Speaker 3: peel all night? There's lots of factors that will come
Speaker 3: into the fatigue. Time to check that iron again. So
Speaker 3: you're approaching that sort of twenty eight week mark, so
Speaker 3: you know, ideally we do that test in the early
Speaker 3: third dromester, so around the twenty eight weeks. But if
Speaker 3: you're feeling that fatigue, it's time to just get it rechecked,
Speaker 3: because even if you're taking oral iron, you might find
Speaker 3: it's not enough, and so that might be a discussion.
Speaker 3: You need to have the hot stuff or you vas it.
Speaker 3: I like your vessels, you're trying to pump blood around.
Speaker 3: You've got that extra volume.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, the more blood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, blood, while we were back to that again, and
Speaker 3: it's also really hard. Depending on the season, you have
Speaker 3: more blood flow to your sweat gland, so you will
Speaker 3: sweat more. So you might find you're like, I'm wetter
Speaker 3: than I used to be into my arm and my
Speaker 3: armpits in between my breasts and things. It's again quite
Speaker 3: common in pregnancy. It's not a concern. You might have
Speaker 3: ever find you sweat smells more differently as well because
Speaker 3: you're still detoxing and everything through your skin. So it's
Speaker 3: just something to be aware of and don't let your
Speaker 3: body overheat. So again it comes back to hydration, getting
Speaker 3: yourself in a cool room, using cool compresses of wet
Speaker 3: cold towels at night if you need it. Otherwise you
Speaker 3: might end up being quite itchy and uncomfortable with dry
Speaker 3: skin as well. So it's an interesting chapter but definitely common.
Speaker 2: When you talk about the iron infusion, is that something
Speaker 2: you can request from your doctor or do they have
Speaker 2: to look at your results and decide that you're eligible
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 3: If you're in a public health system, we need a
Speaker 3: criteria where the iron the ferretin level is under thirty
Speaker 3: and the hemoglobin has to be under one hundred and ten.
Speaker 3: So that's your public free looked in.
Speaker 2: Can you say those stats again?
Speaker 1: Sorry?
Speaker 3: Yeah, see your Ferreton level, your FB needs to be
Speaker 3: under thirty for most of the time, it'll be like
Speaker 3: eight or nine or tens is something lower. And your hemoglobin,
Speaker 3: that oxygen carrying molecule has to be under one hundred
Speaker 3: and ten. Okay, so they're your textbook standards, but don't
Speaker 3: get me wrong. For example, you've got a hemoglobin of
Speaker 3: one hundred and your ferreten's thirty two. You might find
Speaker 3: some obstetrician will say, look, I think it's probably better
Speaker 3: year twenty six weeks pregnant.
Speaker 1: It's only going to be it worse.
Speaker 3: But I think the caveat there is that most of
Speaker 3: us would prefer you to have it within six weeks
Speaker 3: or seven weeks of birth. So at twenty six weeks
Speaker 3: you've got a long way to go, And what we're
Speaker 3: really preparing for you is, yes, they're fatigue now, but
Speaker 3: it's also that when you lose that blood at birth,
Speaker 3: we want you to be able to recoup in the
Speaker 3: postpart and period, So ideally we pop you in orals.
Speaker 3: Now increase the oral intake of dietary iron and also
Speaker 3: supplementary iron. Recheck you your results again at thirty four
Speaker 3: to thirty six weeks, and if it's low, then we
Speaker 3: then offer you the iron infusion. And yes, if your
Speaker 3: borderline and you want to have it, of course there's
Speaker 3: private clinics that'll allow you to pay for it, but
Speaker 3: it just won't be free.
Speaker 2: What are some things that we can do at twenty
Speaker 2: six weeks on our checklist?
Speaker 1: I think you're back to getting you are facial at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 3: Oh, so let's go for something nice to do other
Speaker 3: than what you need to do, just little self care
Speaker 3: things at this point, particularly when you are feeling tired,
Speaker 3: I think it's just really important to start. You know,
Speaker 3: you're still probably trying to get on with your daily activities,
Speaker 3: but time to reapply some time for yourself.
Speaker 1: Your red flags, guys, I think now it's your red flags.
Speaker 3: We're going to have to mention them every episode because
Speaker 3: we need to make sure we don't miss someone baby's movements, bleeding,
Speaker 3: funny discharge, contractions, pain. Now is the time you need
Speaker 3: to watch your vaginal loss because waters can be tricky.
Speaker 3: It's not a big gush like you see on the movie.
Speaker 3: So if you find you have a little leak of
Speaker 3: weird continuous discharge, put a pad on, and if it's
Speaker 3: continuous and watery throughout the day, you actually need to
Speaker 3: go into triple check that you've still got intact membranes.
Speaker 3: So most of the time it's we I can say
Speaker 3: I've sent a lot of ladies home who've feed themselves.
Speaker 3: That's okay, but.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Will you know in terms of the consistency, will it
Speaker 2: be different too, because we've said discharge does change, does
Speaker 2: the consistency of leaking?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not only more watery, so it's more like urine.
Speaker 3: So the more common thing is increase discharge you find
Speaker 3: go home. We do a special little test, but in
Speaker 3: most hospitals, rural or tertiary hospitals will do a little test.
Speaker 3: It's something called like an act and prom or something
Speaker 3: like that that'll actually look at whether or an amney
Speaker 3: sure if it's actually your amniotic fluid or not, because
Speaker 3: it looks for the proteins in the amniotic fluid that
Speaker 3: are not normally in the vagina, and it can tell
Speaker 3: you whether it is flued or not. We get false
Speaker 3: positives when there's too much discharge, though, so you might
Speaker 3: find you had a false positive two three days later,
Speaker 3: like go home, you don't have it and you're like,
Speaker 3: what what hanging on?
Speaker 1: I'm so confused.
Speaker 3: But it's normally watery, and look, it's uncommon. Again at
Speaker 3: twenty six weeks, it's still it's more common women break
Speaker 3: there when brain's thirty four, thirty five, thirty eight weeks.
Speaker 3: But it's just again when we're talking red flags, these
Speaker 3: are the four or five things that you need to
Speaker 3: go no, no, no, sweet.
Speaker 2: So my toolkit this week is to buy bump flattering
Speaker 2: out fits for fun, fun, for fun, just because there's
Speaker 2: the floaty stage of pregnancy where it does look like
Speaker 2: you've just had a big lunch, so you're probably covering it.
Speaker 2: But now the bump could be looking a bit more
Speaker 2: like gorgeous. Yeah, you're in the attractive stage of pregnancy.
Speaker 2: You look really cute. The maternity photo shoot is not
Speaker 2: something I'm interested.
Speaker 1: In, really, Oh, I do every one of my pregnancies.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm just imagining myself in some type
Speaker 2: of field, wrapped in a sheet, and I'm like I'm.
Speaker 1: Fine.
Speaker 2: I mean I think I would like to look like
Speaker 2: maybe fashionable and beholding my bump, but also trying to
Speaker 2: find stuff that fits your style beforehand. For example, today,
Speaker 2: I always love a jumpsuit because they make me feel
Speaker 2: like me, and my previous jumpsuits weren't fitting me. But
Speaker 2: then I found something it was a chic and it
Speaker 2: comes in at my waist that makes me feel like
Speaker 2: I still have a waist, but then it comes over
Speaker 2: my bump. So there's some pregnancy maternity brands that do
Speaker 2: really wonderful things for bumps. But then there are trying
Speaker 2: to find things but just in a bigger size that
Speaker 2: still make you feel fashionable and make you feel like yourself,
Speaker 2: which has been really helpful for me this week. What
Speaker 2: are the maternity brands that you know of, Well.
Speaker 3: I mean my favorite is actually Ripe Maternity, So I
Speaker 3: bought probably three quarters of my wardrobe through them. Really lovely,
Speaker 3: stylish work clothes, gym clothes, fitness, like everything you can
Speaker 3: think of. Taja Target does a really good maternity ryn.
Speaker 3: So there's got lots of yeah, lots of really good
Speaker 3: stuff there. Look, it depends if you're into secondhand stuff.
Speaker 3: I mean also depends how many pregnancies you plan to have.
Speaker 3: But if you wan't done Facebook marketplace like people do
Speaker 3: where you have really really expensive maternity stuff where at
Speaker 3: once and then they're not get.
Speaker 2: Rid of it them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a bit like Baby close at the end
Speaker 3: and baby We're in general, prams and whatnot. It's not
Speaker 3: a bad place to turn if you're on a bit
Speaker 3: of a budget.
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 feed.
Speaker 2: And while you're there, we'd love if you could give
Speaker 2: us a flying star rating and maybe leave us a
Speaker 2: 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 Huggies.
Speaker 2: Bye Bye,