How can I tell if I am pregnant?

Pregnancy is the most beautiful experience in a woman’s life. [hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]Although there are some discomforts associated with this phase but it comes in a woman’s life with bundles of joy. The journey of those nine months is not only crucial for the mother and the baby but the father too witnesses the journey and becomes an integral part of it. There are a few very obvious symptoms and signs that show you could be pregnant. Now you no more need to worry about how you can tell if you are pregnant. Given below is a guide that will clear all your doubts.

Pregnancy symptoms to tell if I am pregnant

• Missed periods: This is the most prominent sign that suggests you might be pregnant. If you have been sexually active and have missed a period you must get a laboratory test done of your first early morning urine sample. If the result is positive then you indeed are expecting.
• Nausea or vomiting: This is the second most obvious sign of pregnancy. If you’ve been experiencing vomiting sensation or nausea or have been vomiting, the reason might be pregnancy. This kind of nausea in the early morning in pregnancy is called Morning Sickness. This occurs in about 50 per cent to 95 per cent women in the first week of pregnancy. Nausea in pregnancy however can happen at any time of the day too.
• Dizziness and fainting spells: This again is a sign of pregnancy. Due to the low blood pressure during pregnancy, this symptom often occurs with many women.
• Fatigue: Feelings of tiredness and lethargy often occur in pregnancy. This is not an alarming sign but happens to many women. This basically happens due to hormonal changes in the body.
• Weight gain: Pregnancy brings with itself a very common symptom that is weight gain and bloating. If you feel that your clothes are becoming tighter and that you are putting on weight especially around your hips and stomach, this could be happening due to pregnancy.
• Lower back pain: With you carrying the baby in your womb, additional weight gets pulled by your spine causing lower back pain from time to time.
• Tender or swollen breasts: This is one symptom most women feel during pregnancy. Swelling of breasts, tenderness, tingly or sore sensation is very common. This happens as the women’s breasts start preparing them for breast feeding.
• Constipation: Hormonal changes during pregnancy make the digestive system lazier and the movement of food slows down. This results in constipation.
• Food cravings: Craving for a particular food more strongly than your normal days is a very common sign of pregnancy. Normally reports suggest that women crave for spicy or starchy foods during pregnancy.
• High Basal Body Temperature (BBT): If your BTT has been staying in the higher range for 18 days or more, you could doubt a pregnancy.
• Headaches: If you have been experiencing regular headaches before pregnancy then you must be prepared for throbbing pain during pregnancy in your head and neck. Changes in hormone levels are the major cause for such head and neck aches.
• Mood swings: Now this one is a one of the most common symptom of pregnancy. Most women undergo major and minor mood swings in pregnancy. Having irritational tendencies, being cranky or unmanageable anger spells are all results of being pregnant.
• Cramps: During pregnancy the uterus grows and stretches to accommodate the baby, this gives cramp spells to the would-be mother similar to the menstrual cramps.
• Spotting: Slight bleeding or spotting could occur as the fertilised egg begins to implant itself into the uterus from 3 to 6 days of fertilisation. This generally happens outside of the normal period cycle. So women tend to confuse it with normal menstruation.
• Darkening of areolas: The areolas if begin to darken or increase in diameter it could be a prominent sign of your pregnancy. This happens as the body prepares itself for breast feeding.

If any of the above given symptoms is what you are feeling these days, get yourself diagnosed by getting a urine pregnancy test done in a laboratory to confirm if you are pregnant. If the result is positive an immediate consultation with your gynaecologist is advisable.