When you are pregnant, the levels of estrogen and progesterone in your body are much higher than normal. The amount of estrogen in your body during pregnancy is actually greater than the total amount of estrogen your body will produce in the rest of your lifetime. The pregnancy hormones help to create a safe, comfortable environment for the baby and to prepare your body for the birth and for breastfeeding. However, they can also cause other symptoms, which you may need help from your private pregnancy care team to relieve.

How Pregnancy Hormones Affect You

The hormonal changes that happen during pregnancy are also responsible for many of the symptoms that are tackled in private pregnancy care. Some of the problems that can be associated with pregnancy hormones are faintness, feeling hot, constipation, hair growth, and changes in skin pigmentation. You might notice that your skin is more sensitive to the sun, that your moles or freckles are darker, or that you develop a line of dark skin down the centre of your belly. Towards the end of your pregnancy, the hormones that are circulating will also start to make your joints feel looser. This happens in order to make the birth easier, but it can also make it easier to twist an ankle or injure yourself, so you will need to be extra careful.

Tackling Pregnancy Symptoms

Although these symptoms are very common, some of them can make you feel quite uncomfortable, so it is important to mention them to your private pregnancy care team. Your doctor or midwife can offer advice on coping with these kinds of symptoms and make sure that there is nothing more serious underlying them. For example, while many women feel a little bit faint thanks to their hormones, faintness could also be a sign of anaemia, which might mean that you need to make some changes to your diet.