20/02/2025
1. Missed period
A missed period is often the first sign you’re pregnant, that is if you have a regular menstrual cycle.
If your menstrual cycle has been fairly regular for years, and suddenly your period is late, then it’s a good idea to get a home pregnancy test to check whether you are pregnant or not. Should the test come out negative, then it’s possible that there is another reason behind your missed period.
If your cycles aren't regular, you may notice other early pregnancy symptoms before you notice a missed period.
2. Implantation bleeding or spotting
You may notice some light bleeding or spotting around the time your period is due. This is known as implantation bleeding and happens when the fertilized egg implants in the lining of your womb when you’re pregnant. Although implantation bleeding can happen around the time your period is due, there are ways to spot it:
Implantation bleeding lasts approximately 1-2 days, rather than 3-7 days as it would with your period.
It’s light in color, so light pink or brown, not bright red like during your period.
You might experience light cramping.
Although most of the time implantation bleeding doesn’t signal that there is anything wrong with your pregnancy, if you notice any blood and are concerned, see a doctor as there is no way to know how much bleeding is safe if you’re pregnant.
3. Changes in your breasts
Your breasts might swell or even go up a cup size. They may also feel tender or highly sensitive. The veins on your breasts may become more noticeable and your ar**la (ni***es) may darken.
4. Fatigue or tiredness
You are likely to feel unusually tired in the first few weeks of pregnancy. This could be due to the rising levels of progesterone in your body as it maintains the lining of your womb to help support the pregnancy.
5. Morning sickness
You could start feeling sick, and even vomit; this is a classic pregnancy symptom you may experience between the 2nd to the 8th week of pregnancy. This usually passes by the 16th week. Although this is often called “morning sickness,” it can happen at any time of the day or night – and can even affect you all the time.
6. Hyperemesis gravidarum
Around one in 100 pregnant women suffers from hyperemesis gravidarum. Normally continuing well past the first trimester (12 to 13 weeks), hyperemesis gravidarum causes vomiting so often and severe that no food or liquid can be kept down. Usually, the condition can be treated and only in very rare cases will cause complications for the pregnancy, but please seek a doctor’s advice if you are suffering from severe sickness.
7. Going to the toilet more often
About 6 to 8 weeks after conception, one of the symptoms of pregnancy you may experience is the need to urinate more frequently. This is due to your uterus (the medical term for your womb) growing larger and pressing on your bladder. At the end of the first trimester, your uterus rises up into your abdomen which will take some of this pressure off your bladder.
8. Mood swings
Your changing hormones may cause some mood swings in the early stages of pregnancy – you could even find yourself crying without really knowing why.
9. Changing tastes in food/drink aversions and sensitivity to smells
You may stop liking certain things such as tea, coffee or fatty food and might start to crave things you don't normally like. You might feel queasy when you smell certain things too – like coffee, meat or alcohol.
10. Cramps
You may get cramps in your abdomen in early pregnancy as your womb starts to expand. Your ligaments will also stretch as your bump grows, but hormones can also cause constipation or trapped gas that also add to the cramping sensation.
