Pregnancy

A pregnant woman.

Pregnantzebra

Pregnancyis when awomanorfemalemammalhas an unbornbabyinside her. During pregnancy, a female is called "pregnant". A human pregnancy is about 38 weeks long, fromconceptiontochildbirth.Usually the mother has one baby at a time. Sometimes the mother has two babies at one time. Two babies are calledtwins.The mother can have three or more babies at one time. This does not happen very often inhumans.Aboout one in 85 pregnancies are of twins, and about one in 7,000 are of triplets.

Some people have trouble becoming pregnant. This is calledinfertility.Women and men with infertility may take drugs or have surgery to help a pregnancy start. Some people use treatments that are not natural, likein vitro fertilization,to become pregnant with the help of a doctor.

Start

Pregnancy usually starts after a woman hassexual intercoursewith aman.Herovum(or egg) and hissperm(seed) come together and form azygote(fertilized egg) inside her.

Growth of the baby

When the woman's egg and the man's seed come together, it makes one cell called azygote.The zygote grows into anembryo,which grows into afetus.When the fetus is ready, the baby isborn.

• 
  Embryo at 4 weeks after fertilization
• 
  Fetus at 8 weeks after fertilization
• 
  Fetus at 18 weeks after fertilization
• 
  Fetus at 38 weeks after fertilization

• 
  Relative size in 1st month (simplified illustration)
• 
  Relative size in 3rd month (simplified illustration)
• 
  Relative size in 5th month (simplified illustration)
• 
  Relative size in 9th month (simplified illustration)

Length

Human pregnancy is divided into three parts calledtrimesters.A trimester is about three months long. During the first trimester, the woman might feel ill in herstomach.She might have tourinateoften. During the second trimester, the woman'sabdomenstarts to stick out. During the third trimester, her abdomen sticks out even more, and she becomes even heavier.

Birth

See the main article:Childbirth

At the end of a full pregnancy, the woman's body pushes the baby out through hervagina.This is calleddelivering a babyorgiving birth.Mothers can get help for birth from a midwife, nurse, or doctor. In some places, mothers give birth at home. In other places, mothers give birth in a hospital. Mothers who are ill or hurt may need to go to a hospital.

Giving birth can hurt a lot at the end. In hospitals, a doctor or midwife can give drugs to the mother to reduce the pain.

If the baby cannot be pushed out, then a doctor can cut the mother open to take the baby out. This operation is called aCaesarean section.

Social problems

TheConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Womensays that pregnant women must be given time away from work or equalwelfarefor her baby without losing her job (Article 11).

Sometimes, people who are teenagers become pregnant.Teenage pregnancieshave a set of problems, which need to be carefully considered.

Pregnancy problems

Sometimes there are problems with pregnancies. Amiscarriage(spontaneous abortion) is when the baby dies before it is born. Astillbirthis when the baby is dead when it is born. There are also diseases caused by pregnancy.

Sometimes, women die from giving birth. Indeveloped countries,this is much less common than it used to be. Every year, about 500,000 women die from giving birth, while about 7,000,000 mothers have big problems from giving birth.For example, giving birth can tear the mother's body and cause anobstetric fistula.

Abortion

See the main article:Abortion

A pregnancy can also stop without the baby being born. This is calledabortion.Doctors can do things that will stop a pregnancy. Such an abortion is calledinduced abortion.Countries have different laws about induced abortions. Some countries allow it, and others do not. In some countries, it is allowed, but only for certain reasons, such as the pregnancy resulting fromrape,or a doctor saying that the pregnant woman might die if the pregnancy is not stopped. People also have different opinions about abortion. Often, these are influenced by religious beliefs.

There are a fewdiseasesthat can kill a woman or make her very ill if she has a baby. Having abortions could save the lives or health of these mothers.

Pregnancy test

A pregnancy test.

A pregnancy test is something that women use to tell whether they are pregnant. The woman urinates on the stick. If the woman is pregnant, a plus sign or two lines will appear on the stick.If the woman is not pregnant, then a minus sign or one line will appear on the stick.

Other websites

• What Is Prenatal Care?