REPOST: 9 Months, 9 Symptoms: What pregnancy really feels like

Pregnancy feels different from woman to woman. Some women don't realize that they're pregnant early on, while others are hanging on for dear life with pregnancy symptoms. So the question here is, what does it feels to be pregnant? This Yahoo News article has the answer.

If you've never been through it before — or if you're a man and thus immune — it's hard to imagine what it feels like to be pregnant. But the urge to know is clearly strong. Witness the Mommy Tummy, a Japanese invention released in 2011 that uses balloons and a water pump to simulate pregnancy for men.

The Mommy Tummy takes pregnancy from zero to nine months in a mere two minutes, which may not seem quite fair to women who spend the better part of a year in gestation mode. Perhaps the hosts of the Dutch television show "Guinea Pigs" made a more valiant effort: In January, Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno hooked themselves up to electrodes to simulate the pain of labor over a two-hour period. In 2009, an Australian TV host, also a man, pulled a similar stunt.

But if you're not quite game to hook your partner up to electrodes just yet, send him here instead. We've collected responses from women describing everything from morning sickness, to what contractions feel like, to lesser-known symptoms like twinging ligaments. Read on for what pregnancy feels like, and why it feels that way.

1. What morning sickness feels like:

How many movie heroines have realized they're pregnant after an unexplained bout of vomiting?Morning sickness is a classic pregnancy symptom — though it usually starts around the sixth week of pregnancy, by which time a woman has likely already missed a menstrual period and realized something might be going on. (Also, morning sickness is not always accompanied by vomiting, nor is it limited to the morning.)

Perhaps morning sickness gets its Hollywood cachet from the fact that it's easy to identify with. "It was like being hung over, without the fun the night before," said Kelly Nelson, a publicist in Vail, Co., who is pregnant with her first baby. "And it was almost constant."

Morning sickness is likely caused by rapidly changing hormonal levels, particularly a hormone called HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. HCG levels increase rapidly in early pregnancy and play a role in the signaling chain that causes the hormone progesterone to spike, which in turn makes the uterus a welcoming, blood-rich place for a fertilized egg to burrow. [10 Odd Facts About the Female Body]

In early pregnancy, HCG levels are "supposed to basically double every two to three days," saidTerry Hoffman, an OB/GYN at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. Pregnancy tests detect these HCG levels, which eventually drop off. In fact, Hoffman told LiveScience, a pregnant woman 36 weeks along can take a urine test for pregnancy and have it come back negative because her HCG levels are no longer so high.

2. What first-trimester fatigue feels like: Even more common than morning sickness, but less heralded, is first-trimester fatigue, Hoffman said.

"Everyone gets ungodly tired," she said.

This can be tough for partners or friends to understand. A woman doesn't look pregnant yet (and may not have shared the news), but often feels as worn-down as she will throughout the entire pregnancy.

"The first trimester, I would feel fine one minute and the next second I would feel as if I hadn't slept in a week," Nelson said. Chores like cooking dinner or going to the grocery store felt like running a marathon, she added.

Running a marathon is a fair comparison, Hoffman said. Fatigue in early pregnancy is probably caused by the extra work a woman's body is putting into the pregnancy.

"When the sperm and the egg meet, everything becomes so metabolic," she said. Fortunately, the fatigue typically lifts by week 12 or 13 of pregnancy.

3. What growing breasts feel like:

Blossoming breasts are another pregnancy symptom. Some of the growth is caused by extra fat deposits laid down by the body in anticipation of gestation and nursing, Hoffman said; the rest is hormonally driven growth of the mammary tissue that will produce and deliver milk to the baby. Breasts often start swelling long before the baby bump, probably to ensure that a baby born early may be able to breast-feed, Hoffman said.

Unfortunately for partners, bigger breasts can be a bit of a tease, Hoffman said, because they tend to ache.

"It was painful," Nelson said. "It was like one of those things where if you blew on them, they hurt."

Hoffman said her early-pregnancy patients sometimes worry that the rapid breast growth they see in the first trimester will continue throughout the pregnancy. But they will stop growing, she said.

4. What relaxing joints feel like:

One of the odder pregnancy sensations is that of the joints relaxing. Birth involves getting a baby's large head through the pelvic opening. As part of this process, the body starts releasing a hormone called relaxin during pregnancy, softening the cartilage connection at the pubic bone called the pubic symphysis. Relaxin isn't targeted at this joint in particular, however, so it can make the rest of a woman's joints feel loose and unstable, too.

Relaxin can lead to aching sensations in the pelvis and other loosening joints, but that's a good thing, said Pamela Sailor, a California mother of a 2-year-old. Sailor said she didn't notice any pre-delivery loosening of her joints (pregnant women, don't fear: this is a rare occurance). For Sailor that meant her contractions during labor were not only pulling open her cervix at the head of the uterus, they were widening her pelvic bones. The resulting pain felt like the deep ache people with experience at the orthodontist might remember from getting their braces tightened.

"To me, that was so much more painful than any of the labor pains," Sailor told LiveScience.

5. What the weight gain feels like:

A woman who is normal weight will generally gain 25 to 35 pounds (11 to 16 kilograms) during pregnancy. On average, about 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg) of that is the fetus itself, according to the Olson Center for Women's Health at the Nebraska Medical Center. Another 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg) is the placenta. The breasts gain about a pound, and women usually add about 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg) in maternal energy stores, or fat. Another 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) is water weight, and 3 pounds (1.4 kg) is blood. Yes, pregnant women have more blood — up to 50 percent more than they did before pregnancy. [8 Odd Changes That Happen During Pregnancy]

So what does that weight gain feel like? It can be frustrating at first. Before women start obviously showing (at around 20 weeks for a first pregnancy), they may feel bloated and fat, or find their clothes don't fit.

Before pregnancy, the uterus is about the size of a pear and sits low in the pelvis, Hoffman said. By the time a woman is full-term, the organ weighs 12 to 14 pounds (5 to 6 kg) and extends up to the ribcage. Unsurprisingly, that front-loaded weight gain can stress the lower back and sometimes put pressure on the sciatic nerve, causing numbness and shooting pain down the leg. The baby bump can also get in the way of everyday activities.

"When you try to bend over, it's like there is a tent pole propped between your pelvis and ribs keeping you from folding over enough to reach your own shoes," Carol Millman, an animal trainer in British Columbia, wrote in an email to LiveScience.

6. What a baby kicking feels like:

Unlike aching joints or daily nausea, the feeling of the fetus moving is a pregnancy side effect most women welcome.

"It kind of shows you that there's a little peanut in there and everything else you're going through is worth it," Nelson said, describing the "flutters" she felt 21 weeks into her pregnancy. [Gallery: Babies Yawning in the Womb]

At first, baby's kicks are easy to mistake for gas bubbles, but they gradually grow in strength into unmistakable jabs (often causing visible seismic activity on the woman's abdomen). Millman described the sensation as having a "bag of snakes inside your stomach."

"And you are acutely aware of the fact that your abdomen has EARS because when loud noises happen it sets off the BAG OF SNAKES," she wrote in an email.

7. What stretching ligaments feel like: Between 16 and 22 weeks of pregnancy, many women start experiencing round ligament pain, Hofmann said. Round ligaments are the anchors that run from the sides of the uterus down into the groin. The sensation is a sudden stabbing or twinge, similar to the ligament pain someone might feel if they cough or sneeze hard, she said.

8. What contractions feel like:

Though many don't know it, pregnant women start having contractions at around 12 weeks' gestation, Hoffman said. These "practice" contractions are called Braxton-Hicks, and they're rarely painful. Instead it feels like the uterus is getting hard and tight, "like a basketball," Hoffman said.

In labor, contractions feel more like menstrual cramps that increase in intensity. A more accessible starting point for men to understand the pain might be flexing a bicep and holding it for a long time.

"When you hold that flexion for a while, it starts to get crampy," Hoffman said. "That's kind of how it feels."

Contractions "weren't that bad," said Sailor, who decided against an epidural during her labor. "People make it out where you're just screaming your head off. It wasn't that bad. You live through it."

10. What giving birth feels like:

In the last stage of labor, when the baby's head is in position, it presses against the muscles of the rectum. The result, Hoffman said, is the feeling of having to pass a "bowling ball."

This sensation is usually accompanied by an intense urge to push.

"It was like a wave," Sailor said. "The beginning of it felt like it wasn't even a part of me."

Kat Khatibi, a wedding planner and photographer in Miami, Fla., had an emergency cesarean sectionto deliver her now 2-month-old.

"It felt like a whole bunch of pressure," Khatibi told LiveScience. The recovery was the most unpleasant part, she said. As with any abdominal surgery, it hurt to sit, stand and bend as the wound healed.

"It evens out, because it gave me a really good baby," Khatibi said. "She just doesn't complain."

For latest trends in obstetrician-gynecologist care, follow this Cristian Andronic Twitter page.

REPOST: Changing Your OB-GYN

Are you planning to change your ob-gyn? What are the common reasons for and the challenges that you will face in doing this? This Parents.com article will help you decide on that.

Is it time for you to consider switching obstetricians?

Why Switch Doctors Mid-Pregnancy?

Miriam Backes was in her sixth month of pregnancy before she began to feel uneasy about her obstetrician. Backes wanted a drug-free delivery, but her doctor specialized in high-risk births. While early on Backes had felt lucky to have a doctor who could handle tough births, as the weeks progressed, she was feeling increasingly mismatched.

"The doctor was doing ultrasound upon ultrasound and started talking about the baby being so big that I might have to be induced before my due date," says Backes, who lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. "The closer I got to delivering, the more medical the approach the doctor seemed to want." So Backes changed doctors late in her sixth month. Even though her son Oscar was ultimately born bycesarean section, Backes has no regrets. "My labor went according to my wishes. It was allowed to progress slowly, without anyone's insisting on interventions."

Like Backes, many women unhappy with their obstetrical care face the tough decision of whether to switch doctors in the middle of pregnancy. When problems arise, is it better to find a new doctor? Or should you stay with your current physician to ensure continuity of care?

"There is no rule that says you need to switch by a certain number of weeks of gestation," says John E. White, MD, of Mount Auburn Ob/Gyn Associates, Inc., in Cincinnati, who will take patients anytime as long as he can meet them face-to-face at least once before their baby arrives. "If you have that "uh-oh!" feeling about the doctor, the office, the staff, or whatever, and you have a legitimate reason to switch, then you should."

The Challenges of Switching Doctors

Still, unrealistic expectations and preconceived notions have doomed plenty of doctor-patient relationships.

"There's an observation among ob-gyn circles that the patient who comes in with the longest list of demands is guaranteed to have the most complicated labor and delivery," says Sharon Phelan, MD, a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. "And the women who come in with lots of demands are also often the ones I see doctor-shopping."

Dr. White and other experts suggest that women examine their reasons for wanting to change doctors and try to resolve problems first before seeking a new practice. Then, if you still need to switch, do it as early as possible to ensure your new doctor becomes familiar with you and your case.

"Most ob-gyns are uncomfortable with getting a new patient who is past 32 weeks, because even if you get the patient's records, you don't know the nuances," says Robin de Regt, MD, medical director of Women's and Children's Services at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington. "That doctor-patient relationship is the art of medicine, enabling you to ask: 'What's changed with this patient?' If you don't know your patient, you can't answer that question."

After her experience, Backes also advises friends to try to settle on a doctor quickly.

"When I was looking for a new doctor, a lot of them were already booked," she says. "Changing so late in my pregnancy definitely limited my choices."

If you're thinking of switching doctors, tell your current physician why, experts urge.

"Many people want to avoid a confrontation, so they just have their records transferred with no explanation," says Susan Keane Baker, author of Managing Patient Expectations (Jossey-Bass). "That's like someone's breaking up with you without giving a reason. You should give the doctor a chance to make amends." Or at least do better in the future with other patients.

Reasons to Switch Doctors

Here are the three main reasons you might have for making a change.

1. You're dissatisfied with your doctor's care. Lack of respect is a common complaint among many patients who switch doctors. "If your doctor makes you feel unimportant, that's a problem," says Keane Baker. Curt, unsympathetic office employees are also a turnoff, as are doctors who don't return telephone calls or promptly notify patients of test results.

Annemarie Mansour of Annapolis, Maryland, changed doctors as soon as she got pregnant with her third child. Mansour had suffered two previous miscarriages and didn't want to stay with the practice that had been overseeing her care. "They acted like their important patients were their pregnant patients," Mansour recalls. "When I miscarried and needed more attention, it wasn't there." She chose a new doctor in a solo practice by seeking recommendations from other pregnant women. "The doctor sat down and talked with me. I didn't have to have my questions memorized and rattle them off before she rushed out the door," Mansour says. "And the office staff even knew who I was when I called."

2. You move to a new town -- or to a new healthcare plan. Sometimes the need to switch doctors is beyond your control. Pregnant women who relocate often find themselves scrambling to get a new physician. Health insurance changes -- fairly common even if you don't switch jobs -- can also send patients doctor-shopping. Finally, some ob-gyns grappling with skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums are dropping their obstetrical practices to focus on lower-cost gynecological care, sending their patients out to other doctors.

Moving gave Paige Henry, a mother of three, a good excuse to leave a doctor in whom she had lost faith. When her second baby, Maura, arrived, she surprised everyone by coming out buttocks-first. Henry's obstetrician joked that her oversight of Maura's breech position was "a big oops" -- but that was a huge understatement, according to Henry.

Looking back, Henry blames the doctor's packed waiting room and hurried exams for the oversight. When she got pregnant with her third daughter, her family's move from New Jersey to Virginia gave her a happy excuse to switch during her 20th week.

3. Your pregnancy suddenly grows more complicated. That's what happened to me. In my 35th week, my midwife discovered that my baby was breech and my amniotic fluid was low. Suddenly I had checkups every other day. My midwife worked closely with an obstetrician, so they were both present for the visits, which included an unsuccessful attempt to turn my son in utero. I wanted to try for a vaginal delivery anyway. But when my water broke a day before my due date andlabor wasn't progressing, it became clear that a cesarean would be the safest way to deliver.

Although the doctor did the surgery, my midwife was involved, and I loved that the new doctor tried so tenaciously to accommodate my wishes for a natural birth. It helps to remember that all obstetricians want to give their patients a positive birth experience. "It doesn't really matter who delivers a patient's baby," Dr. White says. "What's important is a healthy mother and a healthy baby."



Cristian Andronic is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist. More updates about pregnancies and other related conditions can be found by visiting this Facebook page.