“The cramps would feel like labor pains at times, though not the very intense ones. I remember lying awake at night and having my partner hold my hand and pray with me. I was so worried that I was going to miscarry. The fear, more than the pain, brought me to tears on several occasions. Although the doctors tell you that it’s “˜normal,’ when you are feeling pain you instinctively worry,” Mami said.
Cramping in the first trimester isn’t that unusual, but it does warrant further diagnostic tests to determine if it’s implantation or due to a urinary tract infection, explained Dr. Burke-Galloway. “Cramping and bleeding equals an emergency room visit. If a woman is having a threatened miscarriage, meaning the cervix hasn’t opened, there’s a 50 percent possibility that the pregnancy will continue … Lower abdominal pain should not be ignored.”
Will the morning sickness ever end?
“I was afraid I would be bowled over with morning sickness for the entire pregnancy. One of my friends experienced that, and every day I would go through the day hoping it wouldn’t attack … and then it did. But only until 12 weeks! Phew!” said Shauna.
Whitney describes her morning sickness experience: “I have never thrown up so much! I had to get an IV.”
A majority of pregnant women will only experience morning sickness in the first trimester. But 15 to 20 percent of women will have nausea and vomiting in their third trimester, and roughly 5 percent will experience this pregnancy symptom throughout their entire pregnancy.
Having morning sickness may be a protective mechanism, suggests Dr. Burke-Galloway. “[There are] medical studies that do support the fact that women with morning sickness have fewer stillbirths and miscarriages. It has been rumored, but not supported by evidenced based-medicine that morning sickness is a protective mechanism by which the mother doesn’t eat something that would be harmful to the development of the fetus during the early first trimester, when the essential organs are developing, especially the brain and the central nervous system.”
What are your fears?
What are your first trimester fears? Comment below and share with the Maternity.com community.
Special Thanks:
Shauna Stewart ““ Mom-to-Be
Mami Sili ““ Mother of One
Whitney Lett ““ Soon-to-be Mom of Two
Linda Burke-Galloway, MD, MS, FACOG and Author of “Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy”