Pregnancy Symptoms and Tests: To Prevent Abnormalities

Pregnancy is a natural process and the pregnancy symptoms arise due to the body changes occurring once a woman becomes pregnant. For most of the women these symptoms arise few weeks after conception. Understanding signs and symptoms of pregnancy is very important in the sense that proper care is very important for the mother and the baby. Once the symptoms become clear then in order to confirm pregnancy one can get help of pregnancy tests which include home pregnancy tests and the other one laboratory pregnancy test. The latter one is more complex than the former one but it gives more accurate results.

Signs and symptoms: The various pregnancy symptoms are
1. Missed period: This is the first sign of pregnancy in most of the women.
2. Breast swelling, tende
ess and pain: These symptoms can arrive as early as one or two weeks after conception.
3. Fatigue and tiredness: Also associated with early symptoms of pregnancy.
4. Frequent urination: Felt by women in the early stages of pregnancy.
5. Nausea and vomiting: Traditionally called as “morning sickness” and common in early pregnancy.
6. Food cravings: Craving for certain food items is also felt by most of the pregnant women.
7. Abdominal cramping: Cramping in the abdominal region is also reported in many cases.
8. Headaches: This occurs due to the change in the level of different hormones in the body.
9. Darkening of areola: The area surrounding the nipple gats a darker complexion.
10. Darkening of the skin: Some women may experience this symptom.

Tests of pregnancy: Home pregnancy test and laboratory pregnancy test are the two widely use pregnancy tests. Both of these tests works by detecting the pregnancy hormone called the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) in body.
1. Home pregnancy test: These tests are urine tests i.e., they work on the amount of hCG in the urine. The drawback of these tests is that they can detect hCG only after it reaches certain level. Also these tests are qualitative, that means the results are either positive or negative.
2. Laboratory pregnancy test: These test are blood tests i.e., they analyse the amount of hCG in the blood. These tests are much more sensitive than their home counterparts and can detect pregnancy at a very early stage. Laboratory pregnancy tests are quantitative in the sense that besides predicting pregnancy they can even predict the date of delivery and any complications that may arise in future.

Once the pregnancy symptoms become clear, the pregnancy tests can be performed which confirms the pregnancy. As soon as the pregnancy is confirmed proper health care should be given to the pregnant woman.