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I am pregnanty.
Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more manageable. I'm Gracey Rufrey. I'm pregnant for the first time and I can't tell if I have round ligament pain or constipation.
I'm had a hitman. I'm a former Olympic athlete, I'm a mum of six kids, and I'm now training to be an obstetrician and gynecologist.
Each week, Leanna and I will be holding your hand week by week through the mysterious, perplexing, and sometimes anxious miracle that is pregnancy.
Week nineteen.
That's we're almost halfway. So what size are we at?
A baby is now the size of a grapefruit fruit.
Or like a pint of like a small little tub of ice cream?
Or what are those like kids basketball or you don't have I have. There's lots of little balls everywhere around my house, those little kids basketballs.
What are little balls on the foot of the balls?
Baby is fifteen centimeters about two hundred and forty grants.
Okay, getting bigger? And what else have they grown or gotten bigger this week?
The baby's skin has now actually started to make that really white, sticky substance you sometimes see on newborn babies. We call it vernix from it's there to protect the skin. So over the next couple of weeks, your baby will start making more layers of skin, so the skin has five or six layers in it, and it actually takes time to build it up as to protect them from
that amniotic fluid that's starting to increase in volume. And now they can hear outside the womb, so they'll start hearing your voice and your heartbeat, so it's not just what's happening inside the uterus. It can be a little bit beyond that.
And their brain.
Continues to develop rapidly, so it's actually starting to make what we call synapses, the connections within the brain that will be required for later sensory processing and movement, cognition, all that kind of stuff. So the really important parts of the brain are now developing quite rapidly.
When they can hear, can they hear an exterior voice better than my voice? Is my voice vibrations or is it the same noise.
At this point, they'll hear more of what you're oh. Yeah, So even if it's movements, they'll hear how your gut moves, they'll hear fart, they'll hear all those sort of things that are quite close to them.
A sonographer once said to me that in an ultrasound, if they want the baby to move, they get the partner to come over and talk yeah, because they are used to that. Yeah, or they've started to. I guess when can they recognize the voice.
Not for a few more weeks. Okay, so it's coming. I think it's the size of the world. They've got a bit more growth to go.
What what's happening to me and what's happening to us? What's happening to the women's body.
We talked about this before, but this is the time when most women complain that they're definitely feeling their feet relax and get bigger. So we have already discussed that, but that is probably the time it happens most And now your breaths are really starting to grow their milk ducts and increase in blood flow and fast aor so this is the time I'd say it's time to get either a new bra or at least a BRAH extension so you can keep using the ones you have.
They definitely sometimes they look in the mirror and I go, this looks ridiculous. They've gotten quite big.
Yeah, And I often get cussed past by women too. Or does that mean I'm going to start making milk? You know what's happening. But it's inhibited at the moment by the east grogen and progesterone of pregnancy. So it's when you actually have your baby that that inhibition is released and you'll start they producing prolactin, which will then
lead to lactation. But at this point it's all stopped by pregnancy, which also means obviously if your baby does come early, that same process will happen as that inhibition releases, and then the lactation will continue, will start.
Is this normal? Is it normal? What I want to ask about? Is this normal? Is I want to talk about mental health? At this point, we are almost halfway, which can feel like such a milestone. But for me particularly, I was still vomiting at this stage, and I'd tried a lot of things like I tried I'll read the list of things just in case anyone else is in this position. I tried small meals, eating late at night, setting an alarm to eat in the middle of the
night so I wasn't getting up and vomiting. I tried snacks every hour, sea sickness tablets, seasickness bands, acupuncture, ginger tea, ginger loll these, ginger biscuits, ginger tablets, ginger juice, two types of anti nausea medication. I wasn't prescribed the cancer medication because they guess we've talked about. They said that I wasn't eligible for it this day.
They said, you weren't. I know, I promise you listen as I'm not trying to dish doctors. But they weren't. They didn't recognize it as hyph premises yet was were you not wretching and vomiting? And when we go back to the puke score, you weren't. I still was not just every day. I was not just every day all day.
I was still only vomiting three times maximum, and I think maybe I could count on one hand to the amount of times it was more than three times. But it was vomiting every day.
And your weight loss was going maintained.
I was losing weight. I think it's because I was eating terribly.
So and I think that's what's hard is the diagnosis is so difficult because you don't fit the ball part. We still feel crap. So yeah, you've got to see obviously, like for example, you can see kidney dysfunction in people with severe high premises and they lose five percent of up to five more than five percent of their body weight. But you know what, I actual think it's almost as hard for you ladies who actually aren't formally diagnosed because
they don't meet your criteria. But yet you're persistently feeling You're.
Still going to work and you still trying to hold onto a job. And I definitely got into a dark place about it because everyone had said you're going to feel better by this point, by this point, and then that point came and went, and then the next point came and went, and you go, Okay, I'm starting to have to get used to the idea that this could
be another twenty weeks of this. And I did start to go low also because if you are having a bad time and everyone's excited about your pregnancy and especially your bump is starting to show, everyone's like are you excited? And you'd have to start well, I had to rehearse a response to say was I excited? Because I wasn't. I was just feeling awful.
And let's be honest, it's hard to fake something for a long time and you want to be excited, and then the guilty setting because you're like, I should be excited. Everybody else is excited, but I'm not excited.
Yes, it's hard.
And look, there's lots of things in pregnancy that make people feel terrible. You know, the veins, the nauseous is the obviously huge one, the lack of sleep. There's relationship considerations at this time. Sometimes partners are not engaging and they're not, you know, being as excited as you are, or vice versa. They're super excited and you feel terrible existing mental health conditions. So the biggest key there is to recognize if it's happening, if you're feeling dark, do that. Hope.
Hopefully I've done the Edeburd depression scale at some point in pregnancy, how midwife should have done it with.
Yesh did redo it?
And if the scale is high, it's time to actually prioritize some funds towards yourself, find out whatever it is it might be, you know, fun social things like going out for coffee more frequently, reaching out to a friend, being honest. The more authentic you are with this situation, you might you know, inspire someone else to do the same when they're pregnant. Or go and see a psychologist, you know, go and see your GP, get a mental
health plan. You'll get five to six free appointments with a psychologists, not free, but rebated at least appointments with a psychologist. And if you can't afford that, most hospitals have a perinatal mental health team. So it's actually time to be actually brave, brave and say, look, I'm feeling pretty low. Here can I be you know, put in contact with someone at the hospital caveat there, guys, if
there's anyone suicidal, which does happen in pregnancy. So with hear of post natal depression, we have intrapartum depression as well and pregnancy depression. It's really important and to reach out through the emergency department and get acute help today.
And what are some things that we can do apart from if we are struggling with our mental health, what are some other things on the checklist that pregnant women can do.
I think more at this point trying to find just active ways to keep your mind well, so mental health or non if you excited to start preparing some things now, so cooking some nice meals that you won't be able to Let's be honest, you're going to be feeling a bit like a whale and the last trimester of pregnancies are starting to prepare the freezer full of food for pre and post baby, going out and having those coffees
and those regular walks. Exercise I think is a really big key at this time in pregnancy because you can sort of just finally feel well enough that you can engage in exercise again and start planning around social activities with your exercise, so just all your well being stuff. It's really important to discuss this at the moment.
My talk kid is actually centered around this as well. This is around the time that my partner and I just ordered dinner Ladies. Yes that's great and it's too hard to cook. And also I think it's important to talk about the mental load of the partner who if they have been a career for you, yes they should, but that can start to become fatiguing for them, and I don't think you can be annoyed at them for that.
I think it does just take a toll. So instead of him just having to be the cook, we just went, let's just order stuff and so it wasn't uber eats, it was nutritious, it was healthy. So we got dinner Ladies and we've been doing that since weeknight. Great good.
I mean I even like muscle Chef yes at Willaks like, I think it's quite I take it to work nowadays. And it's also for mums that are looking after other kids at home, Like if you're at home all day looking after one of your children and then you're like, oh my god, another one's coming and I can barely look after this one. Very normal, by the way, that that's exactly find a way to outsource. So get a cleaner, get your meals sorted out. I do outsource as much
as you can. Get a babysit a couple of days a week to help with the todd level. You're trying to get a bit of rest, because those self priority and that self care stuff will really set you up for the next couple of weeks. And then obviously when this baby comes, there's a lot less time for those since, so it's time to really put them in, book them in, not just assume it's going to happen. Actually find a place in your diary in and make it happen.
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This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production by Tom Lyon. We'll catch you next time. Bye.
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