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I am pregnanty.
Welcome to Hello Bump.
We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more manageable. I'm Grace Reebray. I'm pregnant for the first time, and it's starting to feel very real but also far away, but it's also very close, like it's there's seven more weeks, but then also, oh my god, it's only seven more weeks, or it could.
Be three or four weeks. You never know. Sorry, we're digressing. My name is the Outa Pitman. I'm a former Olympian, I'm a mother of six, and I'm a training obstitrician and gynocologist.
Each week, Yanna and I will be holding your hand, week by week through the mysterious, perplexing, and sometimes very daunting miracle that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy seed.
To a pupkins.
Week thirty three sounds like a lottery three. Sorry, ol Bingo.
How big are we?
A small two hour goldfish bowl?
I've got a little red panda.
That's much nicer than my two babies now between one point nine and two kilos, so really starting to get bigger. You know, we're starting to approach that size where baby's going to do very well if they were to come forty three to forty six centimeters in length.
Definitely feeling heavier.
Absolutely, I'm a baby is heavier. And again we've talked about it before, but it's all that amniotic fluid. You've got the placenta or your blood volume and your baby. And now you definitely see women starting to complain of more edema, which is that swelling around the body, hands, feet, in your lower limbs, sometimes even above your knees. Now you might find if you push on your lower leg, it's actually stays there, like a little indent from your
finger stays there. So obviously be careful because that can be an indication of something with your kidneys or with preoclampsia, but unfortunately is also a normal part of bregnancy.
And how has the baby developed.
Baby's brain and nervous system are now almost fully developed, which I think is phenomenal, Like it's extraordinary to think that that's already happening. They can suck and swallow, which you already know their reflexes aren't quite coordinated yet for another week or so, but they're getting very much more mature. And they're also starting to store iron in their liver, which I don't know, I don't think that's really cool, and they'll use that from now up until about six months after birth.
That's incredible that they're starting to get like the nutrients that they're going to need.
On the other side, that's right, I mean, the little pancris is working too, which again is why diabetes is so important because if mum's got too much glucose circulating, baby will also have the same, so they can they start producing what we call hyperinsullinemia in a baby, which means they start getting more and more insulin going to try and store that sugar that's circulating around their body, which is why diabetes can lead to problems after birth.
Because Bubby has that reflex change where it's made two months inchulin, it's a little bit chunky. It therefore makes too many white blood cells and then actually becomes jaundice after birth, so white and red blood cells and then becomes jaunders. So there's lots of things to look out for at this point.
What what's happening to me and what's happening to us?
Well, I think not much is changing, just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, more heartburn, more leg cramps, more indigestion. Again, we kind of just touched on it, but it's really important to start looking at your symptoms. So are there any concerns for high blood pressure? Are you getting any funny vision changes? Is your headache there? Have you got itchy hands and feet? Unfortunately most women do go oh,
I've got itchy hands and feet. Do I have Collie stasis which we are worried about, but in most cases just if tummy is stretching and it's itchy. So I'm a big believer in getting some nice wet towels and putting them over your itchy bits at night.
But do let your midwife know and what type of vision changes are they because one of them, I know is flashes in the eyes, which I've had things like that for like fifteen years from like anxiety.
And stuff like that.
So it's when you're looking out for things. Is it something that would be very obvious when it's a change.
I think any change is what we're looking for. But people do describe it as spots or blurry vision. Again, terrible things can happen in pregnancy, which we're going this is not podcasts, it's not about the terrible, terrible things. But you can get central venus from Bosa's all their
different cerebral problems and even stroke in pregnancy. So we do need to be careful because we know women are at a much increased risk of what we call DBT and VT, which is you know, problems with clots lodging in your lungs and if you've got any changes in your cardiacy, so many little holes in your heart they can even go to your brain. So if there is a weird vision symptom, it is not something no matter what to be sitting on and all truth, I'd prefer
it to be preclamsier than a stroke. And it's very rare, very rare in a young healthy woman to have a stroke, but it does happen, so I think it's important that it's investigated straight away. It could be something transient, you know. It could be just that you're fatigued and you're tired, and you haven't slept enough and you're uncomfortable, you know, and a migraine's coming because obviously we can get that
sort of aura before a migraine. But again it's just better the come and see as we were all out that there's nothing nasty.
We spoke about it a few weeks ago about the growth spurt stage. Are we in there when the baby's having a big growth spurt in these weeks?
Yeah, from about twenty eight to about thirty four weeks is I mean after that they still put on a lot of fat and get bigger, but they've had a rapid growth in terms of its size, in terms of its what we call it's well, you used to be crowned, remember, but now it's head to feet. So in the length and the whole size of your baby has grown rapidly, which is a good thing because you know it's not that far away that birth is coming, and so your
intake is going to go up as well. You're going to be hungrier and we need you to fuel your baby at least four to six hundred extra calories a day.
What's it like an equivalent of like what's like a snack?
Yeah, yeah, it's an actually extra meal. So again, at this point it gets hard to have a whole where am I going to fit a whole extra meal in so you can split it into three. So, particularly if you have pre existing diabetes, for example, especially type ones, they need to sort of have a morning and afternoon snacker one before bed. So it's just kind of monitoring
what you do and you know you're probably fine. In most cases, they'll be weighing you and if they're concerned you're not putting on enough weight, they'll probably let you know.
Is this normal?
Is normal?
Why is this normal? Is more of a mental health one. It's about potentially having an identity crisis as you get closer to this, because the life that you have lived is now going to change.
And rapidly, and you'll be off work.
Your social situations are going to change, like there will be some social situations which will be strengthened by spending time with other mothers because they'll also be off. But the fear of am I going to be irrelevant from my workplace? Is this you think that you felt when you were even training or when you have completely switched careers. Is this something you've felt and to people talk to you about this?
So I still feel it even now that the maternity leaved blocks that I've had have obviously, you know, a couple of my friends have finished and fully fledged consultants in obstetrics right now, and I'm still training to be one because I made the decision to have babies. So I think it's a really natural and healthy discussion to have with yourself. It doesn't make you worse or guilty
or you know, or have a concern. I love my children and I'm really glad with the decision that I made to have them, but it still does take a huge chunk out of your life and facing that at this time in pregnancy is scary. You know, what's it going to do to my relationship? If you're single? How am I going to do this on my own? Like, there's lots of conversations that go around in your head.
And look, I'm obviously a motivational speaker outside of pregnancy, and I always talk about fears are really something that needs to be addressed. And if you can write down on a piece of paper what your greatest fear is and then write around all around it, so like, literally what is the worst case scenario? Ninety nine percent of the time, you can cross most of them off as
irrational in a good way. And so then when that thought comes back in the middle of the night and starts telling you can't do this, or I'm not going to be a good mother at this, or I'm to progress my career here, I'm going to be jobless. All the things that you know your little heart's saying, you can say, well, I've already discussed that with you. I gave you air, I wrote it down, we've had a chat, I've reconciled it, and this is the path that we're on.
And it's more important these days because a lot of us are working mums and it's a hard decision to know what's right and what's wrong. And now this time in pregnancy is about the time it gets the hardest. So he has lots of patients come and talk to us about that, particularly me because I've obviously had so many kids in a very eclectic career.
And is there advice of your life is going to change, like some type of mantra or something about like it is going to change, but the parts that you want will still be there, or your they.
Won't be though, Grace, I'm gonna and I think that's the reality of it, that your life is going to change and don't get me wrong, there are lots of ways to parent, and again it is okay if the decisions you make to not parent as much as someone else, it's okay. Like I think we have so much judgment out there of you know, this person works full time, she's a better stay at home mum. You can decide what your life's going to look like. In other words, you can go back to work at three or four
months if that's what you choose to do. You could go back to work a week after if your partners supportive, and you've got the options to do that. And it's okay whatever your decision is, but that it is not going to be like it was before birth. That's never going to happen again. There's always going to be sacrifices
in this space. But I can tell you the day that your kid turns around in its school audience and points at you and sings the entire anthem to you, remember it vividly the whole he's supposed to be looking at it at the crowd, and he's literally just singing to me, You'll know that it's worth it.
I love that you do.
You hear so often of losing identity and all the terrible things.
But then the baby smiles.
Yeah, but I want more of those stories like the love and all those moments of assemblies or watching them do a dance concert or whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah, And I think it's just you share that with each other. So I think if that's something you feel is not adequately out there, then make a motto that when you become that you do share the good things as well as the bad, but you try and celebrate those little victories along the way. And my mother was a very successful mom, and when she had me, she said the hardest identity crisis was that she wasn't
actually good at being a mum. And she been so and she's an extraordinary mum, just putting it out there like literally the most amazing one. But for her, she was such a high successful career woman and then so she just thought that she would just become a good mother and that she'd work it out, you know, she would find a way to make me eat and find a way to make me sleep, and it would just
be all smooth sailing. And so for successful women to realize that actually terrible at it initially because they've never done it. Before even six time. Mum found it really difficult because I couldn't make the twins sleep. That's really normal, and finally reconciling saying that's okay, I don't have to be great at this, I just need to be present. Is doing a good job.
In the toolkit this week and how to do lists. I have a pregnancy pillow that I just wanted to mention, which I had one before that I've been sleeping with, but then this one. I look, I did get opsolted at a baby fair, but I was really in the mood to purchase something, so it's all fine.
I think the brand was Butterfly.
It looks like a butterfly like but yeah, like too a.
Scop your partner or that's the biggest argument we get with people is that they feel like they're pushing their partner out the pillow become their new lover.
No, well he's not said, I don't think you said anything. No.
This one is like it's a two pillows, but it's joined by something in the middle, and you sleep out of sides. You've got a cushioning either side, but it doubles up as a nursing pillow, which is What sold me is that you put on a new cover for it and then you twist it so there's no hole in the middle and it is a bit more plump so it can be your nurse.
And look, the nursing pillows are great. I had a twin z for my twins, which was wonderful because you can obviously put you can either feed bottles with a baby or wrap it around and put both babies on. But I think that, I mean, that's amazing to start thinking about things that can be used for both because otherwise you use it in pregnancy and then what what you know? I mean, yeah, the waste, the waste the waist is very real.
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