HOW THE BELLY GROWS DURING PREGNANCY, TRIMESTER TO TRIMESTER

Every pregnant belly is a world. Some are noticed before, others later, in some you do not realize that they are waiting until pregnancy is well advanced, while others immediately get their triplet. Even in the same woman, each pregnancy is different.

However, there is a more or less common pattern for all women, so we will go through each quarter explaining how the belly grows during pregnancy.

How the belly grows in the first trimester of pregnancy

The size of the belly in pregnancy is directly proportional to the size of the uterus. As the baby grows, the uterus also does it and we are seeing from the outside an increasing growth of the gut.

In the first weeks, even if you notice the typical discomforts of the first trimester and gradually thicken the muscles of the uterine wall, the size of the abdomen almost does not increase because the uterus remains inside the pelvis until after the third month.

The gut is rounded, the pants squeeze at the waist and although during the day you barely notice a roundness, at night, especially after dinner, it seems that the gut will emerge suddenly.

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By the third month the uterus is the size of a grapefruit and it is towards the end of this month, in some women maybe later, when the "embarrassing moment" (never better said) can occur when someone asks you: Pregnant or fat ?. It's those indefinite weeks in which the waist has already disappeared and an incipient belly appears, but people don't dare to congratulate you yet.

How the belly grows in the second trimester of pregnancy

It is said that it is the quarter that the woman enjoys most because she suffers less discomfort and the size and weight of the gut is still not too pronounced.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the belly is starting to appear. When there has been a previous pregnancy, the gut begins to be noticed before. From the third pregnancy, it tends to increase more in width.

By the fourth month the uterus is the size of a small melon (to continue comparing the fruits) and is located below the navel. Towards the end of the second quarter, that is the sixth month, the belly already exceeds the navel line and is the size of a ball.

Many women start doing lotteries related to the size and shape of the gut of the kind: "How big is this child", "I'm sure it's a girl around the round gut".

There are those who believe that because the gut is very large, the baby will be too, but it has nothing to do with it. The size of the gut, as well as its shape, have to do with the position in which the little one is inside the uterus, the amount of amniotic fluid and the size of the placenta, regardless of the baby's weight.

It is also important at this point to start control belly growth and the movements of the baby, since any complication of pregnancy can be evident in those signs. Too much or too little amniotic fluid, as well as a delay in intrauterine growth, can cause the belly to grow too fast or, conversely, too slow.

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How the belly grows in the third trimester of pregnancy

The third trimester is when the belly grows faster, as the baby also increases in size at a rapid pace. The height of the belly from the pubis usually coincides with gestational age, that is to say at 35 weeks, 35 centimeters.

Towards the end of pregnancy the uterus is located below the ribs and has displaced other organs such as intestine, heart and lungs causing its functioning to be affected in slower digestion, heartburn, palpitations and breathing agitations.

In recent weeks, when the baby fits into the bones of the pelvis, added to the laxity caused by the weight, the belly is usually lower and prominent. In some women, due to this descent of the gut, the navel points upwards, which according to the grandmothers is a sign that the delivery is near.