12 Funny & Weird Scientific Facts about Pregnancy

When you really look at it, from the morning sickness to the mood swings, the swollen nose, feet and belly, the spontaneous burst of tears or anger, a woman carries a pregnancy for almost a year?! And then pops out this tiny human she’s been growing for the past 9 months in a couple of hours. In a few months, you may never know she has even had a baby if you were not told.  As beautiful as it is, pregnancy is kind of weird.

In a very insightful article, BuzzFeed, provides some weird scientific facts about the pregnancy journey:

1. Nipple stimulation is a scientifically proven method of inducing labor. Rubbing, rolling or sucking on a woman’s nipples when she’s in full term causes the release of a hormone called oxytocin, which causes contractions. 

2. Babies can taste whatever their mothers eat in the womb. Strong flavors like garlic or ginger can pass through the amniotic fluid in the womb and mix with your baby’s food. 

3. Babies pee in your womb from the second trimester. They drink their pee, pee again, drink it, and this cycle continues till you pop them out.

4. Baby’s make their first poo around 21 weeks, this is called meconium. However, it won’t pass until the baby is born.

5. Pregnant women who suffer heartburn ARE more likely to give birth to babies with lots of hair. Scientists suggest that the higher levels of estrogen and progesterone that stimulate hair growth also cause the heartburn in pregnant women.

6. For every 2,000 babies, one is born with a tooth.

7. A woman’s uterus expands to more than 500 times its normal size over the course of a pregnancy. Duh

8. In addition to her uterus, a woman’s feet and heart increase in size during pregnancy. This is to handle the increased volume of blood in the body, and her feet swell due to fluid retention and her ligaments stretching during pregnancy

9. Research shows us that when a pregnant woman reaches her 9th month, her placenta will produce more estrogen in a day than a non-pregnant woman would produce in three years.

10. A study done by the University Of Arizona tells us that a baby’s fingerprints are set within the first three months of pregnancy.

11. Orgasms can cause contractions, or false contractions commonly called Braxton Hicks

12. Baby girls are born with all the eggs they will ever use, but boys don’t develop sperm until puberty.