How Pregnancy Affects Your Body

Your Feet

Even though they might not be the star of your pregnancy, feet become a big part of pregnancy for women over the course of the nine to 10 months. Feet swell, they need to be rubbed, and they even change sizes — who knew your feet could be so interesting (and painful)?

Source: Flickr user Nina Matthews

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Your Lady Parts (and Their Fluids)

If you've never been comfortable down there, pregnancy is basically a crash course in all things lady parts. Obviously, your vagina gets a lot of attention during this time, but pregnancy (or hopes for pregnancy) also has women getting aquatinted with their cervixes and fluids.

Source: Flickr user Sean McGrath

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Your Skin

If you thought you knew your skin and all its quirks, you just wait. From the mask of pregnancy to acne to stretch marks, get ready to get really familiar with the skin you're in.

Source: Flickr user Montse PB

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Your Nose

Suddenly your nose is the topic of most conversations. Be it hypersensitive or extremely congested, you probably didn't know you could spend so much time focusing on your nose.

Source: Flickr user Valéria Almeida

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Your Blood

Pregnancy is a bloody experience. There's spotting, monthly blood draws, pricks, bloody shows, and mucus plugs . . . and that's all before you even give birth. But it's all good because getting comfortable with your own blood prepares you for the real bloody show: childbirth and the days that follow it.

Source: Flickr user Chris Corwin

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Your Insides

Even if you had no idea what they did before pregnancy, you can bet you know exactly what a placenta, uterus, and cervix do post pregnancy. And the conversations you have around heartburn will rival most 80-year-olds.

Source: Filckr user Aurora Michele

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Your Boobs

Boobs are pretty much front and center the whole process. Between soreness, growth, leakage, shrinkage, breastfeeding, and nipple size, you've probably never talked about your breasts so much in your whole entire life.

Source: Flickr user Evgeniy Isaev

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Your Butt

Women tend to obsess over their butts to begin with, but pregnancy puts your backside front and center in your mind. And it's not just because of its aesthetics, but also because of gas, constipation, and hemorrhoids.

Source: Flickr user Walter Vargas

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