15 interesting pregnancy facts
- Pregnancy (latin "graviditas") is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the womb of a female.
- The number of multiple births has increased by more than 400 percent in the last 20 years.
- Tuesday is the most popular day for babies making their arrival in the world.
- One scientific term for the state of pregnancy is gravid, and a pregnant female is sometimes referred to as a gravida.
- Nearly all babies are born with blue or blue-grey eyes. Permanent eye colouration develops during the following months.
- During pregnancy, the average woman’s uterus expands up to five hundred times its normal size.
- A baby born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is considered a premature baby.
- Babies breathe much faster than adults - 30 to 50 times a minute compared to an adult’s 15 to 20 times a minute.
- Medically, a woman who has never been pregnant is referred to as a "nulligravida", a woman who is (or has been only) pregnant for the first time as a "primigravida", and a woman in subsequent pregnancies as a multigravida or "multiparous".
- Unborn babies can hear things from as early as 12 weeks.
- The largest surviving baby ever born weighed 14 pounds, 13 ounces and was nearly 23 inches in length.
- A pregnant woman’s dental health can affect her unborn child.
- Every day, over 1,300 babies are born prematurely in the USA.
- At 16 weeks, the human fetus is 6 inches long and has all its organs formed.
- The average weight gained during pregnancy is 26-32 pounds.
