Pregnancy is a crucial and amazing moment in every woman’s life. It involves numerous transformations in the body. What could be more wonderful than nurturing a little human inside you? The first movements, the first cry, and the warm bundle on your belly. These moments are priceless and remain etched in your memory forever.

1. Amniotic fluid is mostly comprised of sterile urine.

2. Approximately 3% of all pregnant women give birth to twins. This rate has increased by nearly 60% since the 1980s.

3. The fetus can actually taste the food that the mother consumes because some food aromas penetrate the amniotic fluid.

4. Carrying a baby for a whole year is not a myth. The normal gestation period, from conception to childbirth, is 266 days or 38 weeks. However, in reality, these numbers can significantly vary. For example, Beulah Hunter carried her baby for 375 days. Her fetus developed at a slower pace, resulting in a pregnancy lasting over a year, but ultimately giving birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl.

5. Around the fourth month of pregnancy, milk begins to gradually appear in the mammary glands. Often, milk can be secreted reflexively by young mothers and pregnant women when hearing the cry of any child, whether their own or someone else’s.

6. Babies in the womb can feel, see, and hear. So, be sure to stroke your belly and talk to your unborn child often.

7. During the second half of pregnancy, the fetus produces over a liter of urine per day, some of which it drinks.

8. The baby starts to express emotions in the womb, such as laughing, crying, and feeling sad. However, fetal crying is not always caused by the baby’s mental state; it is simply a way for the baby to prepare for the challenging process of childbirth.

9. Tuesday is a popular day for giving birth. Scientists have studied the dynamics of childbirth and discovered that more babies are born on Tuesdays. The fewest number of births occur on Saturdays or Sundays.

10. Bleeding gums and nosebleeds during pregnancy are not a cause for alarm. These occurrences happen due to increased blood flow in a woman’s body.

11. During pregnancy, the uterus expands from the size of a peach to the size of a watermelon.

12. One in every two thousand babies is born with teeth.

13. During the third to fourth month of pregnancy, a woman’s sense of smell becomes sharper. It is believed that nature tries to protect the expectant mother and her baby from consuming dangerous, poor-quality, or stale food.

14. The physiology of the female body never ceases to amaze. In 1782, a Russian peasant woman, the wife of Feodor Vasilyev, gave birth to 32 sets of twins, 21 sets of triplets, and 16 sets of twins, totaling 27 pregnancies. Overall, this couple had 69 children, of which only 2 infants died.

In our time, Albina Leontina, who lived from 1943 to 1981 in San Antonio, Chile, holds the record for fertility. She managed to give birth to 55 babies, with only 5 cases being triplets (all boys). The highest number of births belongs to Elizabeth Greenhill, who lived in Hartfordshire, UK, giving birth 38 times, resulting in 7 boys and a staggering 32 girls.

15. Central Africa has the highest rate of twin births compared to any other developing region.

16. Among all the available methods of inducing labor, only the “comfort techniques“ method, which involves nipple stimulation, has been scientifically proven.

17. By the middle of pregnancy, expectant mothers experience pleasant physical and psychosomatic sensations. Smoking women do not experience such a state at all.

18. 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. However, most women do not even notice and mistake the bleeding for a slightly delayed or, sometimes, timely menstruation.

19. Starting from the 21st week of pregnancy, the baby begins to defecate and continues to do so until birth.

20. During the second and subsequent pregnancies, the first movements are felt 2-3 weeks earlier. Therefore, expectant mothers may notice them as early as 15-17 weeks.

21. Many believe that the gender of a baby cannot be planned, but this is not true. It’s just that not many people are aware of it. It has already been proven that conceiving a child a few days before ovulation results in a girl, while conceiving during ovulation leads to a boy. This is because “girl“ sperm can survive in the female body for up to three days, waiting for the egg (by which time “boy“ sperm have already perished), whereas “boy“ sperm only live for 24 hours. This is why girls are born more frequently than boys.