Teeth and stomach

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Teeth

The high levels of progesterone can make your gums more vascular and increasingly prone to bleeding. If this happens, continue to brush your teeth regularly using a soft toothbrush.

Because of the changes, gums can feel soft and spongy and therefore more prone to infection, so good dental hygiene is essential.

Stomach

In the first few weeks of pregnancy you might feel constipated. This is because the hormone progesterone relaxes the muscle in the intestine, causing it to become 'sluggish'. Drink plenty of water and improve your circulation generally with light exercise, such as walking.

This relaxation of the muscles is also responsible for heartburn or indigestion. Also, as your baby grows, your stomach tends to become more squashed, which can make any heartburn worse as your pregnancy progresses.

Interestingly, it's the relaxation of muscles that's also responsible for varicose veins and haemorrhoids. This is because the walls of the blood vessels relax and then 'bulge' with the increase in blood volume!