hello in this video we're going to talk
about the physiological changes that
occurs throughout pregnancy first we
will talk about the hormones in
pregnancy so here we have a pregnant
lady and the pregnant lady has a fetus
growing inside the uterus and here we
are actually having a larger picture of
the uterus and we are looking at the
right fallopian tube and the right ovary
the hormones in pregnancy are very
important for many reasons one is it
helps maintain the pregnancy - it helps
prepare for delivery for the fetus to
leave the uterus and third it helps
prepare the mother for what happens
after giving birth
that is prepares the mother for
breastfeeding pregnancy is about nine
months in duration we are looking at
hormone concentration on the y-axis
there are three important hormones in
pregnancy that I will draw on this graph
the first is beta HCG beta HCG is the
hormone of pregnancy if this is high it
indicates pregnancy vita HCG Peaks just
before three months and then slowly goes
down eda HCG is produced by the placenta
essentially where the growing fetus is
the next hormone i want to talk about is
estrogen and of course where there's
estrogen there is East regions mate
called progesterone now progesterone and
estrogen are two important female
hormones and they are part of the normal
female reproductive cycle the menstrual
cycle however in pregnancy the hormones
estrogen and progesterone the
concentration actually
and they have a more of an important
role throughout pregnancy so let's talk
about estrogen estrogen is produced
initially by the ovaries the corpus
luteum within the ovaries but then the
placenta will take over the job estrogen
will continuously rise throughout
pregnancy the next hormone important
hormone is progesterone which I
mentioned and this again is initially
produced by the corpus luteum within the
ovary but then the placenta has the main
role later throughout pregnancy
progesterone Rises continuously
throughout pregnancy as well
however if
before partition before the baby leaves
the uterus the East region and
progesterone levels actually drop and
this allows for labor allows for birth
throughout pregnancy estrogen actually
helps prepare the maternal body for
delivery it does this by increasing the
number of oxytocin receptors in the
uterus we will look at the other
functions of estrogen throughout the
video progesterone role in pregnancy is
actually it works as a smooth muscle
relaxant and it maintains the uterine
lining and we'll talk more about
progesterone in this video in summary
there are three important hormones in
pregnancy to remember estrogen
progesterone and beta HCG the
physiological changes in pregnancy it
relates to many things it relates to the
hormonal changes in pregnancy the
changes in anatomical structure of the
uterus as it grows and fills the
abdominal cavity and it also the
physiological changes in pregnancy also
relates to the growing fetus the
increase in demand for nutrients for
blood etc let us look at these
physiological changes by focusing on
body systems so let's begin by looking
at the physiological changes in
pregnancy beginning with the respiratory
system the respiratory system is
important in delivering oxygen around
the body and also removing carbon
dioxide which is the waste out from the
body in pregnancy the uterus enlarges
and this will cause an increase in
intra-abdominal pressure as a result
there will be more of a diaphragmatic
breathing in a pregnant lady similarly
because of this mechanism there is
hyperventilation and an increase in
tidal volume during pregnancy caught
vascular changes in pregnancy include
mainly there is an increase in cardiac
output because there needs to be more
flow to the placenta the increase in
cardiac output is a result of increase
in heart rate and an increase in stroke
volume in the vascular system there is a
drop in resistance there is a drop in
resistance in the vessels which actually
contributes to the increase in stroke
volume of the heart and thus the
increase in cardiac output during
pregnancy there is actually a drop in
blood pressure usually if there is an
increase in blood pressure in pregnancy
it is therefore most likely abnormal an
increase in blood pressure during
pregnancy can be due to many things but
one thing to consider is preeclampsia
hematological changes in pregnancy we
see an increase in plasma volume by 40
percent the increase in plasma volume is
actually what contributes to edema so in
pregnancy peripheral edema is actually a
normal feature because of the increase
in plasma volume
the other important hematological change
is there's an increase in red cell
volume red blood cell volume by 25% this
is important to take into consideration
because the two changes we just talked
about actually lead to anemia in
pregnancy which is another common
finding anemia this happens because
there is a much larger percentage
increase of plasma volume compared to
the increase of red blood cell volume
this means that there is a net less
number of red blood cell per volume of
plasma thus causing anemia further in
pregnancy there's actually an increase
in clotting factors and thus pregnancy
is a hypercoagulable state this is
actually kind of dangerous thing because
a common complication during pregnancy
is deep vein thrombosis and deep vein
thrombosis should thus be on the radar
of many health workers the
musculoskeletal changes seen pregnancy
is usually a result of the uterus
growing the uterine enlarging as the
uterus grows there will be changes in
the abdominal cavity and this will
contribute to some of the following
findings we see an increase in body mass
index throughout pregnancy it's normal
to gain between 10 to 15 kilograms
there will be presence of stretch marks
lower back pain lordosis there's an
increased risk of developing carpal
tunnel syndrome sciatica
compression of the nerve around the
buttock upper thigh and as well muscle
cramps are also a common feature in
pregnancy the endocrine changes we
actually already touched on we talked
about the important hormones throughout
pregnancy however during pregnancy there
is also an increase in anterior
pituitary gland gland function and so
there's an increase in anterior
pituitary gland hormone production and
also hypertrophy of the maturity gland
there is of course the pregnancy
hormones again which we talked about
estrogen progesterone and beta HCG the
other important hormone that is produced
by the placenta during pregnancy is
human placental lacta Jim and the human
placental oxygen actually has a
relationship or an association with the
development of gestational diabetes a
complication seen in pregnancy the
production of fired hormones are also
increased during pregnancy
hyperthyroidism thyroid hyperplasia and
goiter are not uncommon features seen in
pregnancy
finally dermatological changes in
pregnancy include increased skin
pigmentation distension and
proliferation of blood vessels spider
angiomas ah strike gravidarum are
essentially the stretch marks seen in
the belly of a pregnant lady let's now
focus on the female reproductive changes
in pregnancy and this is very important
let us cut a cross-section of the body
sagittal section and we're looking
inside the abdominal cavity where the
uterus and fetus are the gynecological
changes are mainly due to the increase
in estrogen progesterone
and the growing fetus these changes
include breast enlargement
Mariola pigmentation you tried
hypertrophy and stretching by up to 10
times the normal size there is the
cervical gland hypertrophy which causes
the increase in mucus secretion at the
cervix and thus the development or
formation of the mucous plug and again
this is actually the result of East
region East region also has an important
role in that it actually causes vaginal
the vaginal lactobacilli proliferation
these are bacteria found in the vagina
and the proliferation of the
lactobacilli actually causes an increase
in lactic acid in the area and thus
decreases the pH of the vagina the
lactobacilli are thus you can think of
as being protective or protective of the
vagina canal and protectors of the
uterus and this is because they create
an environment which is unfavorable for
other pathogenic bacteria and
microorganisms the breast changes in
pregnancy are very important because it
prepares the breasts for breastfeeding
what happens is that East region will
cause increase in adipose tissue in the
breast tissue making it making the
breast more Lodge Eastern also causes
the lactiferous duct system of the
breasts to form to proliferate and to
arrange itself ready for breast feeding
the other hormone progesterone actually
causes the breast lobules to enlarge
zooming into the breasts lobules these
lobules contain cells which actually
produce the milk and these milk will get
secreted into the lobby illumine the
lobule itself is surrounded by
myoepithelial cells what is responsible
for contracting and thus injecting
injecting the milk through the
lactiferous duct system and then out
so just remember progesterone is
important for the breast lobules
formation and estrogen is important for
the breast ductal system so the like
lactiferous duct toe system it's
important to remember this because it
also relates to breast cancer
the urological change is seen in
pregnancy the main one is that we see a
renal blood flow increase by up to 40
percent and this correlates with the
increase in cardiac output when there is
an increase in renal blood flow this
also means there's an increase in the
glomerular filtration rate and thus
because there's an increase in blood
merula filtration rate there will be
more urinary frequency so there'll be
more frequent urination the kidneys also
become enlarged to compensate for this
increase in renal blood flow the ureter
also dilates because of the smooth
muscle relaxing effects of progesterone
in the gastrointestinal system there are
many changes the main ones is the
esophageal sphincter relaxation and this
contributes to the reflux seen in
pregnancy this again is actually caused
by the smooth muscle relaxing effect of
progesterone remember that the uterus is
also growing in the abdi
the abdominal cavity this will cause an
increase in intra-abdominal pressure
which actually also contributes to the
reflux the increase in intra-abdominal
pressure also contributes to the
formation of hemorrhoids in pregnancy
finally in pregnancy there is also
reduced bowel motions meaning
constipation and this again is a result
of the effects of progesterone which
acts as a smooth muscle relaxant that
concludes the video this video on the
physiological changes seen in pregnancy
I hope you enjoyed it thank you for
watching