Pregnancy

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A pregnant woman.
A pregnant woman.

Pregnancy is when a female has an unborn baby inside her. A human pregnancy is usually nine months long. Pregnancy usually starts when a woman has sex with a man. Her ovum (or egg) and his sperm (seed) come together and form a zygote (fertilized egg) inside her. The zygote grows into an embryo, which grows into a fetus. When the fetus is ready, it is born.

Pregnancy is divided into three parts called trimesters. Each trimester is about three months long. During the first trimester, the woman often feels sick in her stomach and has to urinate (or pee) often. During the second trimester, the woman's body starts to look pregnant, and her belly starts to stick out. During the third trimester, her belly sticks out even more, and the woman becomes even heavier. Many other things happen to the woman during pregnancy. At the end of a full pregnancy, the woman goes into labour, and her body lets the baby come out. When this happens, it is called delivering a baby or giving birth. Labour can hurt a lot for the woman.

Pregnancy problems

Sometimes during pregnancy, there are problems. A miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) is when the fetus comes out of the woman too early, and the pregnancy ends suddenly. There are also certain sicknesses caused by pregnancy. Sometimes women die from giving birth.

Abortion

An abortion (induced abortion) is when a pregnant woman decides she does not want to be a mother and has the fetus removed by a doctor. Many people feel that this is a bad thing to do because they think it is killing an unborn baby, but other people feel that the woman must decide for herself if it is good or bad to have an abortion. Other than personal choice, certain medical conditions may require an abortion in order to protect the mother.

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