Why do some have easy pregnancies and others don't?

[AiyaNapawithmorenaps]

Just that really.
I think about how lucky I was to never have any morning sickness or back pain or swollen ankles. I was overweight at the time of getting pregnant the second time and had only had my first twelve months before. Even running about with a toddler felt relatively easy and photos of the time show me looking happy and relaxed (sort of.) This isn't a brag honest!
My friend is already having frequent days off with sickness when she is younger and healthier than I was when I conceived my first. My other friend had morning sickness so bad she seriously considered whether she could continue the pregnancy. Do medics understand what makes some people breeze through pregnancy and not others?
With mine I found out late both times (eight weeks with number 1 and six weeks with number 2) so I can't have had much in terms of physical symptoms.
Just from anecdotal evidence, I feel there is no correlation between the lifestyle of the mother and how difficult a pregnancy you will have.

It's just luck I believe.I had a pregnancy filled with the types of pains you'd associate with MC.Then I had a traumatic 3 day induced labour.
Im not woe is me about it but ds is 7 and I knew after those 9 months he would be an only.

Because everybody's different I suppose, just as why do some people have really easy labour's one push and the babies out and others have long drawn out, lots of intervention labour's

My experience with a very complicated and high risk pregnancy is that they don’t understand why a lot of pregnancy related complications happen or a lot of symptoms; it’s quite a hard area to research. My first pregnancy was very difficult and my second was textbook smooth and no one knows why

Luck of the draw. I’ve been really fortunate with my pregnancies, could count on one hand the number of times I was sick through both, but a friend of mine had HG so badly from the get go she gave serious thought to terminating. Same age, same state of health… it’s just one of those things.

I completely understand where you are coming from. I had two awful pregnancies which both resulted in EMCS. The first pregnancy I didn’t suffer much with standard pregnancy effects such as morning sickness but I ended up having gallstones which were left untreated so I kept having attacks throughout the pregnancy and I lost loads of weight.

The 2nd pregnancy I ended up giving birth 8 weeks early and my son was born weighing 3lbs 8. We got out of hospital a week before the first lockdown was announced.

Whereas my sister had more straight through pregnancies and labours. I put the first one down to being overweight but the 2nd pregnancy which was 7 months after my DD was born I weighed 4 stone less so thought it would be better as I wasn’t classed as high risk

Well done for not ascribing your easy pregnancies to your own ‘positive outlook/moral superiority/general fabulousness’!

Nothing made me crosser than people implying that my grim pregnancy was my own fault. I had one easy, one ok and one terrible pregnancy. The terrible one was my last

@HumphreyCobblers the complete opposite, I'm sort of like 'why me?' I'm sure if it wasn't an issue that only affected women there would be more money put into researching this.

In both mine and my mum’s experience they vary even in the same woman! She had one pretty bad HG pregnancy, then one pretty much fine one, then one really dangerously bad HG one. My last pregnancy two years ago was awful throughout. I had a bad few weeks at the start of this one, got better quickly and have thoroughly enjoyed it since! My health is worse on paper this time with anaemia etc that I didn’t have last time, but I feel a million times better.

Everyone's different and has different bodies a different experiences. Surely you realise that?

I had a very easy pregnancy until the last couple of weeks where I had the start of pre-eclampsia and just piled fluid on.

Barely had any symptoms, didn’t feel any more tired than usual etc, exercised regularly and had no food aversions or cravings.

In a way, it meant that I didn’t talk that much about my pregnancy. People assume you are going to have a rough time & there’s almost a bit of schadenfreude with people wanting me to tell them how awful I felt etc - they were really disappointed when I said I was fine and thought I was lying!

I wonder if there’s a correlation between how crappy people feel around periods or how they get on with different contraception and how hair bodies deal with pregnancy.

The combined pill made me travel sick, as did pregnancy

Because we’re animals, not machines?

Is not that simple,every pregnancy is diffrent and even same person can have an easy one followed by one that is complicated.
I had 2 who were plain sailing and 2 where I did struggle with a prolonged,violent sickness,SPD,pre-eclampsia,induction, sonographers trying to scare me that my DD will have DS( I didn't care and told them so but they subjected me to monthly scan from week 20 till birth),meconium in waters etc.
I remember when I read that being pregnant is like living with little invader for the duration of pregnancy and our bodies react differently to this kind of disruption.

@BunnytheFriendlyDragon

Everyone's different and has different bodies a different experiences. Surely you realise that?

Obviously OP realises this.. her question is about whether people have any research on which differences impact pregnancy and how?! You literally repeated her question, but with a patronising tone 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Luck, maybe? Pregnancy number 1: constantly sick, out of breath, constant migraines, couldn't focus, really emotional, swollen everything, lots of water retention. Had to have so many days off work where I just couldn't physically sit at a desk. It was awful. When I fell pregnant I was really physically fit, slim and relatively young! Pregnancy 2: felt a bit nauseous but I've not been sick once. Other than feeling very tired I've sailed through this pregnancy so far. I think I've had one day off work. I am 6 years older and was significantly fatter and incredibly unfit when I fell pregnant this time. None of it makes sense

@PinkPlantCase

I wonder if there’s a correlation between how crappy people feel around periods or how they get on with different contraception and how hair bodies deal with pregnancy.

The combined pill made me travel sick, as did pregnancy

That’s a really interesting thought- I think it is such a complex area- My mums family, no history of hg My dads family- quite a few suffer hg pregnancies. My Last pregnancy was hg

• so does that mean you can inherit a predisposition to hg through dad? Or is it really just random 🤷‍♀️

I wonder this too. My SIL suffered with awful sickness with all of hers, I had no symptoms at all and felt great throughout my first pregnancy, I’m 5 weeks now and feel nothing again, just tired. No sickness or anything. Bizarre.

There's no correlation.

I think age does play a part. Not all older mums will have difficult pregnancies but I do think as you age it becomes more likely.

My pregnancy with DS was absolutely fine. With DD - very complicated, although not in terms of me feeling unwell.

I wonder if there’s a correlation between how crappy people feel around periods or how they get on with different contraception and how hair bodies deal with pregnancy.

Ooh interesting. I'm only 18 weeks but have always felt fine during my periods, the pill has been flawless for me, and I've pretty much breezed through pregnancy so far.

Borderline HG with mine due to the weight loss. Pretty much a mirror image with how my mum was with me so I'd put a lot down to genes.

Always been healthy before pregnancy and no health complaints so it really was all family history for me.

Samanabanana I know more people who've had severe sickness in pregnancy who've been very slim than a bit bigger. Anecdote of course but there you go. That's not universal though, of course it can impact anyone but maybe its possibly a little more likely if you are very slim? My midwife thought this but didnt have any evidence other than what she'd seen in her career.

I think it is just luck too. I had a lovely pregnancy with DD - I did feel nauseous early on but after that, it was great. I didn't feel tired at all, if anything, I had more energy. No back pain, sore boobs etc. I did have a long labour though, had to be induced, she was too comfy in there!

Luck of the draw really

My twin pregnancy had zero morning sickness but my friend with just one was hospitalised almost constantly until 16 weeks with very bad sickness

That's interesting. I wasn't very slim (bmi 22 maybe?) but very fit! I find it amazing that my two pregnancies have been such different experiences. I also suffered from PCOS before my first pregnancy but follow up scans/investigations suggested that this was largely better after my first was born.

I know some of the reasons why my pregnancies were tough - hypermobility, for example, lack of good, nutritious food, stress poor choice of father, but other problems, no idea at all, they just were.

I certainly had an easier pregnancy with the second in terms of sickness, probably because my nutrition was better to begin with, so I could physically handle not being able to eat for a while, but I didn't actually have the brief period from 28-34 weeks where I felt really good that I did with the first, I had more backpain (much bigger baby in a different position and no money for an osteopath experienced in treating pregnancy related pain safely), surgical adhesions snapping for weeks as I grew bigger, I caught horrendous chickenpox that put me on oxygen and was really unwell afterwards for weeks until I began developing pre eclampsia in the last couple of weeks (also in a heatwave, which really didn't help).

But I was far, far healthier after birth with the second - I only started a massive flare of arthritis after about 9 months, instead of almost the second the first was born (but was dismissed by HCPs as being depressed).

Some of those things could be mitigated - which is why pregnant women get free prescriptions, dental treatment, etc - but there was no way to do that for other things, such as the pre existing conditions poor choice in men and twatty sexist medical staff.

It's just too complex an issue, as it's not just medical in terms of x happens in pregnancy when.. or y happens when somebody with z is pregnant, so it can be fixed by... , it's also social and financial, as well as being dependent where it can be helped through medical intervention on whether it's actually funded or made available to pregnant women (like physio that isn't for specific pregnancy conditions - not on offer, or medications that they can't or won't prescribe because 'pregnancy is a natural thing, I don't believe in prescribing anything in pregnancy [even when it's something known from years of research to be safe]'

Too many aspects. A reasonable inability to get trials on pregnant women past ethics committees. Sexism. Politics. Misogyny. Bad luck.