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.

With DD I had a horrible pregnancy, severe HG that led to hospitalisation for IV fluids, SPD so bad I could barely walk towards the end, horrendous cystic acne that took months of medication to get rid of it after the birth. It was awful.
When I got pregnant with DS a few years later I braced myself for more of the same but it was completely different. No SPD just the odd twinge here and there, no HG (I was sick once at about 10 weeks and then nothing after that) and I felt great all the way through. No acne this time, if anything my skin glowed!! Just a really lovely pregnancy.

I remember at the time thinking how can it be that the same woman can have two completely different pregnancies? Surely it must mean that it can't be your body shape, genetics, how your body responds to hormones etc as PP have suggested?

@cherish123
I thought I just had to suffer or be thought a snowflake and because of that my baby died.
You really need to engage your brain.

@HumphreyCobblers

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

Yes, and I also get the rage when people (other women!) imply that if I’d only done hypnobirthing/yoga/used essential oils/breathed deeply my pregnancies and labours would somehow have not been the hugely dangerous shitshow race against pre eclampsia. I realise that for some women, induction feels hugely invasive and unnecessary, but don’t judge me when it’s saved mine and my babies’ lives twice.

It really is luck of the draw.
My first pregnancy - first ten weeks were rough as I had cluster headaches and could barely focus most days. However it was plain sailing after that, my midwife even commented that she thought I'd really enjoyed my pregnancy.
Shitty delivery though. 39 hours and a forceps delivery because my cervix was being awkward. It did dilate, but then promptly shot closed again when I started trying to push. Luckily the induction hormones worked or it would have been a CS.
My second pregnancy was rough. First few weeks ok and then at 12 weeks I was being sick every day, sometimes more than once. I wasn't quite bad enough for it to be hyperemesis gravidum, but it was hell. I lost weight and had a lot of cravings. Then I developed SPD and I had to wear compression socks every day to stop me getting headaches and fainting. When the sickness finally died down my weight ballooned as I was craving fried egg and chips every single day.
Delivery was hell. I had premature rupture of the membranes at 36 weeks, but no spontaneous labour. Induction failed, baby in distress so we ended up with an EMCS. Both of us were very sick and needed IV antibiotics for a week.
So yes, luck of the draw. My sister had easy pregnancies and straight forward deliveries until she had a PPH. My mum had easy pregnancies and very easy deliveries. So quick and easy that the midwives always refused to believe her when she said she was ready to push.
It's just random and an easy pregnancy and birth is nothing to be smug about.

It's weird isn't it? I had two super easy pregnancies, very small bump, no sickness no swollen anything but really traumatic births, with the first something ruptured and I lost 3l of blood and with the second the water broke early and he had to be delivered by EMCS, still not sure what happened there. Both fine afterwards, they are now teenagers.