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Fringe Benefits of Pregnancy
Just in case you needed another reason to get pregnant, besides the joy of starting a family and having a beautiful little baby, it turns out there may be some fringe benefits. Pregnancy causes many changes in your body and is responsible for the creation of hormones in your system that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Well it turns out that all those changes and all those hormones help in more ways than just creating life.
Here a few of the fringes benefits of pregnancy:
Reduced risk of breast cancer: studies of shown that pregnancy many reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer by as much as 40% to 50%. It is thought that a protein produced in the body only during pregnancy may be responsible for this reduced risk. (source: Breast Cancer Week)
Reduced risk of ovarian cancer: research has shown that the risk of ovarian cancer in women who have been pregnant is reduced by as much as 40% to 60%. Just how much your risk is reduced is greatly impacted by how young you were when you first got pregnant and how many pregnancies you had. (source: Kaiser Network)
Reduction of migraine headaches: migraine headache suffers (like myself) will completely understand how great this fringe benefit is. Many migraine suffers will experience a significant reduction in the number of migraines they suffer during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, and may even see them completely disappear. Some women do, however, experience an increase in their headaches, but fortunately that is a small minority. (source: Your Pregnancy Week by Week 
)
Endometriosis growth is stopped: endometriosis occurs when the endometrium lining of your uterus attaches itself outside of the uterus. Endometriosis causes painfully cramping, heavy and irregular periods, gastrointestinal problems, and infertility. During pregnancy the growth of endometriosis stops as do the symptoms. Although the symptoms will come back after pregnancy and the growth will continue again, many women find their symptoms are less than prior to the pregnancy. (source: American Pregnancy Association)
If you have questions about these and other benefits of pregnancy you should talk with your doctor or midwife.
It is nice to know that not only do you get the wonderful joy of knowing that you are creating life and expanding your family, but that you are also helping yourself in a few ways as well.
Did you experience any other fringe benefits during your pregnancy?
These are all very powerful benefits that you describe, Lisa. One of the things I noticed that pales in comparison to those benefits is that I looked healthier – had nice rosey cheeks and I filled out nicely.
Good article and a different take on pregnancy
Cathy,
That is a great benefit as well. We all love to have rosy cheeks and look healthy!!
One of my fringe benefits was being able to eat as much as I wanted without anyone saying anything. After all, who’s going to tell a pregnant woman to stop eating? LOL!
Thank you for sharing this with the Carnival of Family Life.
Yes, there are other fringe benefits like how attentive people become to you. I remember people stopping to open doors, etc. who otherwise probably wouldn’t have noticed me.
Thanks for including this post in the Carnival of Family Life which will be posted later today. I hope you will stop by and read the other wonderful submissions. There are lot of them!
Great article! I actually enjoyed most of being pregnant–all except for being the largest pregnant woman ever seen on earth. I guess the anticipation made everything worth it!
via CFL
i’m here via the Carnival of Family Life.
i loved being pregnant! it really gave me a good excuse to take care of myself – which i ought to do anyway, but somehow it just doesn’t work out that way.
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