YORK, Pa. — The sound of their baby crying is what all expecting moms can't wait to hear. However, getting to delivery day isn't always easy.
While many pregnancy symptoms like fatigue and morning sickness are well known, there are others that could really catch an expecting mother off guard.
"I've heard of people eating dryer sheets or chewing on dryer sheets that go in the dryer or dirt or clay; that's a common one... well, not that common," said Dr. Lauren Leed-Smith with WellSpan Health.
She says a condition called pica can cause pregnant women to crave or eat things that are not food. Many of the changes a woman experiences are due to high levels or progesterone and estrogen—in other words, hormones.
"Way higher than at any other point in your life and those cause really profound, like, physiologic changes, like everything in the way your body works changes," Dr. Leed-Smith said.
That includes blood pressure changes, dizziness, nosebleeds and even tasting metal. Pregnant moms also report having intense dreams.
"When you're pregnant, you have a lot less deep sleep in stage three and four, so a lot of times what happens is you're waking up out of these, like, sleep dreams and so they're sticking with you a lot more vividly than they would if you were cycling through the normal stages of sleep," she explained.
For 26-year-old and first-time mom Sydni Holloway, that meant something she had never even considered: carpal tunnel.
"I hadn't had a flare-up since 2020, " Holloway said.
Believe it or not, experts say between 30% and 60% of pregnant patients get the syndrome. That's because pregnancy can cause a lot of swelling and fluid to build up throughout the body, including your wrists. That swelling crowds the carpal tunnel and causes the pressure that leads to the syndrome.
"It's always when I'm sleeping," Holloway said. "I'll wake up and my arms will be numb and I have to kind of massage them."
Most weird pregnancy symptoms can be managed, but not all. The good news is that all pregnancy symptoms typically resolve after giving birth.... which for Sydni is now just a few months away.
"I think it will all be worth it when he gets here, so I'm really excited to have my little boy," she said.
These are only a handful of the bizarre things that can happen to you when you're pregnant. For more information on other symptoms not listed, click here.