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Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy and Childbirth

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Your Pregnancy Week by Week

Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth about Pregnancy and Childbirth

The Belly Book: A Nine-Month Journal for You and Your Growing Belly

Give your baby a healthy start.

Congratulations! Now that you’re expecting, you want to do everything you can to make sure your baby is as healthy and happy as possible. Get ready for an exciting new chapter in your life by learning:

The most important aspects of prenatal care, from week 1 to delivery
Ways to deal with common pregnancy discomforts and complications
Essential preparations for labor, childbirth, and your baby’s first days at home

Female Reproductive Anatomy

It’s helpful to have a basic understanding of the female reproductive system in order to understand the changes that the body undergoes during pregnancy.

Vagina: A muscular passageway that leads from the vulva (external genitalia) to the cervix.
Cervix: A small hole at the end of the vagina through which sperm passes into the uterus. Also serves as a protective barrier for the uterus. During childbirth, the cervix dilates (widens) to permit the baby to descend from the uterus into the vagina for birth.
Uterus: A hollow organ that houses the baby during pregnancy. During childbirth, the uterine muscles contract to push out the baby. Each month, unless a fetus has been conceived, the uterine wall sheds its lining (see The Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation below).
Ovaries: Two organs that produce hormones and store eggs. Each ovary releases one egg per month.
Fallopian tubes: Muscular tubes that eggs released from the ovaries must traverse to reach the uterus.

The Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation

Each month a woman’s body goes through a menstrual cycle. A woman can become pregnant only during ovulation, a several-day phase in the middle of the menstrual cycle when one of the ovaries releases an egg.

If the ovulated egg is fertilized by a man’s sperm following sexual intercourse, it will implant in the endometrium, the lining of the uterus that becomes the placenta during pregnancy. The placenta nurtures the fertilized egg as it develops and grows into a baby.
If the egg is not fertilized, it will disintegrate. During a woman’s period, the endometrium is shed through the vagina as menstrual blood.