• Being pregnant hurts. Your gums bleed. Your teeth feel loose. Your pelvis gets wonky and your back sore. Your feet swell and you can’t wear your rings anymore. This is all a normal part of being pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you just have to deal. Go see a chiropractor to help with your muscle and bone aches. Drink oatstraw tea to help with bleeding gums. Rest as much as possible. Take care of yourself and your baby. Get a massage and try Reiki.

• Sex may not be fun anymore. As pregnancy advances you may hate the idea of having sex. And that’s okay as well. You don’t have to have sex. The other option is to try to get creative with positions that accommodate your growing belly. Keep in mind that you probably won’t be having sex for the first 6 weeks postpartum and sex now may help you relax a little. But in the end, this is your body and you know best how you feel.

• We spend our whole adult lives trying not to pee in our pants and then we get pregnant and we sometimes pee in our pants. Relaxin is a hormone that helps get your body nice and stretchy and ready for labor. This hormone, along with the pressure of the baby and uterus and amniotic fluid sitting right on top of your bladder, may cause you to accidently pee a little. It’s okay, nothing is wrong with you. This may also happen postpartum. You can visit a practitioner who does pelvic floor work or a chiro to help you on with this one.

The Shape of a Mother is a site celebrating women’s bodies during and after pregnancy. Beautiful stories about stretch marks, bellies, extra layers of skin and all things that come with growing another human being that could be around for the next hundred years.

Honor and love the changes that are happening to your body. You are growing and supporting life for 40 plus weeks and will continue to grow and support life during breastfeeding. Your body is doing exactly what it needs to do.