The Italian Treccani dictionary defines pregnancy as:
The condition (also called gestation) of a woman, and in general of female mammals, in the period from the beginning of conception to birth (or in any case to the expulsion of the fetus), and the duration of this period itself. There are different types of pregnancy: g. simple, with development of only one fetus, and g. twinning, with more than one fetus (bigeminal, triplet, quadrigeminal, etc.); g. at the end, g. abortive, depending on whether it reaches the physiological end of the duration, which in women is normally around 270 days, or it ceases, in women, before the 180th day (6th month); g. uterine, or topical, the one that takes place in the uterus; g. extrauterine, or ectopic, the one that is established outside the uterus: in the tube (g. tubarica), in the ovary (g. ovarica), in the abdomen (g. abdominal). G. nervosa or imaginary: psychoneurotic state of some unfertilised women, who present with amenorrhea and strongly desire motherhood, interpreting signs and symptoms of various origins as pregnancy phenomena (abdominal bloating, intestinal peristalsis, etc.)
Have we managed to scare you already? The idea of the use of this very precise and scientific definition is to be an incentive to us to explamìne, talk and support you, in a more direct and practical way about pregnancy.
Despite being a continuous process, your pregnancy is divided into three three-month periods, called trimesters:
- first trimester: from week 0 to week 12;
- second trimester: from week 13 to week 24;
- third trimester: from week 25 to delivery (approximately around week 40).
Your baby could arrive a little bit earlier or later than planned; you could have one or more babies… In fact, despite some parts of this experience are shared by all women (e.g. this trimestral breakdown), is it is important to remember that each pregnancy is unique and as such must be considered and valued.