Читать книгу Sex For Dummies - Pierre Lehu A., Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer - Страница 20

During early pregnancy the only sure way is to take a test, which you can buy at your local drug store. But a woman will undergo many physical changes that will at least give an indication of a possible pregnancy, and these often occur before the most obvious sign, a missed period. (Not that all missed periods indicate a pregnancy, but if you had unprotected sex, the odds of a missed period being an indicator of pregnancy grow much stronger.) One of the first possible sign is a tenderness in the woman’s breasts. Another is morning sickness, as many women during the first trimester suffer bouts of nausea, particularly in the morning. Fatigue and more frequent urination are other signs that it’s time to buy a pregnancy test or visit your gynecologist.

The fetus grows inside the uterus until approximately nine months after the egg was first fertilized. Then, in a process called giving birth, a fully formed baby comes out of the uterus and through the vagina into the world (unless doctors have to remove the baby surgically, which is called a cesarean section, or c-section). If you want to know more about the specifics of pregnancy, pick up Pregnancy For Dummies, 4th Edition, by Joanne Stone, M.D., Keith Eddleman, M.D., and Mary Duenwald (Wiley).

So an important possible consequence of sexual intercourse is the making of a baby that will be born nine months later. Of course, giving birth to a baby is only the beginning of providing the care a child requires. Having a child is a very big responsibility — not one to be taken lightly, and certainly not one to be ignored when having sexual intercourse.