Symptoms during normal pregnancy: A prospective controlled study

Symptoms of normal pregnancy have received scant attention in the literatur e and what is reported is largely unsubstantiated. Yet this is an important aspect of antenatal counselling and care which deserves further investigat ion if symptoms are to be interpreted correctly. Accordingly, we conducted a prospective controlled study of symptoms during normal pregnancy in both primigravidas and multigravidas. A total of 38 symptoms occurred with a sig nificantly different frequency (mainly increased) in the pregnant subjects in the third trimester compared with the controls. Of these a mean of 24.2 symptoms was experienced by each pregnant woman, double that (mean, 11.2) e xperienced by healthy nonpregnant controls. The 5 symptoms reported most fr equently by the pregnant subjects were frequency of micturition, fatigue, p elvic pressure, insomnia and lower backache. However, a wide range of sympt oms involving most body systems were reported. This study has established t hat symptoms of pregnancy are more numerous than mentioned in current obste tric texts and that they can be attributed to the effects of pregnancy. The third trimester is associated with the greatest number of symptoms and the re is a marked decline in their number after delivery.