Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

This is what it looks like as a woman's organs shift inside her during pregnancy

Kevin Loria
Monday 06 March 2017 17:31 GMT
Comments
(Getty)

During the approximately 40 weeks of pregnancy, a woman's body undergoes some significant changes.

As the fetus grows, it occupies more and more space inside the mother. This is the cause of the obvious pregnancy bump, but just expanding outward isn't enough — her internal organs are also put under a significant amount of pressure, which can cause some discomfort.

That movement can also be pretty dramatic to look at. In the GIF below, which we spotted when it was recently tweeted out by the UK publication Scienmag, you can see those nine months of change sped up to just a few seconds.

The GIF is from an ongoing exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science + Industry which shows the "impact of a pregnancy on a mother's body as she adjusts physically and mentally to the changes inside her."

If you go to the museum's website, you can actually play with an interactive slider that shows what's happening throughout pregnancy. During weeks 29 through 32, for example, they note that organs are being squeezed.

In the YouTube video below, you can see a slower version of the interactive, beginning near the start of pregnancy and going through birth.

• 500 years ago, China destroyed its world-dominating navy because its political elite was afraid of free trade
• 10 countries that desperately want people to have more sex
• The tiny California college where graduates outearn Harvard and Stanford grads

Read the original article on Business Insider UK. © 2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in