There are three broad categories of signs of pregnancy -
• Presumptive signs are those changes that the woman herself experiences, such as a missed period. It could be argued that some of these signs, like feeling the first movements of the fetus, are definitive signs, but because they are being reported by the pregnant woman as feelings she is having rather than being confirmed by medical/scientific evidence, doctors do not consider them definite indicators of pregnancy.
• Probable signs include changes in the mother’s body that can be documented on physical examination, such as growth of the uterus.
• Definitive signs are changes that are directly due to the presence of a fetus, such as a fetal heart rate and ultrasound demonstration of a pregnancy.
Pelvic Shape and Predictions for Labor
There are four pelvic types -
• Gynecoid, or normal female, which is round inside
• Android, or normal male, which is a narrow oval and may
indicate that there will be a problem
• Anthropoid, elongated from front to back but generally normal
• Platypelloid, elongated from side to side but also generally adequate in size.
While any of these pelvic shapes, except android, is a variation of normal for women, your specific pelvic shape may influence the position of the baby during labor and help explain a labor that is proceeding slowly, but normally For example, a woman with an anthropoid pelvis (seen more commonly among African and African American women) may be more likely to have a fetus who faces forward , causing the back of his or her head to press on the mother’s back. This can result in so-called back labor and possibly a anger time for dilation (or opening of the cervix) to occur.