Your Skin During Pregnancy

1. Your Skin During Pregnancy So you are going to be a mommy soon and have noticed some changes in your body. But let's focus on what's happening on mommy's skin. Besides the stretches your wonderful baby does to your tummy, hormonal changes take place that can change the color of your skin. Your face is glowing. True. Due to increased heart rate, blood is pumped into your tiny blood vessel just under the skin's surface Pregnancy. Increase secretions of the oil glands give your face a waxy sheen and a blush, too. High concentration of melanin makes skin darker. During these wonderful months, pregnancy hormones estrogen and progesterone stimulate melanin cells to produce more pigment, but the pigments are not created evenly, giving your skin a blotchy tanAges and Stages. A person with a dark type of skin may notice darkened circles, resembling eye shadow around their eyes. One can control this effect by limiting sun exposure- exposure to the UV light which stimulates melanin production. Note that dark areas will become darker. Moles and freckles that are present on your skin become bigger, and brown spots become browner Getting Pregnant. The areola and nipples will become quite darker. Unlike other areas of your body, the areola will stay darker than they were before pregnancy. Acne may not be severe during pregnancy. But during this time, your skin is very sensitive, so avoid abrasive scrubs and exfoliants. Oatmeal-based facial scrub can help your sensitive skin. Anti-acne drugs Accutane and Retin-A should not be used because of birth-defect risks. In order for mommy to stay beautiful, you may be tempted to use skin bleaching to whiten your skin. This chemical-based method of skin whitening should be used with utmost care. One whitening substance that should be avoided is hydroquinone. This substance has been the topic of intense medical debate. For a time, this was banned in Europe, Africa and USA but was listed once again as a safe substance. Hydroquinone is reported to cause serious fetus malformation and even further darkening of skin to the mother. Hauronoside and arbutin are alternatives to hydroquinone that has no side effects on the fetus or the mother. The best advice is to avoid experimenting with skin whitening product with different substances during pregnancy. Your skin is definitely much more sensitive but more importantly, to keep mommy and baby safe. Using skin bleaching substances may damage skin tissues and which no one wants to happen. It is still best to go natural in protecting your skin.