Not every woman begins her first pregnancy knowing all the strange things she might experience in the coming months. One, sometimes surprising and usually quite irritating, symptom is nosebleeds – and they can become quite frequent in the latter half of pregnancy.
What causes nosebleeds in pregnancy?
Although they can be a right pain in terms of their habit of starting just at the wrong time (in a meeting or at the supermarket, for example), nosebleeds caused by pregnancy don't actually hurt. And in the vast majority of cases, they present no cause for alarm whatsoever, even though the sight of blood on your pillow when you wake can be a shock.
The reason why pregnant women are prone to nosebleeds is the presence of the pregnancy hormones oestrogen and progesterone, and their insistence on relaxing not only the bits of your body which will be required for labour, but almost every other bit as well – including the veins and capillaries.