It takes a lot of energy to carry a child, ask any pregnant woman. In general, much energy is spent even before pregnancy: endless trips to doctors, stress, assimilating a ton of new information, and so on.
What if you don’t get pregnant the first time? The energy spent is multiplied by two: taking an ovulation test, vitamins, all the same nerves and stress, and examinations. We already understand that a lot is spent. But no one has ever calculated exactly how many calories are needed. Australian scientists have corrected this oversight.
Australian scientists have calculated that the energy expenditure of pregnancy is colossal – about 50,000 calories over nine months. This is equivalent to about 28 kilograms of ice cream!
Dustin Marshall, an evolutionary scientist at Monash University, discovered the finding. He has spent several years researching the metabolism of many animal species. Marshall and his team found that the energy contained in the tissues of the fetus accounts for just four percent of the total energy used throughout pregnancy. The woman’s body needs more nourishment during pregnancy, which makes up the remaining 96%.
As Marshall shows, the energy requirements of various animal species vary. Warm-blooded mammals, for instance, can regulate their body temperature and stay active in cold weather. Warm-blooded creatures have the drawback that they must continuously refuel to sustain a high metabolic rate. In contrast, a snake with cold blood may go for weeks without feeding.
It was obvious to the scientists that most females not only had to feed their bodies but also invested extra energy in their offspring. But there were no exact figures. Some researchers suggested that indirect costs – that is, the energy that women use to feed their bodies during pregnancy – could be as little as 20 percent of the direct energy costs of forming the baby’s tissues. But Dr. Marshall didn’t buy their guesses.
He and his students decided to estimate how much energy was spent on bearing a child in different species. They studied the overall metabolic rate of females during reproduction. Such calculations are made by measuring the oxygen that the mother consumes. By combining the data, the researchers estimated the costs of reproduction for 81 species: from insects to snakes and goats.
It turns out that the animal’s size matters a lot in this situation. For instance, less than a millionth of a calorie is needed for the reproduction of young by tiny creatures known as rotifers. On the other hand, giving birth to a fawn in a white-tailed deer needs almost 112,000 calories. The metabolism of the species is also important. Compared to reptiles and other cold-blooded creatures of the same size, warm-blooded mammals consume three times as much energy.
The biggest surprise is that in many species, the indirect costs of pregnancy exceed the direct costs. And mammals lead the way. On average, only ten percent of the energy a female mammal uses during pregnancy goes to forming the fetus.
Dr. Marshall notes that humans pay a particularly high “energy price” for pregnancy because women carry their babies longer than most other mammals.
Other Shocking Facts About Human Pregnancy
- The uterus is an amazing organ. During pregnancy, as the baby grows, it increases in size by 500 times compared to its normal size. At the beginning of the first trimester, the uterus resembles a pear in shape and size, and closer to childbirth it becomes like a watermelon and weighs on average from 500 grams to a kilogram (while in a “calm” state, the weight of this organ does not exceed 60 grams).
- During pregnancy, a woman’s heart becomes larger. This happens not only because of love for the future child but also because the muscular organ has to work harder because the volume of blood in the body of the expectant mother increases by 40-50 percent. By the way, this can cause bleeding gums.
- Babies cry in the womb. According to scientists, they were able to see this process in 4D images taken during ultrasound. However, babies do not cry because they are sad or in pain (they begin to feel pain around the second half of pregnancy). The fact is that they practice crying in the womb so that they can do it as effectively as possible after birth.
As you can see, pregnancy is not a time for rest, as many believe. At this time, the woman’s body is rebuilt as much as possible. It is important to surround her with care and peace during this period so that everything goes smoothly.
Glossary
Calories: A unit of energy. In the context of pregnancy, it refers to the energy required by a woman’s body to support the development and growth of a fetus.
Fetus: The developing offspring inside the uterus, from the embryonic stage (after 8 weeks of pregnancy) until birth.
Metabolic Rate: The rate at which the body uses energy, often measured by the amount of oxygen consumed. This increases significantly during pregnancy.
Reproduction: The biological process by which new offspring are produced. In this article, it refers to the energy costs associated with carrying a child.
Trimester: A term used to describe the three roughly three-month stages of pregnancy, each marking different phases of fetal development.
Uterus: A female reproductive organ where the fetus develops during pregnancy. It undergoes significant changes in size and weight as the fetus grows.
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