How Your Organs Move During Pregnancy to Make Room for Your Baby

Ever wonder how exactly your body makes room for a whole new baby — plus the placenta — during pregnancy? Your naturally elastic belly skin creates some space for the new occupant, but a fair amount of that extra real estate actually comes from your organs shifting and squishing together as your uterus grows ... which is where fun pregnancy symptoms like heartburn and indigestion come from.

Even though they're invisible from the outside, the internal changes your body experiences during pregnancy are just as visually stunning as the external ones. Just look at these renderings from YOU! The Experience at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. See some highlights of how your organs adjust during pregnancy below, and visit the museum's website to learn more about what's happening at each stage.

Let's start with weeks 5 through 8 of your pregnancy. You might not even be able to tell from the outside that you’re pregnant — but your bladder is already squished down to a fraction of its size at conception, which explains that infuriating need to pee every five minutes.

Where it really starts to get interesting is around weeks 9 through 12. If you even have a baby bump, it'll probably be teeny because your uterus is smushing your intestines together to make room. Fast forward to week 40, and those same intestines take up just a fraction of the space — that's why it's so hard to eat more than a few bites in a sitting at that stage!

During the second trimester, your uterus is rapidly expanding to make room for your growing baby — and pushing on your digestive system to steal some much-needed space. It's also around this time that food cravings and aversions intensify as you (and your little one's) nutritional needs increase.

Incredibly, by mid-pregnancy your stomach has swung upward by almost 45 degrees to hang out on the same level as your intestines, adding fuel to the heartburn fire you know all too well.

The tool also outlines the journey of the placenta, which goes through a lot in 40 short weeks. First off, your body practically creates an entire organ out of nowhere to sustain your baby, only to outgrow your baby in the first trimester and then slow down and mirror her growth until birth.

By the third trimester, your organs look like they're performing a sideshow contortion act as your liver and your lungs get squeezed by your stomach and intestines, both of which used to be several inches lower, contributing to that out-of-breath feeling starting around week 31.

You can also see how your postpartum organs return to their former sizes, shapes and positions, plus how long your uterus needs to shrink back to its pre-pregnancy size.

Seeing what goes on inside your body really puts pregnancy in perspective — and knowing those uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms are actually a direct result of giving your baby room to grow might make them seem a little less annoying. Who knew your body could perform such incredible feats? All the more reason to care for and love yourself.