Day 24 – More Air
A pregnant woman breathes in 40-50% more air because of the increased depth of each breath. Progesterone initiates this over breathing as the body becomes more efficient at oxygen uptake from the lungs and carbon dioxide elimination from the blood and tissues of mother and baby.
As you can see in the picture above, pregnancy lungs don’t increase that much in size but they significantly increase in function due to the fact that the fetus will eventually push up into the ribs taking over internal space!
Have you experienced your baby kicking your ribs?