Nothing is more awe-inspiring and rewarding than feeling a child develop inside you. Most parents believe that carrying their infants with them was when their everlasting love and protection for their children started to bloom.

The truth about pregnancy is that it is simultaneously a delightful and yet, a strange experience that is often accompanied by excitement, frustration, fear, and love, as anyone who has ever been pregnant will attest to. While it can be straightforward for some, others could find it difficult and perplexing. And in spite of these qualities; each mother's experience is unique.

These six facts about pregnancy highlight its peculiar and glorious nature.

1. Yes, the average pregnancy is 280 days, but it can be longer too! The average pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, or 280 days. A baby is considered premature or preterm if born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Extremely preterm infants are born between 23 and 28 weeks. Moderately preterm infants are born between 29 and 33 weeks. Yet, they can also be longer on occasion! In fact, the longest pregnancy ever documented lasted 375 days, or almost 100 days past due, in 1945.

2. Your joints loosen during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the body produces a hormone called relaxin that softens ligaments, the tissues that connect your joints. This is to help make the pelvis more flexible during childbirth. Around six weeks into pregnancy, relaxin-induced joint liability becomes increasingly apparent as the weeks go by.

3. A mother's heart is always growing. Your heart has to grow in size during pregnancy to help pump all that extra blood throughout the body. Also, the love you experience after having a kid could make it seem like your heart doubles in size. In reality, during pregnancy, your heart's workload nearly doubles. It takes, to make one whole.

4. Pregnancy brings with it the risk of diabetes. Unfortunately, expectant mothers are at higher risk of diabetes. Pregnant women who did not have diabetes before becoming pregnant are the first to develop gestational diabetes. Some women experience gestational diabetes in more than one pregnancy. Typically, gestational diabetes develops in the middle of pregnancy. The good news is that it typically goes away after delivery.

5. Babies can taste foods in the womb. Since food molecules travel through your circulation and into the amniotic fluid when you eat, babies begin to develop taste receptors during the first trimester and, in a sense, can experience taste. In addition, your baby's taste buds begin to form early in pregnancy. They even mimic your taste buds, and studies have shown that what you eat during this period may influence what your baby will want to eat years from now.

6. Your sense of smell changes. During the first trimester of pregnancy, many women experience alterations in their sense of smell. Yet, the importance of those modifications and how they affect expectant mothers can differ. Research indicates that up to two-thirds of pregnant women become more sensitive and reactive to the smells around them. You definitely didn't anticipate the glowing skin and stunning bump, let alone the itchy boobs and nipples or the increased gas.

Although you've definitely heard the advice to enjoy the journey" and that pregnancy can cause strange physical changes, it doesn't make it easier to go through the challenging, confusing, and ultimately fulfilling journey for most. Pregnancy is also challenging and confusing. Life, right from the very beginning, is filled with confusion, complications, and unconditional care. And a lot of magic. We believe love, is made of the same stuff too.