To celebrate International Women's Day, which falls on March 8th, Bababam is playing Do You Really Know episodes which look at the struggle against inequalities between women and men. All week long, discover ideas and concepts which promote female empowerment.

What is a false pregnancy?

Society has traditionally put a lot of pressure on women to get pregnant, as if their lives were somehow a failure if they didn’t manage to have children, or chose not to. Believe it or not, it’s possible for a woman to experience physical pregnancy symptoms without actually having an embryo in her womb at all. It’s a rare psychiatric disorder known as a false pregnancy or pseudocyesis. Physical symptoms can be observed, like the interruption of the menstrual cycle, nausea, weight gain, secretion of colostrum from the mammary glands, a swollen stomach and even contractions in some cases. These symptoms only reinforce a patient’s impression that they are pregnant for real.

What are the causes of a false pregnancy? How can we help a person who’s been through a false pregnancy? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

[WOMEN'S DAY] What is International Women’s Day?

[WOMEN'S DAY] What is benevolent sexism?

Who is Volodymyr Zelensky?

A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

In partnership with upday UK.

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