Labour is divided into three stages, starting from your first contraction, and ending with the birth of your baby and placenta.

Contractions can be experienced differently by everyone. They can vary in intensity, duration and frequency, throughout your labour.

You may think it’ll be obvious when you go into labour, but it isn’t always what you see in the movies.

Labour for a lot of women starts spontaneously, anywhere between 38 – 42 weeks of pregnancy.

Contractions will usually start quite irregularly and last about 30 seconds in the first stage of labour, eventually increasing up to 75 seconds towards the end of the second stage of labour.

A regular home pregnancy test can be taken close to your missed period, or after.

Low levels of hCG hormone may be found in your blood about 6 to 10 days after ovulation.

While home pregnancy tests are fairly accurate, they can sometimes give you a false result, so it’s a good idea to repeat the test a week later to double check or see your doctor for a more accurat

There is an early response home pregnancy test which can be taken around 5 or less days before your period is due.

A false positive on a pregnancy test is when the test says you are pregnant but you are actually not. It's possible but uncommon.

A false negative is when you get a negative result on a home pregnancy test when in fact you are actually pregnant.

Yes. After your baby is born and while you are breastfeeding, your period may not return for a while.

It is safest to avoid alcohol while breastfeeding. The level of alcohol in your bloodstream passes directly into your breast milk.

For most mums-to-be, being pregnant does require extra kilojoules (calories) over the course of your pregnancy.

For the most part, there won’t be many changes from your healthy pre-pregnancy diet.

This will completely depend on your individual work situations, personalities, lifestyles, even family upbringing.

Add “create a birth plan” to your list of important things to do before your baby is due.