The Scottish Mail on Sunday

YOUR AMAZING BODY

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OF ALL the wonderfull­y weird things to happen in pregnancy, a change in voice may be the strangest.

Pregnancy hormones instruct the body to retain fluid, resulting in swelling in various parts of the body – including the vocal cords.

This increases their stiffness, making them less flexible and causing a slight alteration in pitch. Studies show that during pregnancy, the pitch of a woman’s voice drops by roughly 1.3 semitones (the smallest interval used to describe a pitch).

Once the baby is born, the voice returns to normal.

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