Pregnancy Week 1-3

What’s your baby up to?

Well, there’s no baby yet in the first two weeks of your 40 weeks pregnancy, because you are not pregnant. You will soon be, anyway. For now, your body is still preparing for ovulation.

Ovulation, which is the release of a mature egg from one of the ovaries, occurs two weeks after the first day of your menstrual period (assuming a cycle length of 28 days). The reason pregnancies are measured from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP) is because it’s often difficult to tell the exact day that conception happened. For the sake of consistency, the LMP is used to provide a good approximation.

The due date your doctor/midwife or a due date calculator gives you is only an approximation. In reality, only 1 in 20 women deliver on their given due dates. Most women deliver any day between two weeks before and two weeks after their due dates. This information is only to help prepare your mind, because a lot of women get unnecessarily worried and anxious when they go past their due dates.

After the egg is released during ovulation, it begins to travel down through the Fallopian tube. When you have sex, about 250-400 million sperms are released by your partner, and they travel through the cervix to the Fallopian tubes, swimming towards the egg in a quest to fertilize it. Fertilization occurs in the Fallopian tube when one of the sperms meet the egg and they fuse together to form a single cell called the Zygote. Isn’t it amazing how it takes just two cells to make a whole human being? The most epic and miraculous journey of life has just begun, in your belly!

What’s even more interesting is that the Zygote already has all the genetic information it needs for life. The sex, looks, personality, intelligence etc are already determined. Note that it is the sperm that carries the chromosome that determines the sex of your baby. Your baby will be a boy if  your egg is fertilized by a sperm that carries a Y chromosome; or a girl if fertilized by a sperm carrying the X chromosome.

By the 3^rd week, the Zygote moves down through the Fallopian tubes towards the womb. On this journey (which takes about 5 days), it divides again and again, and by the time it gets to the womb, it has become a mass of several hundreds of cells called a blastocyst. The blastocyst is made up of the inner cell mass which will become the embryo, the fluid-filled cavity which will become the amniotic sac, and the outer cell mass which will become the placenta.

The blastocyst burrows and attaches itself to the lining of the uterus (endometrium) in a process known as implantation. The part that developed into the placenta starts producing the human chorionic gonadotropin-hCG, which is responsible for making the ovaries to stop releasing eggs and triggers increased production of estrogen and progesterone. As a matter of fact, the hCG is what shows up in your urine to turn your pregnancy test positive.

How are you doing?

You most probably don’t know it yet; but conception and implantation has taken place inside of you. It is relatively common to have implantation bleeding, which is a light bleeding that happens as the fertilized egg burrows into the womb. Period-like cramping is also common at this stage. You may experience the classic symptoms of pregnancy, from morning sickness to being overly emotional. Don’t worry, it’s all normal, the pregnancy hormones are at work.

What should you do this week?

While trying to conceive, you should have started taking folic acid supplements (at least 400mcg per day); but if you haven’t, you should start now. Folic acid helps in the formation of your baby’s nervous system and reduces the risk of neural tube defects such as Spina Bifida: a condition where the baby’s spine doesn’t close up properly.

Your lifestyle is equally as important. It is essential to cut down on caffeine, quit smoking and avoid alcohol at all cost. All these lead to birth defects and increase the risk of a miscarriage.

Finally, stay informed, healthy and inspired, by reading  Maternity Nest. Connect with other moms-to-be for emotional support by joining your Due Date Club in the The Nest.