How the baby grows in the womb

Doctors and midwives time pregnancy, not from conception but from the first day of a woman’s monthly period. So what is called ‘four weeks pregnant ‘is actually about two weeks after conception. On this timing, pregnancy lasts for forty weeks.

Of course, forty weeks is only an average .some pregnancies are usually short, while some longer.

If you are not sure about the date of your last period, then an ultrasound scan can give a good indication of when your baby will be due.

How the baby develops

In the very early weeks the developing baby is called an embryo .then from about eight weeks onwards, it is called a fetus, which means ‘young one ‘.

WEEK 3

This is 3 weeks from the day of your last monthly period...the fertilized egg moves slowly along the fallopian tube towards the womb. The egg begins as one single cell. This cell divides again and again. By the time the egg reaches the womb, it has become a mass of 100 cells and is still growing.

Once in the womb the egg attaches itself to the womb lining .this is called implantation

WEEKS 4-5

The egg now settles into the womb lining .the outer cells reach out like roots to link with the mother’s blood supply. The inner cells form into two, and later three layers. Each of these layers will grow to be different part of the baby’s body. One layer becomes the brain and the nervous system, the skin, eyes and ears. Another layer becomes the lungs, stomach and guts. The third layer becomes the heart, blood, muscles and bones.

The fifth week is the time of the first missed period, when most women are only just beginning to think that they might be pregnant. Yet already the baby’s nervous system is beginning to develop.

A groove forms in the top layer of the cells .the cells fold up and round to make a hollow tube. This is called the neural tube. It will become the baby’s brain and spinal cord, so the tube has a ‘head end ‘and a ‘tail end’. At the same time the heart is forming, and the baby already has some of its own blood vessels. A string of these blood vessels connect baby and mother and will finally become the umbilical cord.

WEEKS 6-7

There is now a large bulge where the heart is, and a bump for the head because the brain is developing. The heart begins to beat and can be seen beating on an ultrasound scan.

Dimples on the side of the head will become the ears, and there are thickenings where the eyes will be. On the body, bumps are forming, which will become muscles and bones, and small swelling called limb buds show where the arms and legs are growing.

At seven weeks, the embryo is about 8mm (1/4 in) long from head to bottom (or from ‘crown to rump’)

WEEKS 8-9

At this time, a face is slowly forming. The eyes are more obvious and have some color in them. There is a mouth with a tongue. There are now the beginnings of hands and feet, with ridges where the fingers and toes will be. The major internal organs are all developing-the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys, liver and gut.

At nine weeks, the baby is about 17mm (3/4in) long from head to bottom.

WEEKS 10-14

Just twelve weeks after conception, the fetus is fully formed. It has all its organs, muscles, limbs, and bones. From now on, it has to grow and mature.

The sex organs are now well developed. But at this early stage, it is impossible to make out the baby’s sex in an ultrasound picture.

The baby is already moving about, but the movement cannot yet be felt

By about fourteen weeks, the heartbeat is strong and can be heard using an ultrasound detector. The heartbeat is very fast –about twice as fast as a normal adult’s heartbeat. The baby is about 56mm(2 1/2in)long from head to bottom .the pregnancy may just be beginning to show, though may vary from woman to woman.

WEEKS 15-22

The baby is now growing quickly .he body and head are now more in proportion, the face begins to look more human, and the hair is beginning to grow, as well as eyebrows and eyelashes. The eyelids still stay closed over the eyes.

The lines on the skin of the fingers are now formed, finger and toenails are growing, and the baby, has a firm hand grip.

At about the twenty-two weeks the baby becomes covered in a very fine, soft hair called lanugos .this finally disappears again before birth, although sometimes, just a little is left and disappears later.

At about the 18^th-22^nd week, you will feel your baby move for the first time. If this is your second baby you will feel it move earlier, at about the 14^th to 16^th week, after conception.

At first, you feel a fluttering, bubbling or a very slight shifting movement, maybe bit kike indigestion, later you can’t mistake the movements, and you can even see the baby kicking about. You can often guess which bump is a foot or a hand.

Make a note of the date you felt the first movement; it might also be used to check your expected date of delivery.

WEEKS 23-30

Now the baby is moving about vigorously and responds to touch and sound. Sometimes the baby may get hiccups, and you can feel the jerks of each hiccup. The baby may also begin to follow a pattern of sleeping and waking, which may often be different from yours. So when you go to bed at night, the baby wakes up and starts kicking.

The baby’s heartbeat can now be heard by your partner, when he puts his ears to your tummy .the baby is now covered by a white, greasy substance called vernix.this mostly disappears before birth.

WEEKS 31-40(or 42 for later birth)

At this stage the baby is growing plumper so the skin, which was quite wrinkled before, is now smoother. Both the vernix and the lanugos begin to disappear.

By about 32^nd week ,the baby is usually lying head downwards ,ready for birth.Sometime,before birth the head may move down into the pelvis, and is said to be ‘ engaged’ ,but sometimes the baby’s head does not engage until labor has started.

how to prepare your body for pregnancy

A woman’s health and behavior in pregnancy affects the baby. A poor diet, some drugs, certain illnesses, smoking, alcohol…these and other things can hold back the baby’s development or even cause abnormalities. Most women know this, and the knowledge can be worrying.

It is the early months of pregnancy that are especially important. In the twelve weeks after conception, all the baby’s organs are formed, including the brain .the nervous system, and the heart. Yet during this vital early time, you may not even know that you are pregnant. So since no couple can know exactly when they will conceive, it makes sense to ‘prepare’ for pregnancy.

Then you can be certain that from the moment of conception onwards you will be giving your baby the best possible chance of being healthy. And you will be less likely to be worried or anxious during pregnancy. Some women don’t like the idea of’preparing’for pregnancy. They feel pregnancy is something that ought to happen without a lot of planning and they don’t want to think too much about it until it’s happened.

A few even feel that if you think too much about it, it won’t happen. Other women feel that preparing for pregnancy is a good idea but, find it difficult to do. Giving up alcohol for the sake of your baby, for example is much easier once you know the baby is there. Even if these are your feelings, read through, you may not follow all the advice, but there may still be one or two you may want to take before you try for a baby.

Stopping contraception
If you are taking the contraceptive pills, it is probably best to stop about three months before you try to conceive. A condom, spermicidal gel, a cap or sheath can be used instead of pills .the reason why many doctors suggest leaving a gap between stopping the pills and starting a baby is because the pill alters the amounts of certain substance in the blood.

A gap allows you to get back to normal before you become pregnant. Also,if your monthly circle is back to normal before you conceive, then you can be very sure of you baby’s due date ,when you get pregnant. If you use a coil, then it has to be taken out at the end of a period. Then there is no need to wait before you try to conceive.

Rubella (German measles) If you catch rubella while you are pregnant, your baby can be severely damaged, especially if it is during the first 3months of pregnancy. Rubella can damage the baby’s heart and nervous system and cause deafness and blindness. It can also be the cause of miscarriage and stillbirth.
What to do: make sure you are immune to rubella before you get pregnant. Most girls are now routinely vaccinated against rubella while they are at school, so it may be that you have already been vaccinated. You are also likely to be immune if you have had it before, but it is safe to take a blood test to be completely sure. If you become pregnant before you are immunized, and then come into contact with someone who has it, do tell your doctor at once, he would tell you what next to do.

Stopping Smoking Besides the harm that smoking does to your own health, it is known beyond any doubt that the smoking can hurt the developing baby. Some people dispute this. Their own experience or that of others makes them doubt whether there is really any harm in smoking. The truth remains that smoking does harm the baby.
What to do: deciding to give up smoking, even for the sake of your baby isn’t always easy. Many women have to weigh up what for them are real advantages of smoking against what they know to be the dangers, and they find that the advantages can weigh heavily in the balance

It will help you a lot if you can decide to stop with your partner, or with someone else who smokes. And even if your friends and family don’t smoke you will need their help and support.

Once you have decided to stop, you are half way there, now fix a date, and stick to it. So how do you do it?well,just throw out the cigarettes,lighters,matches,ashtrays and anything that reminds you or draw your attention to smoking and just STOP .

Find something to do with your hands, to replace holding a cigarette—knit, sew, doodle. You can also find other ways of relaxing, like some deep breathing, a long bath, or go for a walk Whenever you want a cigarette, do something, no matter what: eat an apple, sing, and drink water, anything but smoking.

But never sit still and think about how much you want to smoke Get through one day and then another, eventually it begins to get easier and you begin to enjoy the advantages of not smoking-feeling healthier, having more money and so on.

Stopping alcohol Just like smoking, drinking during pregnancy can affect the development of the baby, especially during the early weeks. Even when you drink moderately or a little, the alcohol that enters the blood stream passes into your baby’s bloodstream.
What to do: remember that, from conception onwards, the less you drink, the better your chances of a successful pregnancy and a healthy baby. It is true that if you limit yourself to just an occasional drink (not more than 1 or 2 units a week, the risk to your baby will be small. But it is safer to cut off alcohol completely.

Inherited abnormality Just as characteristics like hair and eye colors passes on from generations to generation through the genes ,so also are certain abnormalities (in those who have them)can be genetically inherited.

If either you or your partner have some sort of inherited conditions (such as sickle cell disease,haemophilia or cystic fibrosis, muscle dystrophy)or have a relative with such a condition, then you may want to know ,what sort of risk, if any, you would be taking by having a baby. Let your doctor know everything, this is not the time to hide anything. Your doctor might refer you to a genetic councellor,who can tell you much more about the sort of risk you would be taken.

AIDS HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. If you have this virus ,becoming pregnant can be dangerous for both you and the baby. What to do: take a blood test to be sure of your status, and then your doctor will tell you what the risk are. Although, there had been many reports of infected mothers having healthy babies, but it all starts before conception.

Other infections It is really advisable to see your doctor for a general body checkup, before conception. Every sexually transmitted diseases, must be treated and other like candida, thrush and the lots should also be treated completely so as not to affect the baby.

What you eat If you are already eating a healthy diet at the timer you conceive, you will be increasing your baby’s chances of being healthy at birth. Your developing baby depends solely on you for all its food the moment he is conceived, so if the mother’s diet is healthy, the baby is more likely to be healthy. Also ask your doctors for good vitamins you can take while preparing for conception. For example, folic acid, is good taken, three months before conception and continued while pregnant, as prescribed by your doctor.