Stages of Pregnancy: Changes in Mother’s body & Fetus during Trimesters

Stages of pregnancy | Pregnancy is a time during which one or more child developing inside a woman’s body. Pregnancy is also known as gestation.

When more than one child developing inside the human body is called multiple pregnancies.

Pregnancy can occur through sexual intercourse or assisted reproductive technology. 

Stages of Pregnancy

A typical pregnancy takes around 40 weeks. Which divided into 3 parts called trimester. The first trimester is from 1 week to 12 weeks, second-trimester form 13 weeks to 26 weeks and last trimester from 27 weeks to 40 weeks.

First trimester (1 week – 12 weeks)

The first trimester starts from the first day of your last period to the last day of 12 weeks.

During this time a lot happens in your womb. The fertilized egg divides into cells and implant in the walls where it will grow. These layers of the cell become an embryo, this is called a baby.

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Changes in the mother’s Body

Pregnancy may not be showing outside but inside the body, there are many changes takes place.

During this time your body goes through a lot of changes. Hormonal changes affect almost the entire system and your body is not used to these changes. 

So you can feel these changes in the first week.

You can feel some of these changes

• Tender and swollen breast. Nipples may get bigger and tighter.
• Morning sickness and vomiting
• Lethargic of extreme tiredness.
• Mood swings
• Craving
• Constipation more often.
• Weight gain
• Headache
• Heartburn

At that time your body is in the initial phase. These symptoms may bother but they will go away as the pregnancy progresses. If you have pregnancy before you may be familiar with these discomforts. But every woman’s body is different so symptoms can be different.

But you can make a few changes in your daily routine such as get good sleep, eat frequent small meals and talk to your partner.

Changes in fetus

During this time, the baby grows faster than at any other trimester. 

• By six weeks 6 baby start to sprout legs and arms and by 10 weeks finger and toys start to see.
• Hair and nails start to forming between 5 weeks to 8 weeks.
• By the 8-week Babu’s intestine start to form.
• At that time the sense of touch, eyesight, heart, brain, and sense of touch start to form.

By six months, you can heartbeat and by the 12 weeks, baby’s baby’s muscles, bones and all the organs of the bodies of the body have formed.

At that time baby formed in the tiny human being and called a fetus. Starts

Second trimester (13 weeks to 26)

When you completed 12 weeks of your pregnancy, early discomforts such as morning sickness, extreme tiredness, constipation, etc may lessen or disappear completely. Energy level may rise, sleeping may become easy. Vomiting and morning sickness get better

Changes in the mother’s Body

In the first trimester, the changes are mostly hormonal. But in this second stage of pregnancy, some visible changes will occur. In this you may feel physical pain in your body such as back pain, abdomen, etc. you can continue your routine without any major discomforts in this stage

These are some changes you may experience 

• Baby bumps get bigger
• The skin on expanding belly, palms and soles may itch
• Getting more pregnancy weight
• Back Pain
• Abdomen growing or thigh pain
• Darkening around nipples
• Stretch marks on belly, breasts, buttocks or thigh.
• Dark patches may occur generally on nose, cheeks, or forehead.
• Tingling hand
• Swelling in ankles, face, and fingers ( if swelling is extreme call your doctor.)

Changes in fetus

During this time your baby can hiccup and even. By three weeks of 21, your baby starts to kick and jabs. At the end of the second trimester, your baby will weigh 2 pounds.

• The fetus becomes about 5 inches long and you can know the sex of the baby between 18-22 weeks.
• At the time the second-trimester digestive system fully formed and your baby starts to the swollen outside of the womb.
• Around 16 weeks, baby’s hair starts to sprout and by the week your baby got eyebrows and eyelashes.
• Ear, and eyes start to move into the correct position. By weeks 22, your baby starts to smell, hear and see.
• By the 17 weeks, a baby’s brain starts to regulate his heartbeat. Now you can hear the heartbeat with the stethoscope.
• Baby’s brain starts to control the baby’s body like blinking and kicking.

Third trimester (28 weeks to 40 weeks)

However, 30% of babies pass the 40-week mark. But if you reach 42-week mark then you will officially overdue.

Changes in the mother’s Body

During this stage of pregnancy, most of the discomforts of the second trimester will continue. In addition to these discomforts, new discomfort may appear. This is because babies get bigger and putting more pressure on other internal body organs such as the abdomen, pancreas, diagram, etc. you can get gestational diabetes at that time. But all these problems lessen once you will give birth to your baby.

These are some new discomforts that may appear.

• Short of breath due pushes against diaphragm of the uterus.
• Frequent pee due to pressure on bladder.
• Backaches
• Pain in hips and pelvis.
• Stretch marks on thigh, belly, backside, and breast.
•  Leakage of colostrum (breast leaks pre-milk)
• False labor (Braxton-Hicks contractions) near the due date
• Extreme tiredness
• Trouble in finding a better sleeping position.

Near due date, the cervix becomes thin and soft which help during the birth process. 

Changes in fetus

Your baby is growing 19 to 22 inches long and 6 to 9 pounds weighs. 

• Baby gain about ½ pond a week.
• Your baby transforms cartilage to bones. At that time your baby will be getting all the calcium from you.
• By the week 32 you baby skin opaque in the week 36 fat continues to accumulate as baby sheds vernix and lanugo.
• Your baby’s touch receptor fully developed and your baby will get all signals from all five senses.
• In the third trimester, your baby’s brain grows very fast.
• Bayis about 5 to 8 pounds and almost 16-19 inches long.

Conclusion

Pregnancy often takes 40 weeks to complete. Which divided into three stages called trimesters. First trimester from 1 week to 12 weeks, second trimester from 13 weeks to 26 weeks and third trimester from 27 weeks to 40 weeks.

Pregnancy After 41 weeks is considered late-term and after 42 weeks considered post-term and before 37 considered preterms.

[showhide type=”links” more_text=”(+)source” less_text=”(-)Source”]

• NCBI “Physiological changes in pregnancy”  “https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928162/”   
• OWH  “Stages of pregnancy”   “https://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/youre-pregnant-now-what/stages-pregnancy”
• Planned parenthood   “Month by Month” “https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/pregnancy-month-by-month”
• Cleveland clinic “Fetal Development: Stages of Growth”  “https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7247-fetal-development-stages-of-growth”
• American Pregnancy Association  “https://americanpregnancy.org/week-by-week/”   “https://americanpregnancy.org/week-by-week/”

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