First Trimester
The first trimester of pregnancy can be full of contradictions. Joy at the discovery of your pregnancy, or shock if you weren’t planning to get pregnant. Elation the first time you hear baby’s heartbeat, and despair the first time you realise you can’t get your favourite jeans done up.
Some women find that the first trimester goes really quickly, especially if they don’t find out about the pregnancy until week six or seven. Others find the wait for the twelfth week, when they feel confident about spreading the news, feels like a lifetime. Some women hardly feel pregnant at all during the first trimester, while others find that morning sickness and fatigue takes over their lives.
First Trimester Symptoms
Your body goes through an enormous change in the first trimester of pregnancy, and these are just some of the first trimester symptoms you may experience:
- Lack of menstruation
- Fatigue and sleepiness
- The need to urinate frequently
- Nausea and sickness
- Indigestion and heartburn
- Food aversions and cravings
- Swollen or tender breasts
- Extreme emotions
- Increased visibility of veins
- Dizziness or headaches
- Increase in appetite
- Increased vaginal discharge
- Bleeding gums when brushing teeth
- Swelling of hands and feet
Baby’s Development in the First Trimester
Even if the first trimester seems slow moving to you, your baby is developing at an astonishing rate. After fertilisation and implantation, the embryonic period, where the brain, heart and spinal cord develop, begins around week 5.
Baby’s heart will begin to pump blood around halfway through the first trimester, and baby may begin to move their arms and legs around week 8. By week 10 their eyelids have formed to protect their eyes, and their genitals are beginning to develop, although it will be some time before the sex can be determined.
Your baby will officially become a foetus around week 11, when the placenta is almost complete and functioning. By the end of the first trimester baby will be around 6cm long and will have a face with a clear human profile.
Read our post on things to consider in your first trimester.
