1st Week Of Pregnancy
Written by Pregnancy Tips on November 19th, 20091st Week of Pregnancy
You wouldn’t expect this, but your pregnancy actually begins with the day your last menstrual period started. Yep, it will be two weeks before conception (assuming it occurs during this cycle), but that’s how the doctors calculate it to determine your delivery date. Go figure!
If you’re trying to get pregnant, the time to begin healthy habits is before you conceive. Eating right, with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, along with plenty of pure water to keep your system hydrated, is a good idea at any time and especially when you’re pregnant. Regular exercise is another healthy habit that will make it easier for you to conceive, to carry a baby to full term, and to deliver without complications.
You should also stop smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol or using drugs recreationally before you try to get pregnant, to give your body time to flush these toxins out of your system. All of these habits can lead to pregnancy complications, such as low birth-weight babies, premature delivery, mental impairment from fetal alcohol syndrome and stillbirth.
You can further improve your chances of making a healthy baby by starting to take extra folic acid before you become pregnant. Folic acid is a key ingredient that encourages good brain, nerve and spinal development in the embryo.
So you and your partner have timed intercourse to coincide with your most fertile time, and now there are thousands of sperm swimming toward the fallopian tube to meet one egg. While several sperm may penetrate the outer layer of the ovum, only one sperm will enter the egg and fertilize it. That’s when the chromosomes from the mother and father combine to create the genetic makeup of the embryo. At this point the potential baby’s gender is determined, depending on whether the sperm carries an X chromosome or a Y chromosome. Yes, it’s Dad who determines whether the nursery will be pink or blue.
This early period is also when it’s possible to hit the baby jackpot with multiple fertilized eggs, known as zygotes. This can occur if the mother releases not one, but two or more eggs from the same ovary, or one egg from each ovary, and these ova are fertilized by separate sperm. Depending on how many eggs are fertilized, this situation results in “fraternal” multiples, from twins on up. However, if a single fertilized egg performs the miracle of dividing into two or more completely separate zygotes, this results in multiple babies considered “identical.” In this case the zygotes have exactly the same chromosomal combination, so they’ll be the same gender and have the same physical characteristics.
Yet while this activity is going on inside your womb, Mom-to-be, you may not even be sure that you’re pregnant! In most cases, women don’t begin to experience signs of pregnancy caused by changes in your hormone balance until 10 to 14 days after conception. The earliest signs of pregnancy include increase increased fatigue, failure to start your next menstrual period, nausea, tenderness in your breasts, a frequent need to urinate (caused by pressure against your bladder as your uterus enlarges), a metallic taste in your mouth and sleep disturbances.
If you’re having any of these symptoms, congratulations! You’re probably pregnant, and should see your gynecologist immediately.
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