Your baby spends nine months inside your uterus and quite naturally experiences a number of changes over this long period of time. Here we will look at the fetal development and growth trimester wise. There are three trimesters in your duration of pregnancy. Obviously it isn’t possible to read through each week, so we will guide you through the chief weeks of each trimester below.
First trimester –
During the second week of your pregnancy, you have not even actually gotten pregnant yet. This week you will only have released your egg which will travel to the fallopian tube and wait for your partner’s sperm to fuse with it and thus allow fertilization to take place. Once the egg gets fertilized, it will be called a zygote and it will continue moving along the fallopian tubes down to your uterus where it will allow the baby to grow. The next significant week would be the fourth week when the fertilized egg has already planted itself in the uterine walls. By the time this happens, the zygote will be called an embryo. Once the zygote gets implanted, the embryo gradually splits into two parts, one which will grow into becoming your placenta and connecting your baby to you while the other part will be the one that will actually grow into becoming your baby. By the sixth week of your pregnancy, your baby’s heart must have started beating and blood must have started circulating round its body. The umbilical cord, eyes, head, intestines and liver will begin to form as well. Week 10 marks the end of the stage during which the embryo develops. Hereafter your baby will be called a fetus. The genitals begin to form this week for the baby while the facial features become strikingly sharper, so do the limbs. By the end of the first trimester, your baby’s vital organs will not only have formed but also have begun functioning.
Second trimester –
During the second trimester the chances of suffering a miscarriage are relatively low. Now not only are your baby’s reproductive functions fully grown but he will start growing some hair on the hair and the brows and the eye lids as well. Also the nails on the toes and fingers will start growing. There are chances that you might feel your baby start moving inside you this week. By the eighteenth week, the finger pads and toe pads for your baby will have formed. The ears will have formed so well that the baby might start responding to very loud sounds occurring on the outside! Your baby is probably as heavy as 7 ounces now and around 5 inches long! By the twenty second week the senses of your baby has developed so well that he may even start experimenting. If you find out he is sucking on his thumb through an ultrasound, you should not be surprised. The brain’s development gets quicker and the sweat glands begin to form by the end of the second trimester.
Third trimester –
By the twenty sixth week or the beginning of the third trimester the retinas in the eyes will have properly formed and the baby would now be able to blink his eyes. If your baby is to be born now, there are 50% chances that he would survive but only with exceptional medical care. This is your final trimester and just as much as secure you must be feeling already, the pains of labor and the stress for delivery will soon sink in. during week 30, your baby will start breathing and you might figure out if he experiences hiccups on having swallowed too much of amniotic fluid. By now the baby is developing sufficient body fat which will help in keeping him warm post delivery. This week means that your baby’s being born now is pretty safe even though during this week your baby is still going to be considered as a premature baby. Week 40 however is the last week of your nine month pregnancy and officially announces the end of your gestation period. Even though your baby should ideally, be born during this week. It is completely natural for the baby to arrive another two weeks later.
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