1 week pregnant
Our guide to your 1st week of pregnancy
Week One
Whether it’s planned or a complete accident, pregnancy is both an exciting and nerve wracking time in your life. The first few weeks are usually the worst, particularly for all you first time mothers out there, as you don’t know what to expect or what to do. At the same time, you may have to deal with things like morning sickness, exhaustion and fatigue. Everyone’s pregnancy is different, but here are few things you should know that will put your mind at ease.
How do you know when you are pregnant?
Week one is actually classed as the week of your last period. When doctors calculate your due date, they measure from the first day of your last period. So technically, week one is in fact your last period before you become pregnant. Most women ovulate two weeks after their period, so it is usually three weeks after the beginning of your period when the egg finally moves along the fallopian tube towards your womb.
The early stages of pregnancy are characterised by internal changes. You might not even know you are pregnant until you miss your period. In fact, you may find doctors won’t even do a pregnancy test until you have missed two periods, by this point you could be eight weeks pregnant.
Once you have found out you’re pregnant you will need to register with a GP and midwife and investigate local pregnancy and mother’s groups as well as anti-natal classes.
Your Baby
The egg starts life as just one cell. But, by the time it has got to the womb it has divided many times to form a mass of over 100 cells and this is called the embryo. Once it’s in the womb, this tiny embryo burrows into the lining of the womb in what’s known as implantation. Some doctors argue that this is when pregnancy should be measured from.
You
Although there are few outward changes in the first few weeks, many women feel different. It is a feeling you will not be able to describe or explain, but some believe it’s because you are making the first instinctive bond with your unborn baby.
However, there are a few changes you will start to experience once you become pregnant. Firstly, you’ll probably feel overwhelmingly tired and will be easily exhausted. A lot is going on inside your body so this is hardly surprising.
You might experience slight bleeding, cramping or what’s known as ‘spotting’, i.e. a few spots of blood, a few weeks into the pregnancy. This is quite normal and is as a result of the embryo implanting itself in your uterus. This sporadic bleeding can be confusing and many women think they are experiencing a light period and don’t for a second think they are indeed pregnant.
As your body slowly begins to change, one of the first areas of growth is your breasts. They will feel heavy and swollen from early on in your pregnancy and many women feel the need to get an extra-supportive pregnancy bra after the first month or so.