7 weeks pregnant
Our guide to your 7th week of pregnancy
Your Baby
Your baby’s growth rate is incredible at the moment. Although still miniscule, the embryo has doubled in size from 5mm to 1cm this week. Feet and hands are emerging from legs and arms. The appendix and pancreas have now formed, albeit in tiny versions, and both hemispheres of the brain are rapidly developing. Your little one even has eyelids and its eyes are beginning to develop pigment.
You
As the weeks have gone by, your urge to pop to the loo every five minutes seems to have increased more and more. There are two reasons for this. Firstly your uterus has doubled in size in just five weeks and it’s now pressing on your bladder.
Reason number two: your blood volume has increased by 10% already and by the end of your pregnancy it will have risen by 40% to 45%. This extra blood has to be processed through your kidneys, which in turn ends up in your bladder.
The other big problem you may have to cope with now is morning sickness. The name is actually rather misleading. You might not actually vomit at all and if you do it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the morning.
Morning sickness is caused by the increased hormones flooding your system. The pregnancy hormone HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin is often blamed for it.
The best way of dealing with morning sickness is to eat small and often as big meals can bring on a fresh bout. Keep a few crackers or savoury biscuits by your bed in case you wake up feeling nauseous. Ginger tea is a popular herbal medicine for all kinds of sickness and can help to settle an upset tummy.
If your morning sickness becomes more frequent and you find you cannot keep any food or liquid down, speak to your doctor straight away. You might have hyperemesis gravidarum, which can lead to severe dehydration. This is not very common, but be sure to look out for it, especially if you start to loose weight or morning sickness passes the first trimester.
Warning signs of ectopic pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy is one that occurs outside the womb, most commonly in the fallopian tubes. It affects around one in every 100 pregnancies and the pregnancy never survives. If left untreated if can be fatal for you too.
The symptoms are generally seen between the fourth and tenth week of pregnancy and usually consist of vaginal bleeding – more than mere spotting which is actually fairly normal – the blood is generally darker and more watery than period blood. You may also feel pain on just one side of the lower abdomen. If this pain is severe and persistent contact your doctor or midwife immediately.
You will generally require keyhole surgery to cut the tube and remove the pregnancy. If the tube has ruptured you will need more invasive abdominal surgery.
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