Your baby
Your baby has reached a first milestone: everything is now complete. From here on it is a matter of growing. Of course your baby could not survive outside you yet — it will be months before the organs have matured and developed further. But everything that should be there now is. Even an upper and lower jaw, already containing twenty small bumps that will become milk teeth after the birth. And a little hair is growing on top of the head.
To grow well your child needs nourishment, which comes through the umbilical cord. The cord contains three blood vessels connected to the placenta. Around it is a thick protective layer of jelly which makes sure these important vessels cannot be squeezed shut. Even if your child swims through a loop of its own cord and ties a knot in it, the vessels are not pinched off.
You
A mountain of information suddenly comes your way, and it starts to dawn on you how much there is to arrange before a child arrives. Do not worry. It may seem a lot, but you have several months to sort it all out at your leisure. Enjoying yourself — if you do not feel too wretched — and being kind to yourself matters far more now.
The changing hormones in your body during pregnancy can leave you constipated. And as the womb grows it pushes the intestines aside and squeezes them. It is normal for the bowels to work more slowly during pregnancy.
Drink enough water or caffeine-free tea. Try to drink as little coffee as you can, because too much caffeine is not good for your baby. Eat food rich in fibre: wholemeal products, vegetables and fruit. Have a glass of lukewarm water first thing in the morning. A breakfast of fresh fruit, live yoghurt and fibre — muesli or All-Bran — can help too. Drink enough throughout the day. Plenty of exercise also helps get your bowels moving.
And when you finally can go to the toilet, mind your posture. Do not lean forward; lean back at an angle against the wall or the cistern. That way you make a better slide, as it were, for the stool. It is much like giving birth: there too you sit leaning back to make the way out as easy as possible for your baby.
Keeping a diary
Being pregnant is a special time in your life, and this pregnancy will never come again. Because so much happens, it is lovely to write your feelings down in a diary. Buy a nice notebook, say, to record all the milestones and special moments.
For instance: when you first felt your baby kick, what it was like to see your baby on the scan for the first time, which names you have in mind. Writing it all down makes you pause and take your pregnancy in. Straight after the birth your mind is on entirely different things, and it is easy to forget some of it. And a diary like that is always lovely to have later on.
Take photographs
Take a photograph of your pregnant bump every week. Looking back, you really see it grow. Not only lovely for you to look at after the birth — did this baby really fit inside me? — but also great fun for your child to see one day.
Stopping folic acid
Now that your baby's brain and spine have formed, you may stop taking extra folic acid. There is no need to carry on, though it does no harm if you do.
First trimester
