Your baby
Whether you are having a boy or a girl was settled at conception. But this week the sex organs — the ovaries or the testicles — become visible as well. Your baby does not yet look the way he or she will at birth.
The head is still very large in proportion, about the same size as the body. The eyelids are now finished and cover the whole eye. They stay shut until the seventh month and only open after that, but the white of the eye, the iris and the pupil are already where they belong.
Because your baby can already move well and has plenty of room, he or she is swimming happily back and forth. You still cannot feel it. The growing goes steadily on: in a single week the weight has doubled and your child has grown a full centimetre. This growth spurt carries on until the sixteenth week. After that it slows a little, and in the last weeks of pregnancy your child grows only very slowly.
You
Under the influence of the hormones your skin may behave differently from usual. If your skin is always clear, you may suddenly get spots. The reverse happens too: if your skin tends to break out, it may now be lovelier than ever.
It is worth adjusting how you care for your face. Visit a beautician, for instance, and let her work out what skin type you have and which cream suits it best.
Healthy and fit
Thinking of a course on the sunbed? Bear in mind that sunlight — real sun and sunbed alike — can produce extra pigment now that you are pregnant. You may then get a 'pregnancy mask', a discolouring of the face that only fades a few months after the birth. You can prevent it by applying a sun cream with a high protection factor.
Exercise is good for you, pregnant or not. So, ideally, an hour or two of swimming, cycling or walking twice a week. Moving keeps your muscles in condition, so you go into the birth fitter and are usually back on your feet quickly afterwards.
It is all the more important to listen to your body. If you already played a sport, you can nearly always carry on with it during your pregnancy as long as it feels right. Only if you run a high risk of falling or injury is it wise to choose another form of exercise. Your baby is well protected by the amniotic fluid, but it is still sensible to spare both of you a fall on your abdomen.
Adventurous sports such as parachute jumping, bungee jumping and martial arts are therefore not to be recommended. Skiing after four months of pregnancy is not a good idea either. You may ski well, but others do not always, and the risk of someone skiing into you is too great.
The NIPT
To find out whether your baby has a chromosomal condition, you can have a NIPT. The test consists of a blood test on the mother, between 9 and 14 weeks of pregnancy.
First trimester
