Month By Month Guide To Pregnancy
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1. Key steps of the first trimester: Month by month during pregnancy, your body is transformed. Your health and the development of your future baby are monitored regularly.
The first trimester is especially marked by the 1st compulsory prenatal examination, to be taken before 15 weeks of amenorrhea (the number of weeks passed since the 1st day of your last period) to confirm your pregnancy. It also allows you to get your pregnancy report, to be sent before the end of the 1st trimester.
The dating ultrasound is done in the 3rd month (around 11-13 weeks of amenorrhea). It is common not to gain a lot of weight during the first trimester. On the other hand, pregnancy symptoms like nausea and tender breasts often appear from the first month.
2. The main stages of the second trimester: Weight gain accelerates in the 2nd trimester, but nausea tends to disappear. In the 4th month, you will normally have your 2nd prenatal visit: at this point a screening test for Downs syndrome can be proposed. From this month, you may feel regular non-painful contractions - this is nothing to worry about, it is probably the baby's movements that trigger them.
The 5th month is especially marked by the 3rd prenatal visit. The date of morphological ultrasound (21-23 weeks of amenorrhea) is also fixed. You will already be able to find out the sex of the baby if you wish - as long as they are in a good position.
The 6th month includes the 4th prenatal visit, including a test for Hepatitis B.
3. The major stages of the third trimester: It is during the third trimester of pregnancy that weight gain is the most significant. In the 7th month of pregnancy, you will have your 5th prenatal visit: it ensures, among other things, that you are feeling your baby's movements.
It is often in the 8th month of pregnancy that maternity leave begins. During this month, you will also have your 6th prenatal visit: the doctor will prescribe the biological examinations to be done before the consultation of anesthesia, and will fix the date of the 3rd compulsory ultrasound (31-33 weeks of amenorrhea). It is advisable to have the anesthesia consultation in the 8th month just in case baby arrives a little earlier than expected.
Finally, in the 9th month, a last prenatal visit is planned, especially to control the position of the fetus and check the dilatation of the cervix.
