1 month of pregnancy

1 month of pregnancy marks the beginning of your pregnancy. During the next 9 months, you will wear your future child. There is no doubt that this fact makes you curious – excited about how it is developing and at what pace it is growing, how its organs and body parts are forming, when it starts to breathe, feel, hear, etc.

Medical analyses cannot answer all these questions, even though you have to visit the doctor regularly. The exception is the ultrasound examination, which allows you to constantly get more and more information about the little one growing in your womb.

However, this opportunity will present itself to you in the second half of pregnancy. Before that, everything happening with the embryo, every single change in the first months, can remain a mystery.

Here comes the role of our pregnancy calendar by months. With its help, we will tell you about the child’s development during the nine months and your sensations.

The calendar will not only be your entertainment reading, but will also allow you to get to know the child already at this stage and develop your love for it.

How a new life is born – 1 month of pregnancy

To be who you are today, one day you were just a cell. After that, all your characteristics – gender, blood type, eye color, stalk size, future talents, etc., were determined by a genetic code, 46 chromosomes. To develop, you received nutrients and oxygen from your mother for 9 months.

The child and the expectant mother during the first and second weeks of pregnancy

The child: at this stage the pregnancy is a figment of your imagination as conception has not yet taken place. Nowadays, doctors calculate the presumed term – the date of impending birth, taking into account the beginning of the last menstrual cycle. This practice has become necessary because it is difficult to calculate exactly when conception occurred.

Expectant mother: At the beginning of each cycle, about 20 eggs begin to mature and fill the follicles – sacs filled with fluid. One of these follicles will rupture and release an egg. It will pass down the fallopian tube, where fertilization will occur.

This process takes about 2 weeks before the end of the cycle. It is during this period that the likelihood of getting pregnant is greatest. The egg can be fertilized within 12-24 hours after its release.

It is estimated that 2-3 ml of seminal fluid falls into the vagina of a woman. Under optimal conditions, after 30-60 minutes after ejaculation, the sperm reach the uterine cavity, and after 1.5-2 hours – are already in the fallopian tube.

During fertilization, the female sex cell secretes substances that attract sperm, indicating to them exactly where it is located. The sperm then attach to the egg and begin to move their flagella, causing it to spin. With the help of special substances, the sperm then manage to overcome the egg’s sheath. Once one of them manages to penetrate its interior, it becomes inaccessible to the others. The nuclei of the sperm and the egg fuse, with the chromosomes of the mother and father joining together. About twenty-four hours are then needed for the development of the embryo to begin.

Tips: During the first two weeks, it’s a good idea to consult an obstetrician. He or she can determine what the risks of genetic diseases are, what environmental risks your future baby poses, and will make recommendations for lifestyle adjustments. These will ensure your baby’s health.

Start taking folic acid – 0.4 mg or 400 mcg per day. In most cases, doctors recommend taking it for a few months before fertilization. This lowers the risk of the fetus developing birth defects.

Avoid any stressful situations and heavy physical exertion – they can hinder implantation.

The child and the pregnant woman in the third week of pregnancy

The Child: At this stage you may experience the greatest joy up to this point in your life. The egg and sperm have successfully fused. They have formed an embryo that is tiny in size. It does not yet resemble a fetus or a child, but it is a matter of time. From one cell there are now more than a hundred that are dividing rapidly. Their outer layer will become a placenta and the inner one an embryo.

Pregnant woman: It’s too early to feel any change. Be sure to monitor your menstrual cycle.

Tip: To confirm the happy event, you can use pregnancy tests that are done at home. They give the same accuracy results as the blood and urine test you will do soon on doctor’s orders. The difference is that the result in home tests comes faster.

The child and the pregnant woman in the fourth week of pregnancy

The child: the embryo is still tiny. It is only 0.04-0.1 cm long. Can you imagine that? Your future child is now in its second week of development and consists of about 150 cells. It feeds from the lining of the uterus, and the layers of cells are already distributed according to their functions.

The outer layer will be the nervous system, skin and hair. The inner – the respiratory system and organs of the fooddigestive system.

The middle layer will become the skeleton, bones, cartilages, muscles, circulatory system, kidneys and sexual organs.

At this stage of pregnancy, the amniotic sheath is formed, which will protect the fetus in the coming months. The placenta is also developing – it is a round and flat organ that transports nutrients from the mother to the child.

The place where the soon-to-be child’s eyes will appear is also forming now. Large dark circles will form in their place. The first signs of a mouth, lower jaw and throat begin to be noticed. Blood cells appear, marking the beginning of the circulation of blood.

By the end of the first month, the embryo will be no more than 0.6 cm long. A grain of rice is bigger than that!

Pregnant woman: If, at this stage, the planned menstruation does not appear, this can serve you as evidence of successful fertilization. You are pregnant! You may notice the appearance of pale spots due to the implantation of the embryo in the uterus.

In the fourth week of pregnancy, it is still early to experience its characteristic symptoms. However, a serious reorganization is already taking place inside you. The amniotic cavity, which will fill with fluid, and the placenta, through which the fetus will feed and receive oxygen, are already forming in the uterus.

Tip: It’s time to start leading a healthier lifestyle, which may require adjustments to your diet.

– Choose the products you eat well

– Take no less than 6-8 glasses of water daily

– Increase your calorie intake by 300

General recommendations during the first month of pregnancy

Immediately before pregnancy and during the first few weeks of pregnancy, it is advisable not to have x-rays, take medications, or come into contact with toxic preparations. Avoid communicating with sick people and be on the lookout for rubella. If you become infected with it during the first weeks of pregnancy, it can seriously harm the health of the fetus.

From the third week, you can take a pregnancy test, see a gynaecologist and consider making adjustments to your daily habits – alcohol and cigarettes are not recommended. Limit your intake of drinks containing caffeine.