You are well on your way now and excitement will be setting in. At 10 weeks, the embryo can officially be called a fetus and your doctor or midwife will be comfortable revealing your due date.
D-Day
To estimate your due date independently, you can make use of the Next Biosciences pregnancy calculator. All that you need to have on hand is the first day of your last period- Next Biosciences will do the calculations. Add MiniMi Early Fetal Sex Test to your basket and calculate how far along you are pregnant at check out.
What to expect at 10 weeks
It is still a little early for your ‘baby bump’, although it will be very close to making an appearance. However, you may notice a sudden prominence of veins on your chest and stomach and your hormones may be wreaking havoc with your mood and depleting your energy levels.
What is your baby up to?
- Your baby is in a safe space: The placenta will be fully formed and working hard to supply your baby with oxygen and important nutrients.
- Your baby will be the size of a strawberry: At this stage your baby will be weighing in at about 7-8g. A tiny miracle of life.
- Your baby will be moving: Although it will be too slight to feel, your baby will be flexing tiny limbs by now.
- Your baby will have a brain: Your baby’s brain will be active and starting to grow. At this stage the head will appear much larger than the body.
- Internal organs will be formed: Despite their tiny size, your baby’s internal organs will already be producing digestive juices and urine.
- Ears, nose, fingers, toes: Your baby’s ears and nose will be starting to develop and tiny fingernails will be starting to grow on individually formed fingers and toes.
- Bones and teeth: Tooth ‘buds’ will be forming under your baby’s gums and small elbows, knees, ankles, and wrists will all be starting to take shape.
- A quickened heartbeat: Your baby’s heart will have four complete chambers and will be beating at about 180 beats per minute which is 2-3 times faster than yours!
The 10-week pregnancy checklist
As the exciting reality of your pregnancy sinks in, there is much to learn and so much to plan.
However, to avoid overwhelm, such details can be divided into the two complementary categories of ‘need to know’ and ‘nice to know’.
Need to know:
- Get onto a good pregnancy multivitamin. Food cravings and aversions may derail the best dietary intentions. Thus, you can consider a multivitamin to be ‘nutritional insurance’ against any dietary deficiencies.
- Read up on pregnancy nutrition because extra calories are required from the second trimester.
- Prenatal screening is very important to ensure a healthy pregnancy. It involves serum blood tests, ultrasound of the developing baby and genetic testing called Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT). Your healthcare provider will guide you through all the necessary prenatal screening.
Nice to know:
- You can identify your baby’s biological sex. If you want to paint the room, plan the gender reveal party, buy the baby grows, and start sounding out some baby names, you are good to go. Thanks to MiniMi Early Fetal Sex Test, you can determine your baby’s sex at 10 weeks, with a 98% accuracy.
- Exercise during pregnancy is encouraged for physical and mental well-being. However, you should seek advice on safe exercise practices, especially as you progress into the third trimester.
- Similarly, there are pregnancy-safe massage techniques and pregnancy-specific spa treatments.
From 10 weeks to 10 months
Believe it or not, you will get there in no time. Although ‘what to expect when you are expecting’ can be discussed at great length by anyone asked for an opinion, any mother of multiples will tell you that no two pregnancies are the same. Yours will be unique.