Welcome to Pregnancy Guide
Pregnancy Stages And Growth Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Pregnancy Stages: First Trimester
from:When a woman becomes pregnant, she and her partner may have questions about what is happening to her body and how the baby is developing. During the pregnancy stages, first trimester, the process starts with the fertilization of the woman’s egg and progresses to the point that the fetus is starting to resemble the baby it will become.
The entire pregnancy takes approximately 40 weeks. This period is divided into sections called trimesters, each of which is about 13 weeks long. In the pregnancy stages, first trimester, the woman’s body has to adjust to the changes created by the pregnancy. Most of these changes don’t occur immediately.
In the very first days of the pregnancy stages, first trimester, the fertilized egg, called a zygote, travels through the fallopian tubes and finally attaches itself to the wall of the uterus. There, the zygote becomes an embryo and the embryo starts the process of differentiation so that the individual cells become different parts of the body. During this time, the basics of the spinal column, the head, heart, digestive system begin to develop. Little nubs that will become the arms and legs also begin to grow. Facial features are not readily evident, though a rudimentary eye can be seen by the end of the first month. At this stage, the embryo is only about ¼ inch long.
During the second month of the pregnancy stages, first trimester, the embryo becomes a fetus. The organs of the fetus begin to work and it begins to produce its own hormones. These hormones, together with the hormones of the mother, can cause morning sickness to develop since the mother’s body is not accustomed to the changes. Generally, it is after the fetal hormones begin to develop that the mother’s menstrual periods stop. Even though all of these changes have taken place, the fetus is only about an inch long.
During the third month of the pregnancy stages, first trimester, the fetus completes the basic developmental processes. The mother’s morning sickness will have stopped, and she will have started a noticeable weight gain. The fetus will have obvious arms and legs. Tiny little fingers and toes become evident. Teeth will begin to develop. The facial features are now distinct and the fetus would be recognizable as a human. The internal organs are much more advanced. The liver and the digestive systems will have begun working. The gender of the fetus has been established, though it may not be noticeable yet on ultrasound. At four inches long, the fetus is applying increased pressure on the bladder. It will apply pressure to the bladder and the woman will become aware of an increased need to urinate. This is natural and should not be a concern to the woman.
Pregnancy Stages And Growth Specific links
Pregnancy Stages And Growth News
Ark Therapeutics Grp - Grant and Patent Update
 ARK THERAPEUTICS GROUP PLC Substantial EU Framework Programme 7 Grant awarded for clinical development of Ark's pre-clinical product candidate EG013 in the treatment of fetal growth restriction Ark receives ...
Read more...CDC: US teen pregnancy rate declining
Teenage girls in the U.S. are waiting longer to begin having sex and are using more effective birth control when they do, according to U.S. health officials. Among 15- to 19-year-old girls, the teen pregnancy rate has fallen 44 percent since 1990.
Read more...Texas Children's Fetal Center First in Southwestern United States to Perform Experimental In-Utero Procedure to Treat ...
HOUSTON, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As one of the country's leading medical centers for diagnosing and treating fetal anomalies, and one of the first centers to provide a full range of prenatal surgical options, Texas Children's Fetal Center at the Pavilion for Women is proud to announce the team's first two successful in-utero fetal interventions to treat Congenital Diaphragmatic ...
Read more...Pfizer Provides Topline Results From Phase 3 Study Of Torisel® As Second-Line Treatment In Advanced Renal Cell ...
Pfizer Inc announced today that the Phase 3 INTORSECT study, evaluating TORISEL® in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma whose disease had progressed on or after SUTENT® therapy, did not meet the primary endpoint of prolonging progression free survival when compared to sorafenib.
Read more...How PCBs promote dendrite growth, may increase autism risk
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, launch a cellular chain of events that leads to an overabundance of dendrites -- the filament-like projections that conduct electrochemical signals between neurons -- and disrupts normal patterns of neuronal connections in the brain, new research shows.
Read more...