Design with canva

Hello my beautiful women, I'm really happy to introduce you to a new weekly topic I will be handling to be of benefit to all our TTC mothers (Trying to Concieve) and expected mother's. Today I'm going to talk about fetus development and I will begin from week 8 but I will summarize what happened from week 1 to 8 in my today's writeup. Let's review the development stages

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Three main stages of prenatal development

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• Germinal stage
• Embryonic stage
• Fetal stage

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GERMINAL STAGE DEVELOPMENT

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This is the first two weeks of pregnancy, it begins at conception when the sperm fertilised the egg, this is called Zygote. Few hours after conception, the zygote begins it journey to the uterus, on this journey, division of cells begins. It divides several times while moving to the uterus and at the end of the division it tells if you are carrying multiple or single blastocyst (fetus) . But you can only know this at 8 weeks through an ultrasound scan.

EMBRYONIC STAGE DEVELOPMENT (from 3 weeks to 9 weeks)

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At this stage the cell is called embryo this stage plays an important role role in the development of the brain. So during the third week, the embryo arrived at the uterus (womb) and attaches to the walls this process is known as implantation you may likely feel some pains in your abdomen during implantation, when it is successful, you may likely experience some hormonal changes such as missing your menstrual period and it became noticeable at 4 weeks. This time you may run a urine test to confirm your pregnant 🤰.

At the 4 week, the head begins to form followed by the eyes, nose, ears, mouth. The plancenta and amniotic fluid sac begin to form, amniotic sac is filled with fluid that keeps the embryo safe from any harm.

At 5 weeks the embryo is about 2 -3 millimetres long and it grows rapidly. The umbilical cord, amniotic sac and placenta are still forming, therefore the embryo is surrounded by the gestational and yolk sac which provides protein and nutrients. The nervous system is developed this week, the brain and spinal cord. This is the important time of development for the embryo and as a mother you need to be regular in taking your folic acid and supplements regularly to reduce the risks of developing neural tube problem.

At 6 weeks the embryo continues to grow rapidly, some organs continue with their development.

At 7 weeks the brain continue to undergo some growth, the hard begins to grow faster than the rest of the body, the inner ear growth is almost complete, eyelids are formed. The tiny tail of the embryo gradually begin to disappear.

The last week of the embryonic period, the central nervous system have been successfully established. Physical features begins to take shape and become noticeable, the arms and legs shot out but at this stage the arms is is longer than the legs and the embryo grows rapidly to 1.6cm to 2cm. The genitals are also forming although not visible yet.

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What to do at this stage

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At this stage you need to take care of yourself, take 5mg of folic acid daily, take fruits, vegetables and water to stay hydrated and have enough rest. Also, visit your doctor for booking or scheduling prenatal appointment.

If your doctor advised you to continue with your daily work out routine you do so if he insist you should stop please do so to live healthy.

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What to avoid

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• Do not consume much or any junk foods since they contain high sugars and can lead to an increase risk of gestational diabetes.

• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Some beverages contains caffeine so try and avoid this too since it may have negative effect to the embryo.

Conclusion

Health is wealth take care of yourself and help your neighbour, friend or relative to do so too. I believe you learn something from this write up, follow me next week Monday as I tell you what happens at 9 weeks. I will also be writing some necessary risk of disease condition that may occur in this stages and how to handle it. Thank you so much for reading through take care see you in my next post.

I will attend to questions and suggestions in the comment section I appreciate you all. 💕💕💕

Please note; if you are pregnant and live within Akwa Ibom state Uyo Nigeria, kindly reach me for free antenatal care at Imabrige medical center, send me message on WHATSAPP https://wa.me/message/BLLYH3HCASNNK1