Pregnancy calendar: 18th week of pregnancy
Pregnancy calendar by week. An experienced doctor tells how a child develops in the womb and what changes occur in the pregnant woman’s body. All the most important things about the 18th week of pregnancy
Changes in your body:
Perhaps you have noticed a good appetite in yourself – this is very typical for this and the next period of pregnancy, because now the primary task of the baby is growth. However, remember that for the second trimester you only need an additional 340 kcal. Also consider your body mass index, if it is less than 19, you need to gain weight, if it is more than 24, then be careful not to overeat. Therefore, choose food rich in vitamins and minerals: fresh vegetables, greens, salads, berries, nuts and fruits, as opposed to food with “empty” calories. Empty calories are food that contains practically no vitamins or trace elements – only proteins, carbohydrates and fats. In the process of food preparation and heat treatment, any products lose vitamins that are destroyed and water that evaporates. Therefore, you should try to eat fresh, uncooked food.
More about body mass index .
The second ultrasound should be performed between 18 weeks and 20 weeks plus 6 days. At this stage, problems related to structural deviations can be noted. However, it is again a meeting with your baby! I wonder if she will show you her face, or wave her pen, or turn so that you can see the gender, or, on the contrary, turn away from the sensor? Can you imagine how interesting it is for the child’s father to see this miracle?
Can your baby hear already? If not, don’t worry, mostly women feel the baby’s movements for the first time from 16 to 22 weeks. In the beginning, these movements are easy to confuse with the usual movements of food and gases in the intestine. However, the baby grows, and therefore the movements become more confident and persistent.
How does the baby grow?
The child’s movements become more active. The important thing for this week is that around the axons of nerve cells, special insulating sheaths of myelin begin to form, like insulation around electrical wires. This process of myelination of nerve cells will continue for a whole year after the birth of the child. What is important is that this is an extremely necessary process for the formation of the nervous system of the baby in general. Without it, it is impossible to imagine the development of any reflexes and movements of the child.
The genitals of a girl and a boy can be distinguished during an ultrasound examination.
Author: Olga Letnyanchyk, doctor
Read also:
– Pregnancy calendar: from 1 to 40 weeks
