Your pregnancy: 10 weeks pregnant
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You may still be battling morning sickness, tiredness and indigestion, but you'll have your booking appointment this week where your midwife can help ease any anxieties you may have. Here's what to expect now that you're 10 weeks pregnant.
What’s happening at 10 weeks?
Here are the key things you can expect from your pregnancy at this stage:
- Your baby's major organs are fully formed.
- Your booking appointment takes place (if it hasn't already).
- Changes to your digestive system.
- Time to start your pelvic floor exercises.
How big's your baby?
This week, your baby's about the size of a giant chocolate button. They're around 3.1cm from crown to rump and weigh in at just 3 to 4g.
It's an exciting moment in your baby's development, as they're now officially classed as a foetus, instead of an embryo. This marks a change when most of your baby's body has formed, and it just has more developing to go to get baby ready for the big, wide world.
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That tiny, fully-developed heart is beating up to 180 times a minute – that’s two to three times faster than yours!
Your baby's major organs (the heart, kidneys, brain and intestines) are formed and functional, yet super tiny still, of course.
The jawbone is developing, as are the future first teeth.
As you near the end of the first trimester, amazingly, the early development of your baby's organs are nearly complete. From now on, your little one's main occupation will be growing and gaining weight.
What's going on with your body?
You may have gained a little extra weight at this point, but it's probably not quite time for your baby bump to be obvious yet.
However, if you gently prod above the top of your pubic bone (just below your bikini line) you might just feel the top of your uterus poking out!
If you're lucky, your hormones may be starting to settle down around now, meaning you're not feeling quite as sick and may be a little less exhausted.
If that's the case, make sure you try some gentle exercise or daily walks to keep as fit as you can through the pregnancy. If not, don't worry; it'll probably happen in a couple of weeks – just give it time.
Invest in a maternity bra if your boobs have increased in cup size over the last few weeks!
Pregnancy hormones cause muscles and ligaments to relax in your body, which means your digestive system can get a little sluggish, which can lead to constipation. Another charming pregnancy symptom they leave out of the movies!
Eat plenty of fibre (fruit, veg and wholegrain carbs are all good sources), drink lots of water, and make sure you're getting some gentle exercise. If these tips don't help, see your local pharmacist.
If your doctor has prescribed iron tablets, these could make constipation worse, so talk to your doctor about changing or stopping the supplements.
What to expect this week: pregnancy cravings
You’ve probably heard all about pregnant women craving the weirdest things to eat and drink.
For most cases, pregnancy cravings involve going off food or drinks you’ve previously enjoyed (often fried or spicy foods), and maybe fancying sweet, sour, salty, cold or crunchy things.
For others, it can involve eating strange combinations of foods – like sardines with jam or ice cream with pickles, for instance – which is not really a problem for anyone other than the people sitting next to you.
There's no harm in indulging these types of cravings from time to time, as long as you're getting a balanced diet overall.
But there is a more unusual phenomenon called ‘pica’, which happens when women crave non-edible substances.
No one really knows why it happens, but if you find yourself suddenly wanting to eat washing tablets and candles, and lick plant pots and soil, resist the urge and try to find something edible you really fancy instead.
Your cravings are likely to fizzle out as your pregnancy progresses anyway so it should just be a temporary phase.
Oh, and don't worry if you don't have any cravings at all – that's perfectly normal, too (though we won't tell if you want to pretend you're really craving chocolate ice cream!).
However mild or extreme your pregnancy cravings are, no one knows exactly why they kick in although there are various theories.
Some experts think it’s our body telling us we're lacking certain nutrients. There could be hormonal reasons for cravings or it could just be pure indulgence. After all, pregnancy is tiring work, so it's very easy to give into sweet cravings just to get that sugar fix.
Just make sure you know about what's safe to eat during your pregnancy and why eating for two isn't actually recommended!
It's fine to indulge unhealthy cravings for sugar and carbs every now and then; just not all the time. Maintaining a healthy weight will really help your pregnancy to go more smoothly, and is great for your developing baby's health.
If you're worried that you're gaining too much pregnancy weight, talk to your midwife or doctor for support.
What to do this week: start your pelvic floor exercises
Pelvic floor exercises are one of those things your midwife will keep mentioning to you and you’ll nod along … er, then not do them.
But we’re telling you here and now that they’re a good idea. Start them now and you’ll thank us in the months – and years – to come.
The pelvic floor is a sling of muscles that stretch from your pubic bone at the front of your body to the base of the spine at the back, and its job is to hold the pelvic organs – that is, the uterus (womb), bladder, vagina and bowel – safely in place.
Strengthening those muscles is hugely important because a strong pelvic floor can make giving birth easier, help your recovery down below and give your sex life a boost as time goes on (should you ever allow your other half to come near you again, ha ha!).
Women who do their pelvic floor exercises are also much less likely to experience issues with leaking wee after the birth. So it'll save your blushes when you run / sneeze / laugh. See, told you they were important…
To do your pelvic floor exercises, you need to pull your muscles up and in, as if you were trying to stop yourself weeing and stop yourself doing a fart at the same time. Squeeze, release, and repeat.
They can be tricky to do if you haven’t done them before, so read our guide to doing pelvic floor exercises correctly.
Start small at first, with a few repetitions once a day, then build up until you're doing 10 repetitions, three times a day. Set a reminder on your phone so you don't forget.
Your 10 week to-do list
1 Read through your antenatal notes – these books are full of useful information so have a read through and keep them safe.
2 Do some research – your midwife will have given you lots of food for thought at your appointment so look into anything that you're still unsure of. For instance, you might want to know more about what your 12-week scan involves.
3 Start making a list of baby buys – get an idea of what to splurge on and what to save on here.
4 Now is an excellent time to take some 'me-time'. Check out these best buys for pregnancy relaxation for ways to treat yourself.
5 Start doing your pelvic floors – like, right now this second. See above for help with this.
What to watch this week...
Get expert tips on what to expect at 10 weeks pregnant from our midwife.
What happens next week...
Want to know what happens when you're 11 weeks pregnant? Or maybe you've already forgotten what you read last week? Just click on the numbers above to find out more about what to expect at each stage of pregnancy.
