If a gynecologist recently confirmed your pregnancy, you likely want to start making preparations, such as purchasing a crib, arranging a nursery, and gathering diapers. Learning about the different stages of pregnancy helps you know what to expect throughout the gestation process. Pregnancies typically last 40 weeks and include three distinct phases, or trimesters.

A Guide to the Different Pregnancy Stages

First Trimester

In the first trimester, the body experiences extensive hormonal changes. Pregnancy officially starts when the fertilized egg attaches to a uterine wall after undergoing cell divisions. The first trimester lasts 12 weeks, with initial symptoms including nausea, tender and swollen breasts, mood swings, implantation bleeding, cravings, fatigue, heartburn, and headaches. 

The fetus’s heart, nervous system, limbs, and sex organs develop during the first trimester. See your gynecologist once a month during this trimester to develop a prenatal plan that includes exercise, diet, and supplement recommendations, and to learn your expected due date. The gynecologist also checks your health and that of the growing fetus during all examinations.

Second Trimester

During the second trimester, or weeks 13 to 28, fatigue and nausea symptoms generally disappear. The abdomen expands as the fetus matures, and the body experiences other physical symptoms such as stretch marks in the abdomen, thighs, breasts, and buttocks, darker nipples, tingling hands, patches of darker skin on the face, and itchy palms, foot soles, and abdomen.

The fetus’s musculoskeletal and skin develops during the second trimester. It also starts swallowing, moving, and hearing, and developing bone marrow, taste buds, and eyelashes and eyebrows. You can learn the sex if you want, and see the fetus on an ultrasound. Continue to see your gynecologist once a month for prenatal tests that include checks for gestational diabetes, fetal heartbeat health, and fetoprotein levels.

Third Trimester

The third trimester, or weeks 29 to 40, includes body changes such as frequent urination, shortness of breath, tender breasts, sleeping issues, protruding belly button, swollen ankles, face, and fingers, and the fetus “dropping,” or moving into the lower part of the abdomen in preparation for birth. Contractions known as false labor can also start during this time.

Fetal development during the third trimester includes weight gain and complete sex organ and lung formation. The eyes also finish developing. Beginning at week 28, prenatal visits with the gynecologist increase to every two weeks. By week 36, they increase to once a week to continue monitoring maternal and fetal health, and to prepare for labor. Since the baby is fully developed by the 37th week, some women go into labor before reaching their 40th week of pregnancy. 

Discuss the best prenatal care plan for you with the experienced gynecologist at Advanced OB-GYN Services. Featuring convenient locations in St. Peters and Bridgton, MO, this prenatal doctor offers the caring and compassionate environment ideal for expecting moms. Call (636) 928-1800 to make an appointment or learn more online.