Week 2 of Your Pregnancy
With the 2nd Week, your body begins to prepare for a possible pregnancy. Therefore, you are not officially pregnant at this time. You do not yet notice the typical pregnancy symptoms, such as nausea or vomiting.
Take advantage of your fertile days now. If everything goes well, your baby can implant in your uterus during the 4th week of pregnancy. There are a few things you can do to support your body during pregnancy. Learn more about this in this article.
Here you can find all of our 1st trimester articles:
This is how your body prepares for pregnancy in the 2nd week of pregnancy
In the 2nd week of pregnancy, your body concentrates on preparing for a possible pregnancy. To do this, it builds up the lining of the uterus again, which will later accommodate the embryo and offer it protection. In addition, new eggs mature during the 2nd Week. Even if you are fertile for 5 days, fertilization must take place within your ovulation.
Ovulation usually occurs around the middle of your cycle. If you have a 28-day regular cycle, ovulation takes place on the 14th day. This is when eggs mature in your body. As soon as a mature egg burst, it makes its way through the fallopian tube into your uterus.
There it lives only 12 to 24 hours and must be fertilized within this time for pregnancy. If the mature egg meets a sperm on its journey, the sperm can penetrate the membrane of the egg. The genetic material is mixed and new life is created. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Once fertilization has worked, the cell doubles in size.
One becomes two, then four, and soon there are eight. Until finally a collection of cells is formed that looks like mulberry and therefore also gets the term “morula”, Latin for mulberry. A cavity called the germinal vesicle is now formed in the center of the morula. The germinal vesicle divides into two parts: The embryoblast, from which the embryo grows, and the trophoblast. The latter will later give rise to the placenta, which will take care of the baby.
As soon as the fertilized egg reaches the uterus at the end of the 3rd SSW, the embryo is formed. It tries to implant itself in the lining of the uterus. The implantation is supported by the corpus luteum hormone.
So once the embryo has firmly implanted in the uterus, you are 4 weeks pregnant. In an ultrasound scan, the embryo can be identified in the 4th week of pregnancy by a small black cavity.
2nd week: What is the risk of miscarriage?
Even if your egg was successfully fertilized and implanted in the last cycle, a miscarriage can, unfortunately, occur in the 2nd week of pregnancy. To understand this, it is important to know your own cycle.
Every woman has a menstrual cycle. In the 1st Week there is no talk of an official pregnancy yet. But why is that? During this time, your menstrual period takes place as usual.
However, for a pregnancy, the first day of menstruation is used to calculate the duration of pregnancy (40 weeks).
In order to make pregnancy possible, your body builds up the lining of the uterus and creates new eggs during the 2nd week of pregnancy. At the end of the 2nd week or at the beginning of the 3rd week, ovulation occurs.
From this point on, you are fertile for several days. As the mature egg moves through the fallopian tube to the uterus, it can be fertilized by a sperm. In the 4th week of pregnancy, the fertilized cell tries to implant in the lining of the uterus.
If the embryo succeeds in implanting, you are already pregnant in the 4th week of pregnancy. If the embryo fails to implant, it will be expelled during the next menstrual period. Unfortunately, it can happen that the fertilized egg does not manage to implant.
In such cases, it is called an abortion – a miscarriage. Although the risk of miscarriage cannot be ruled out, it decreases with the increasing duration of pregnancy.
The reasons for miscarriage
In the first weeks of pregnancy, many women are at risk of miscarriage. Therefore, many expectant mothers do not reveal that they are pregnant until the 12th week of pregnancy.
If a miscarriage occurs in the 2nd week of pregnancy, most women do not even realize that they were pregnant.
For them, a new cycle begins. Most of the time, a miscarriage in the 2nd week of pregnancy is only recognized by the fact that the menstrual period has shifted a bit or that it looks different from usual.
In some cases, a miscarriage can occur in the 2nd Week. The reason for this is that the embryo has not been able to implant. A deficiency of corpus luteum hormones may be responsible for this.
Chromosome incompatibility or a rejection reaction of the body can also lead to a miscarriage in the 2nd Week.
Can miscarriages happen again?
If you have already suffered several miscarriages and still wish to have a child, it is advisable to visit your gynecologist.
This way you can find out the reasons for a miscarriage in the 2nd or 6th week of pregnancy or later and fight them. Even vaginal infections or even thyroid problems can trigger a miscarriage.
Related posts:
How to prepare for your pregnancy
Recognize fertile days
Did you know that it is only possible to get pregnant on 5 to 6 days per month? To get pregnant, it is good to know when these days are. The fertile period starts a few days before ovulation and ends no later than 24 hours after ovulation.
The difficulty is to know when this occurs. Our tip: Calculate your ovulation with the help of an ovulation calendar or with an ovulation test.
Avoid stress
Everything that leads to stress should be avoided if possible. This does not mean that you should quit your job. However, discussions, small changes in the daily routine, and other compromises can lead to a more pleasant atmosphere at work or at home.
If you manage to concentrate on the nice things, the bad things will lose their importance. They will not affect your psyche so much, and you will be able to relax more often.
Healthy lifestyle
Sports and exercise help to reduce stress and provide the body with optimal oxygen. However, you should only do light sports. Make sure you get enough sleep. This also reduces stress.
Do not put yourself under pressure
If you want to get pregnant, you quickly find yourself under pressure. But that’s exactly what you should not do. So that your body can optimally prepare for pregnancy, you should allow it as much relaxation as possible. Enjoy this exciting time and don’t expect it to work out right away in the first month.
Proper nutrition during pregnancy
Now is the perfect time to build a good foundation for pregnancy. With a healthy and balanced diet, you support your body during this time.
Here you will find a list of particularly important nutrients for your pregnancy:
Iron
- Meat
- Legumes
- Swiss chard
- Spinach
- Fennel
- Zucchini
- Sesame
- Nuts
- Wholemeal bread
- Beet
- Savoy cabbage
Source: Are You Getting Enough Iron?
*Folic acid
- Salads
- Kale
- Spinach
- Beans
- Nuts
- Chickpeas
*Additional intake of folic acid supplements is recommended.
Source: Folic Acid and Pregnancy
Vitamin B12
- Fish
- Beef
- Kefir
- Whole milk
- Eggs
- Hard cheese
Magnesium
- Nuts
- Wholemeal bread
- Oatmeal
- Dark chocolate
- Legumes
- Dried figs
- Soy products
- Parmesan cheese
Iodine
- Sea fish (plaice, pollock, cod)
- Iodized salt
- Bread
- Hard cheese
- Algae products
Proteins
- Cheese
- Lean meat
- Legumes
- natural yogurt.
Folic acid in the 2nd Week
Folic acid is found in vitamins B9 and B11 and in meat, fish, and many vegetables and fruits. You should now take 0.4 milligrams daily. Folic acid is responsible for the embryonic development of the brain and nervous system.
Since an intake via food is hardly sufficient, many doctors and midwives recommend an additional intake via so-called folic acid preparations.
Source: Prenatal Vitamins
FAQ - Second week of Pregnancy
✅ What happens in the 2nd Week?
In the 2nd week of pregnancy, the fertilized egg must implant in the uterus. If it has succeeded in doing so, you have actually become pregnant. Congratulations!
✅ 2nd Week: When does the belly start to change?
You will have to be patient until you notice a change in your belly. A baby bump usually becomes noticeable from the 12th week of pregnancy. The uterus has reached a certain size at this time. From this time on, you can already notice a small bulge on your belly.
✅ Do you feel pain when your 2 weeks pregnant?
Aches, pains and soreness: Some amount of tenderness in the breasts, slight ache in the tummy, or a twinge of pain in the pelvic is all normal and associated with ovulation. Most women do not feel or notice these changes unless they are highly sensitive to their bodies or are closely monitoring week 2 of pregnancy.
