Mom’s Tip of the Week 12
Did you know ... ?
Your joints may be loosening up. During pregnancy, a hormone called relaxin is being produced. Its likely purpose isn’t to help you when you’re 12 weeks pregnant, it’s to help the cervix open when you eventually give birth. This same hormone can also loosen up ligaments throughout your body, which may make you more prone to injury during exercise and movement. To protect joints, keep motions slow and steady, whether you’re working out or lifting a bag of groceries.
Your Baby at 12 Weeks Pregnant
What’s Happening in There
- Your baby is about two and a half inches in length. She has doubled in size in the past three weeks. Her weight has increased to about more than half an ounce—that’s a jump of more than 75 percent during the past week alone.
- Your baby’s profile is evident on a sonogram. That’s because her facial detail has developed rapidly over the last few weeks. Another detail: She has grown fingernails and toenails in this last week of your first trimester.
- This week her vocal cords form. Your baby at 12 weeks is already getting ready to cry for you at her birth!
- Most of your baby’s internal systems are fully formed. Your little one’s kidneys are functioning well and can turn any amniotic fluid that she takes in and pass it as urine. Her abdomen is now large enough to hold her intestines, and her digestive system muscles are contracting in preparation for eating and digestion when she is born.
- Her liver is creating blood cells. The red blood cells have the job of delivering oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, and the white blood cells will create a healthy immune system once she enters the world.
Baby Brain Waves
Your Baby’s Brain Is Developing
Around the time that you’re 12 weeks pregnant your baby’s corpus callosum is beginning to develop. This bundle of about 200 million axons, or nerve fibers, coordinates motor, sensory, and cognitive functions between the right and left sides of the brain. Your healthy diet and prenatal vitamins with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are nourishing your baby’s fine motor development, as well as her brain and vision: Studies have shown a link between consumption of DHA during pregnancy and superior hand-eye coordination in toddlers.1
1. Ana Abad-Jorge, MS, RD, CNSC, The Role of DHA and ARA in Infant Nutrition and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. Today’s Dietitian October 2008 Vol. 10 No. 10 P. 66
Pregnancy Symptoms
Real Issues, Real Solutions
The issue: You are experiencing more burping, bloating, and gas.
The solution: It’s normal to have gas when 12 weeks pregnant—and throughout your pregnancy—but avoiding certain foods and a few other strategies can help prevent or at least lessen digestive discomfort.
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