Although it may seem strange to think about, the journey of your pregnancy actually begins before the baby has actually been conceived. The very first week of your pregnancy does not begin with conception, or with the growth of the fetus in your body, but rather it begins with the beginning of your very last menstrual period. Understanding how pregnancy fetal development works in the first weeks of your pregnancy is a great way to understand the changes that are happening in your body from week to week.

Why is this?

It is hard to pinpoint the period where your egg has actually become fertilized. The most accurate starting point that you can use for this particular purpose, then, is the date of your last menstrual cycle. Your doctor is going to take this date, and then he or she will calculate your estimated due date based on counting forty weeks away from this day.

What this is known as is gestational age, and it is the way that most doctors are now measuring all pregnancies. Because both our ovulation and our conception are taking place approximately two weeks following the beginning of our last period, the fetal age for our baby, which is what begins as soon as the egg has been fertilized, is generally going to be just two weeks less than the baby's gestational age. So in other words, when you are in your eighth week of pregnancy, your baby has a fetal age of 6 weeks.

Something else that you are going to want to put consideration into is how your own body is changing during this process. Many women focus on how the baby is growing and developing during this time without putting a lot of their focus on how their own body is changing in ways to accommodate the growth and development of the new baby.

During the first week, the preconception week, your body is already working to prepare for the new baby. In fact, your body has actually been preparing for this very important process during every single month ever since puberty. During every menstrual period that you have, your uterus is shedding its natural lining. By shedding this lining, your uterus is allowing for the creation of a brand new lining, which is going to be rich in blood vessels that are prepared to house your developing baby, nurturing and nourishing it during development.

Your menstrual periods are setting the stage for the growth of a baby, and the preconception phase of your pregnancy, which occurs just before the egg is fertilized is setting the stage for the upcoming nine months of growth, development and nourishment.

Photo Credits: Lorena Fernández-Fernández

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Menstruation, Nutrition Fitness Life, Pregnancy/Motherhood

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doctors, egg, estimated due date, fetus, gestational age, growth and development, journey, last period, menstrual cycle, menstrual period, new baby, ovulation, pregnancies, pregnancy fetal development, puberty, uterus, week of pregnancy