Did you know that your pregnancy officially begins on the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP)? Learn what’s happening in these very early stages of the first week of pregnancy with you and your growing baby.
Welcome to WFA Mom’s Pregnancy Week by Week! Each week we will provide you with information, facts, pictures, and links to other resources for the appropriate stage of your pregnancy. In the coming weeks, we’ll calculate your pregnancy from your last menstrual period (LMP), and also from your gestational age, figured out by the date on which you actually conceived. Sound confusing? Read on and you’ll be an expert in no time. Or go to our convenient calculator to make sure you’re on track.
Remember that every pregnancy is different, and growth rates vary, so always read one week on either side of your estimated pregnancy stage. If you have any questions, please check with your healthcare provider.
Pregnancy Week 1: All About You
Note: Yes, this is the first week of your pregnancy … but you’re not even pregnant yet! Confused? Understanding the LMP method (last menstrual period) for calculating pregnancy is tricky. Here’s a primer:
Your doctor will calculate your due date by counting from the first day of your last menstrual period, or LMP. Doctors use this date because many women just don’t know when they last ovulated. Try to think of it this way: Each time your body has a period, you’re preparing for pregnancy, so it makes perfect sense that the first day of your menstrual cycle fits in to figuring out your baby-to-be’s due date.
Pregnancy Begins Before Conception
Your pregnancy begins about two weeks before the actual conception. The first day of your last period counts toward the 40 weeks physicians use to chart your pregnancy (doctors call this the LMP, or last menstrual period). It might sound backwards at first, but every period you have is a potential pregnancy—at least that’s how your body sees it.
After an egg leaves the ovary and travels through the fallopian tube, it’s primed for fertilization. And your body readies itself for that possible pregnancy. During a 12- to 24-hour window as the egg is making this journey, it could be fertilized. The lining of the uterus builds up in anticipation. If the egg is unfertilized, the uterus lining will shed (this is menstruation) so that the body can prepare for the next egg—and the next potential pregnancy.
Monitoring Your Menstrual Cycle
To understand when you’re primed for pregnancy, you need to know a little bit about your menstrual cycle. The average woman menstruates every 28 days, explains Dr. Timothy R.B. Johnson, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Health System. The first day of your cycle begins when you notice blood coming from your vagina. Your period lasts a few days. About 14 days after you first started menstruating, your ovaries release another egg. In other words, you’re ovulating—this is a prime time to get pregnant. Over the next 14 days, or the second part of your cycle, the egg works its way to the uterus. If it goes unfertilized, the cycle begins again.
But charting this cycle is sometimes difficult. “Not all women have 28-day cycles,” explains Dr. Johnson. “Some women have 30-day cycles, or even 35; other women have shorter cycles.” So while your healthcare provider will give you an estimated due date based on your LMP during your first prenatal visit, only an ultrasound can give you an accurate picture of your baby’s exact arrival day.
Birth Control and Pregnancy
Birth control doesn’t increase your odds of infertility, although it may take you longer to get pregnant once stopping the contraceptive, advises Dr. Johnson. “It will probably take a couple of months before your cycle returns to normal.” That said, Dr. Johnson knows plenty of patients who got pregnant soon after they stopped taking the pill.
If you’re concerned that you’ve been off birth control without getting pregnant after those two months, it’s important to understand that from a medical standpoint, you’re not considered an infertility risk until you’ve gone at least one year with unprotected sex without a pregnancy.
Preparing for Pregnancy
To jumpstart a healthy pregnancy you might consider taking pretnatal vitamins, drinking orange juice for folic acid, and getting some exercise. You may not even realize when you first become pregnant so refrain from drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or smoking cigarettes when you’re trying to conceive. Even prescriptions may be harmful to your developing baby, so be sure to speak to your doctor when you’re ready to start a family.
Pregnancy Week 1: All About Baby
Your baby is still about two weeks shy of her conception date, but your body knows to prepare for her. The lining of your uterus is thickening in anticipation of a fertilized egg—a pregnancy! You may not even know when you become pregnant. When the egg implants in the uterus, you may notice a little blood spotting, called implantation, that may appear to be a light period.
Most Common Pregnancy Questions
1 Week Pregnant: Are Pregnancy Tests Ever Wrong?
This may be an exciting (and scary) thought: you could be pregnant! Before you go out and buy a home pregnancy test (HPT), let’s quickly talk about how they work.
HPTs check for the presence of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). This hormone is produced after fertilization occurs and is responsible for many of the early symptoms of pregnancy.
An HPT can be used as soon as the first day after your missed period, which is approximately two weeks after fertilization. Later, you may call your OB and get a blood test to confirm your pregnancy. This is done in your doctor’s office about one week after conception.
If you follow all the directions provided by the HPT manufacturer and you get a positive result, chances are pretty good that you are indeed pregnant. However, an HPT may give you a negative results if you test too early or if you don’t follow the package instructions.
If you really believe you are pregnant and the results are negative, wait until the next morning and try testing again. (Most kits have two tests to deal with mistakes or to satisfy your need to re-test.) Here’s a helpful hint: hCG tends to be highest and more concentrated in your urine in the morning, so this is the best time to test for the most accurate results.
When you do see a positive result in a HPT, it is time to call your doctor to schedule that blood test to confirm your results.
Multiple Madness
Start Documenting Your Journey
A woman never forgets the instant the pregnancy test turns positive, the foods she finds perfectly revolting for the subsequent 40 weeks, or the moment she first holds her newborn.
What about the moments that aren’t forever embedded in your mind’s eye? The moment you first feel your baby move? Or the jump of his hiccups? Or to see her heel glide across your belly? These memories are equally precious, but they easily become lost in the pregnancy fog you’ll blame each time you can’t locate your car keys.
Journaling is a wonderful way to preserve these memories.
- A pre-made journal. The Pregnancy Journal: A Day-to-Day Guide to a Healthy and Happy Pregnancy by A. Christine Harris, is a wonderful resource. Informing you each day how the baby is growing, and providing space for you to document your cravings, feelings, and concerns, the journal is a delight to look back on. I used the same journal for all of my pregnancies and love to be reminded that on Day 89 I felt great with my first baby, gargantuan with my twins, and addicted to any food with the word “chip” at the end with my fourth child.
- Purchase a blank journal and document the journey in your own words. Where were you when you learned you were pregnant? What are your greatest fears? What are you most looking forward to? What names are you considering? (I don’t recommend ever sharing the answers to the last question with your child; she’ll undoubtedly inform you that you chose wrong.).
- Blog your journey. It’s easy to set up an online blog where you can record these incredible nine months. For women who type faster than they write, this option is appealing. You can download and handwrite the blog later if you’d like, but typing it now ensures that you get the details down before you forget them.
- Write letters to your unborn child. What are your wishes for him or her? What kinds of things can you not wait to do as a family?
For Your Partner
The Possible Side Effects of TTC
Sometimes conception is an accident. You didn’t plan on conceiving. You really weren’t quite ready for a baby yet, but you were ready for sex, and lo and behold …
However, when couples conclude that they want to have a baby, and that the time to conceive is finally now, surprising things sometimes happen. Sex takes on an entirely different meaning; it is no longer just about pleasure, fun, and enjoying each other. Often when couples are trying to conceive it becomes about the intimacy of their relationship, the level of trust they have with each other, and about how ready each individual truly feels about having a baby.
And now, sex comes with pressure. Sex becomes more about the goal of conception and less about the process itself. Now sex is rated not on satisfaction, but on success. Now sex is actually graded pass/fail.
This success-oriented focus on sex can lead to problems for both partners. Sometimes the pressure is too much, and one or both partners develop issues in an area in which they never had issues before. Maybe they’ve become frigid, or unable to obtain or maintain an erection, or are just so uncomfortable that they don’t actually want to have sex anymore. Sex turns into a chore instead of an opportunity to bask in the intimacy a couple shares with each other.
The more you practice with each other, the more likely you will be stronger and healthier as a couple by the time you do conceive.
Fun Fact
Popular wisdom used to be that women were born with a finite number of eggs, but recent research in reproduction in mice is challenging that idea. Researchers found female mice’s damaged eggs were replaced with newly created ones. More study is needed to find out whether this is true for women, too.
Wondering what is in store for you and your pregnancy? Skip ahead to 2 weeks pregnant!