Let's be pregnant together!*
*Even though we’re not really pregnant.
During your first pregnancy (or if you’re pregnant now)… Did you really have an idea of what the process was going to look like? Time and again we hear from clients that they don’t even know what questions to ask because they don’t know what they don’t know. Confused and overwhelmed? We’ve been there. Since a doula’s job is to provide informational and physical support during the prenatal and labor process, we figured we’d try our best to “doula” all of you this year. So, in addition to our regular content, we’re going to take our followers on a little journey. Starting with your first week of pregnancy and ending the year in the “fourth trimester,” adjusting to your new life with a little one, we’re going to take all of 2022 to try to help our clients, followers, and friends feel a little more prepared for what’s to come. We won’t post updates every week, but at the milestone moments. We’ll have little snapshots on social media, with more in-depth explorations on our blog.
Have questions? Let us know! Are there things you experienced that you wish someone would’ve warned you about? Tell us in the comments section below, and we’ll make sure to add it to our Terra Cotta Pregnancy. And if there is information you find useful along the way, consider reaching out to us! If you think the information on our blog is helpful, imagine what having our perinatal support for real would look like.
Read on for your first week of pregnancy!
Guess what? You’re one week pregnant. You don’t even know it yet, but we do!
We’re going to walk you through how you got here, what’s happening in your body, and what to expect over the next couple of weeks.
First off, how did you get here?
Okay, fair warning, things are about to get weird. Let’s oversimplify this.
One week pregnant in provider terms is not what you would think of as one week pregnant. Your first week of pregnancy is actually the last period you will have before pregnancy. Whereas what we might think of as the first week of pregnancy is actually around the fourth week of pregnancy in provider terms. Stay with me. We’ll continue to touch on estimated due dates and how they work as this pregnancy progresses, but let’s keep it simple for now.
Unless you know the date of conception, the next best way to estimate your due date is based off of your last menstrual cycle. Because of that, the first day of your last menstrual cycle is the first day of pregnancy. You won’t even know this is the first day of the pregnancy journey until about four weeks from now! You’re like a time traveler.
Still with me? Let’s keep going. In about two weeks is when ovulation will begin! You might remember from health class in high school that once per month, an egg that has fully grown releases from one of your ovaries. It leaves usually around 10-20 potential eggs (follicles) behind that didn’t quite grow up. Well, your egg was advanced. It grew up beautifully and decided to leave home for college, traveling down the Fallopian tubes. During sex, sperm meets up with the egg to fertilize it, and that fertilized egg attaches itself to the lining of your uterus. Had this particular egg not been fertilized, your uterine wall would’ve shed during regularly scheduled menstruation, taking the unfertilized egg with it. You likely won’t have much reason to take a pregnancy test for a while, unless you’re tracking and trying, in which case you might be taking one just before week four- aka when your next period is due.
Here’s where you’ll meet your first pregnancy hormone! Please welcome hCG onto the stage! This is the hormone that is being tested for when you take a pregnancy test, and is the hormone you have to thank for being period-free for the next 10+ months, because it is preventing your uterine wall from shedding. There’s a chance you’ll start feeling some nausea and some breast tenderness, also thanks to the hCG. But not much else during these first few weeks! Mostly you’ll keep living your life like a major life change isn’t coming your way.
We’ll check in again around week four, when you might be starting to experience some more early pregnancy symptoms… Maybe you’ve even picked up an at-home test at this point! Happy growing!
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Disclaimer: The Terra Cotta Pregnancy Journey is based on a healthy, low risk pregnancy. Even this particular post included lots of cycle information that assumes that those of you that menstruate are on 28-day cycles (a portion of the population of which I, myself, am not a member). If your cycle length differs, if you are high risk or have additional risk factors, this story might not feel reflective of your pregnancy journey. But let me be clear: TCPS is here to serve you just the same! You are welcome here and we want to connect you with information, education, resources and support. In creating the TCPS pregnancy, we opted for a very by-the-book experience so we could give the most foundational information to the largest group possible.
Also, the information shared on this pregnancy journey is not medical advice. I am a birth doula and childbirth educator with a focus on trauma informed care and years of experience as a birth worker that has given me the information I am sharing with you here. If you have any questions or concerns, or are making decisions about your care, you should bring them to your provider and support team.