What are the reactions during the 15th week of pregnancy?

Pregnant women have different physical and psychological reactions at different times. Relatively speaking, the reactions in the early stages of pregnancy are more worthy of attention. What are the reactions in the fifteenth week of pregnancy? What should you pay attention to in the fifteenth week of pregnancy? What are the differences in the fetus? These are all things we need to understand. Let’s take a look together.

The fetus is now growing very fast, much faster than in the previous few weeks. The baby in the womb begins to make many movements. He can clench his fists, squint, frown, make faces, and start to suck his thumb. Researchers believe that these movements will promote the growth of the fetus's brain.

Fetal development

This week, the baby's length has reached 10-12 cm and its weight has reached 50 grams. His thin skin is now covered with a layer of fine down, which usually disappears at birth, making his entire body look like a velvety blanket. Your baby's eyebrows are now beginning to grow, and the hair on the top of his head is also growing rapidly. The texture, density and color of his hair will change after birth.

Changes in expectant mothers

At this time, the expectant mother's uterus has grown and out of the pelvis, and there will be an obvious bulge under the belly button. The mother can feel her uterus 7.6 to 10 cm below the belly button. Although the hormonal surge has slowed, you may still feel more fragile, sensitive, and irritable than before pregnancy. As the pregnancy weeks increase, the expectant mother's cardiopulmonary function load increases, her heart rate increases, and her breathing becomes faster and deeper, which may aggravate her original anxiety.

1. Some special expectant mothers need prenatal diagnosis: During the 15-18 weeks of pregnancy, you may need to undergo a prenatal diagnosis based on the doctor's advice. Through specific examinations of the fetus, it can be determined whether the fetus has congenital or genetic diseases. Expectant mothers in the following situations need prenatal diagnosis: those who are married to close relatives; elderly pregnant women over 35 years old; pregnant women who have given birth to children with chromosomal diseases; pregnant women who have had multiple miscarriages or stillbirths.

2. O-type expectant mothers need to check for ABO hemolytic disease: O-type expectant mothers should also check whether there is blood incompatibility between mother and baby. There are two obvious symptoms of blood incompatibility. One is ABO blood incompatibility, which generally means that the mother's blood type is O and the father's blood type is A, B or AB. ABO hemolytic disease is more common in the first pregnancy. Another is Rh blood incompatibility. When the mother's blood type is Rh negative and the father's blood type is Rh positive, childbirth can cause the mother to produce antibodies to the fetus's blood. The first fetus is less likely to develop the disease, and the more births, the higher the incidence rate.

3. Frequent urination begins: Expectant mothers may start to get up to urinate at night, even more frequently than during the day. This is due to the increase in fetal metabolites and the increased burden on the kidneys. Don't be afraid to drink water because it is very necessary to drink enough water.

4. Hair begins to change: There is an unexpected change that may make the expectant mother very happy. Your originally thin and yellow hair will become thick, black and shiny after pregnancy, thanks to your baby. But the resulting increase in body hair or faint beard may also bother you. These are all changes that pregnancy brings to you, and they are all temporary.

5. Appropriate intake of zinc-containing foods: Zinc deficiency can cause expectant mothers to have abnormal taste and smell, loss of appetite, poor digestion and absorption, and reduced immunity. Foods rich in zinc include oysters, liver, button mushrooms, sesame, ark shells, etc., especially oysters.

Related recommendations: Pregnancy and childbirth: What you should know about prenatal examinations. 5 benefits of regular prenatal examinations!

Special focus this week: Down syndrome screening

Down syndrome, commonly known as congenital dementia, is the most common chromosomal disease, with approximately 1 in every 750 newborns suffering from Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome have severe intellectual disabilities, cannot take care of themselves, and have complex cardiovascular diseases. They require long-term care from their families, which places a huge mental and financial burden on the family. There is currently no effective treatment or measure to effectively prevent its occurrence, but prenatal screening, prenatal diagnosis and other methods can prevent the birth of affected children. Therefore, it is recommended that every expectant mother undergo Down syndrome screening during pregnancy to ensure the health of the fetus.

It can be seen that it is necessary to prevent some diseases during the fifteenth week of pregnancy. In addition to preventing disease accidents, we can also see some special situations during pregnancy, which require us to take more careful care. Usually women who have not given birth don’t know much about pregnancy and don’t know what they should do. After reading the reactions of the fifteenth week of pregnancy today, do you understand something?