Dealing With Your Fourth Week of Pregnancy

Now if you're already aware that you're pregnant, you need to be extra careful because during this week (and the rest of the first trimester of your pregnancy) the risk of miscarriage is high. This is the most critical and important time for your baby's formation. Medically, your baby, during this week and stage, is still called as an embryo. A month into your pregnancy and your embryo will be made up of two cell layers called epiblast, the outer layer of the embryo, and hypoblast, the inner layer of the embryo. These two layers will eventually progress and develop as organs and body parts of your baby. Aside from these layers, two more formations develop during the fourth week of pregnancy. These are the amnion and yolk sac. The former is the inner of the two membranes enclosing and mainly protects the embryo. The latter is a thin membrane surrounding the embryo that produces blood and aids in the nourishment of the embryo until its time for the placenta to assume responsibility of the role.

During the fourth week of pregnancy, your baby will look like s/he is working overtime. The baby is more or less 1 mm in length by this time. This is the time when the neural tube develops, the heart starts to form and the blood sets in motion and begins circulation.

As for mommy, on the 4th week of pregnancy, your baby begins to produce "human chorionic gonadotropin" or hCG that transmits signal to the ovary to stop producing eggs monthly hence stopping menstruation during the duration of pregnancy. This hormone also causes the pregnancy symptoms that you should be experiencing by now. You'll feel that your breasts just suddenly became heavy, full and sometimes aching. You'll also feel fatigue and the all-too-familiar dizziness and vomiting. The great news about the end of the 4th week of pregnancy is that you don't need to expect menstruation to take place and you can call yourself a pregnant woman on this stage.