For many women, pregnancy is a beautiful and wonderful experience but it’s also a rather mysterious one and one that is shrouded in a lot of misinformation. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be publishing a series of articles in which I’ll attempt to clear up a little off that misinformation and shed a some light on pregnancy’s biggest mysteries. I’ll be including a week by week guide of what you can expect from the first few days into your pregnancy to the last. Knowing what you’re in for can help you prepare and help you understand the changes taking place in your body and in your mind. Let’s get started with Pregnancy: Week One.
What’s Happening with Your Body
Technically speaking, you aren’t actually pregnant yet during the first week. Your body is simply preparing for the pregnancy to take place. Let’s look at it in terms of weeks. Let’s say you’ve gone to the doctor and the doctor has told you that, yes, you’re pregnant and you’re roughly twelve weeks pregnant. This actually means the estimated date of conception would be somewhere around ten weeks earlier.
In the first week of pregnancy, your body is only starting to change. The lining of your uterus is beginning to thicken so it is ready for the egg. The first week really refers to when you’re at your most fertile in your monthly cycle. It’s when you begin planning. This is the ideal time to quit smoking, quit drinking and to begin taking vitamins to make sure your body is healthy and ready for baby to begin growing inside of it.
Your first week of pregnancy is actually counted from the first day of your last period before you became pregnant. The due date will be calculated from that day. So really, aside from normal period things, you’re not really going to notice much happening with your body. To put it another way, the first day of your period is officially considered the first day of your pregnancy despite the fact that actual conception probably won’t happen for another fourteen days at least.
How You’re Feeling
If you’re trying to get pregnant, you’re first week of pregnancy isn’t going to feel much different than the start of any of your other periods – unless of course you count the nervousness, excitement and often times, worry, that comes along with trying to get pregnant. There can be a lot of stress during this time, especially if you’ve had trouble conceiving or are trying a new fertility treatment. It’s easy for someone outside of the situation looking in to tell you to relax but in that first week, it can definitely be hard to do that.
Even if you’ve never tried to get pregnant, that first week of planning can be a stressful time, especially if you’re trying to make lifestyle changes that aren’t easy to make. Quitting smoking is a big one. If you’re trying to quit smoking, make dietary changes, cut out caffeine and cut out alcohol, you are going to have some stressful moments. That’s why this first week is the time to make those changes. Your baby needs a healthy environment in which to grow and develop. Being stressed out really compromises that environment.
What You Should Be Focusing On
The first week of pregnancy is all about planning. Vitamins are an important part of this planning process, folic acid in particular. Folic acid is an extremely beneficial B vitamin that you should start taking in the first week of pregnancy and continue taking until you finish breastfeeding – if you plan to breastfeed. It’s important because it helps prevent birth defects including several neural birth defects.
You should also be focusing on finding a way to relax and stay calm throughout your pregnancy. A dear friend of mine took up various handicrafts during her first week of pregnancy because she found doing something with her hands helped her stay more relaxed. Another friend started painting. What works for you really depends on what you’re interested in. For some women, nothing is more relaxing than a nice bath, soft music, a few candles and a good book. Find your relaxation routine and make sure you carry through with it whenever you start feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. This first week of pregnancy can be a great way to experiment with various things to find the right fit for you.
The first week of pregnancy is also when you really want to focus on living a healthy pregnancy lifestyle. Of course smoking and drinking are big no-nos while you have a bun in the oven but there are a lot less obvious things that should be off limits. Caffeine is a big one so if you can’t get by without your morning cup of java, this would be the time you want to start weaning yourself off that habit. Other foods to avoid include:
- Deli meats
- Fish that may contain mercury including king mackerel, shark, sushi, swordfish and tilefish. Canned tuna is generally okay but should only be eaten in moderation.
- Fresh pate or other fresh meat spreads although canned pate and meat spread is okay.
- Mexican style cheeses that contain queso blanco and queso fresco unless the cheese specifically states it is made with pasteurized milk.
- Raw eggs or any food that contains raw eggs. This includes uncooked cookie dough. Homemade salad dressings (especially Caesar), ice creams, custards, mayonnaise or various other types of sauces are often off limits although store bought varieties are fine as they are mostly made with pasteurized eggs.
- Raw meats
- Shellfish – although raw shellfish poses more of a threat than cooked shellfish, it should really be avoided altogether to be safe.
- Smoked meats like jerky, kippered beef or lox although any “shelf safe” products (the kind you would buy in a package at a convenience store, not the kind you buy from the deli section of the supermarket) are fine.
- Soft cheeses such as brie, camembert, feta, gorgonzola or Roquefort cheese unless the cheese specifically states it is made with pasteurized milk.
- Unpasteurized milk
- Unwashed vegetables
Instead of focusing entirely on what is off limits, take your first week of pregnancy to play around with ideas for meals or snacks you can enjoy while still sticking to a healthy pregnancy diet. Find foods you love and look for recipes that incorporate those foods. Take your new recipes out for a trial run. This gives you the chance to find out what will take the most work. Consider putting together a recipe book specifically for your pregnancy with all of your favorite meal ideas. Categorize them by how long it takes to make them or by how much effort you need to put into making them. If you do the majority of your own cooking, you’re really going to want to have a few quick and easy recipes ready for the days later in your pregnancy when you just don’t feel like putting a lot of effort into your meals.
In the end, the first week of pregnancy is really an exciting time but it can be overwhelming. Don’t let yourself get stressed out. You’ll have more than enough stress in your life once Baby arrives.
