In association with professional midwife experts at birthEd, find out everything you need to know about pregnancy at 16 weeks, including how your baby is growing, changes to expect in your body and pregnancy health, nutrition and wellness advice.
Week 15 |
Week 17 |
16 Weeks Pregnant – Your baby, your body & you
Your Baby
Your baby is approximately 14cm long and weighing in around 75g, or about the weight of a small Kiwifruit. This week your baby is working on pumping about 28 litres of blood around their wee bodies every day.
All this blood is helping their muscles and joints develop. Along with this development, muscles are starting to respond to signals from the brain, so movements are less jerky.
It is possible to feel these tiny flutters of movement at this point, those bubbles you thought were gas might be your babe doing some flips!
Or it may just be gas…
Your Body
You may be experiencing the unfortunate side effects of increased blood volume (as we reported on last week). This increased blood volume could also be having some pleasant effects!
The increased circulation can result in that elusive ‘pregnancy glow’, with your skin looking brighter and fresher. Your hair may also be shedding less, resulting in your hair appearing thicker and healthier. And your nails may be growing faster as well, an excuse to treat yourself to a manicure!
our belly may also start becoming a bit more noticeable to others as your baby is growing rapidly at this time.
You
If you have started finding support forums and Facebook groups it can be easy to get swept up in the materialistic side of a new baby.
It can start to feel a bit like a competition to see who is getting the nicest gear, the fanciest gadgets and the prettiest maternity clothes. It can be overwhelming and stressful when social media makes you feel like you need so much stuff.
It won’t become apparent for a long time yet, but seasoned Mums will be the first to tell you that babies need the bare essentials and all those expensive addons are unnecessary. While you are watching all your exciting youtube videos on pregnancy, start watching the videos that talk about the unnecessary purchases new mums made, there are a lot of them!
Just remember that your darling baby needs little more than, food, shelter, warmth, clean nappies, and LOVE! Focus on looking after yourself instead of how you will afford that expensive video baby monitor!
Check our Baby Essentials Checklist
Your Relationships
At this time you may want to start looking for antenatal classes. You won’t start them until much later in your pregnancy, but it is a good idea to get in and book early. It will be one less thing on your mind and it will ensure you get into your ideal class.
Ask your midwife or healthcare provider or a pregnant or new mother friend for recommendations or feel free to do a google search for classes in your area.
These classes are another place to build friendships and supportive relationships with people who are on a similar journey as you. So often lifelong friendships begin between couples at antenatal classes. Talk to your partner or elected support person about attending these classes together.
Check out birthEd as they offer a comprehensive range of high quality childbirth and early parenting courses.
This Week’s Preparation
Start looking for antenatal classes
Book a manicure!
Get out every day and exercise
Back to 52 Weeks of pregnancy.
