Pregnancy Stages
The pregnancy stages have been defined in a couple of ways that are mostly in trimesters or weeks. While commonly people refer to the stages in terms of the first trimester, the second trimester or the third trimester, doctors prefer the week options since these are more accurate and precise. Typically the first trimester lasts from week 1 to week 12, the second trimester lasts from week 13 to week 28 and the third trimester falls between week 29 to week 40 or till the baby is born. Each of the stages has its own specific characteristics in terms of the symptoms that manifest themselves and the development of the baby also. While the symptoms may be something that you are concerned with, the doctor is more likely to be concerned about whether the development of the fetus is happening in the desired manner or not since a good healthy baby is what she has to ensure.
At each stage of pregnancy your doctor will tell you the various symptoms that you are likely to face and some symptoms that you need to watch out for and alert her in case they occur. This is mainly because of the fact that sometimes some symptoms can be early warning signs of issues that can arise later. While the pregnancy card shall have the dates of all your regular examination dates and the regular checkups and scans that you are supposed to have, the fact is that other symptoms need to be watched out for so that you can take preventive action.
Each pregnancy stage is different and as soon as you are out of the first one you feel that the earlier one was better since it did not have the symptoms that you are facing right now. So when you start getting backaches and pains all over your body in the third trimester you want to go back to the first one.
The stages of pregnancy progress nevertheless and sometimes one does not know how the nine months have passed when one looks back. The ironic thing is that one thing that is common among all women is that as the due date gets closer time seems to come to a standstill and you seem to wait for eternity when you will be able to hold your baby in your arms.
But there is no doubt that the early stages pregnancy are the most difficult. Not only is this true from a symptoms point of view but also from the fact that the fetus is most likely to get harmed at this stage since it is delicate and fragile.
Therefore while all stages are important, the first trimester is one stage where you need to be extremely careful. With a body that has not grown, you may tend to be over enthusiastic. The pregnancy stages tell you what you can and cannot do too.