Third month of pregnancy

For both mother and child, the third month of pregnancy is a thrilling and transformative period. The baby is still growing quickly, and many of the early pregnancy symptoms may be starting to go away by now. There are a lot of significant developments happening at this pivotal point.

The baby is about the size of a plum at this point, and its organs are still developing. As your pregnancy goes on, you might start to notice physical changes in your body. For many women, this is the month when they can begin telling their friends and family about the news.

It’s also an excellent time to concentrate on leading a healthy lifestyle. You and your child can stay on track by maintaining an active lifestyle, eating a balanced diet, and seeing your doctor on a regular basis.

Topic	Description
Baby"s development	The baby is growing rapidly, now about 3 inches long and developing vital organs like the heart, brain, and kidneys.
Mom"s body changes	Visible changes start to show as the uterus expands, and some moms may experience nausea, fatigue, and mood swings.
Nutrition	It"s important to eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and proteins to support the baby’s growth.
Doctor visits	Regular check-ups are crucial to monitor the baby’s health and development.
Emotions	Mood changes are common due to hormonal shifts, and it’s essential to seek support if needed.

General information

The third month includes the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and half of the 13th obstetric week. The period should be counted from the first day of the last menstruation before conception, since the day of conception itself in most cases is impossible to determine. The embryonic period (from conception) is on average two weeks less than the obstetric period, because during the first two weeks a woman is not even pregnant, only on the 14th day does she ovulate and conception becomes possible. It is not without reason that the third month is considered one of the most difficult – most expectant mothers noticeably deteriorate in health, and maternity leave is still far away and there is no opportunity to rest. At the end of the third month, the most favorable time comes to inform parents, relatives and older children, if there are any in the family, about the upcoming addition.

Development of the baby

The third month of pregnancy completes the period of embryogenesis. Your baby will no longer be called an embryo, but a fetus. This will be until the very birth. Signs and symptoms of pregnancy are beyond doubt, the delay by the beginning of the third month has already lasted 5 weeks, and during this time many women have managed not only to take a test, but also to visit a doctor, register at a consultation and do the first ultrasound to make sure that the baby is developing normally. The baby has come a long way – from one zygote cell with a unique genetic set, it has become a full-fledged multicellular organism, in which the formation of all internal organs is completed. In the third month, almost all organs and systems will appear and begin to work.

During ultrasound diagnostics, the baby’s heart can be clearly heard beating confidently and rhythmically. Not only are all organs arranged cellularly, but also at other levels. Numerous organs have already started to operate.

9th week

The nervous system is actively forming. The baby has learned to move his arms and is currently mastering a new skill – learning to reflexively open his mouth. The baby looks rather strange: a huge head compared to the body, eyes set wide apart to the right and left of the face, pits instead of ears, arms with fins instead of fingers, short, barely outlined legs, an embryonic tail that is already starting to shrink. Soon there will be nothing left of it – the tailbone. This week there is a great need for calcium, since the foundation of milk teeth is being laid. The baby"s brain acquires an important appendage – the pituitary gland. The formation of the main nerve bundles begins. By the end of the 9th week, the baby begins to clench her hands into fists. The liver produces immune cells – lymphocytes, the kidneys and "thyroid gland" are included in the active work. At the end of the week, the young placenta starts to function. From now on, the baby is better protected, since the "baby"s place" works not only as a breadwinner and oxygen supplier, but also as a reliable barrier that can contain some harmful substances from the mother"s blood and prevent them from entering the baby"s body.

The infant is five centimeters tall and weighs almost five grams already.

10th week

The baby is no longer an embryo. The fetal period has started. He is now a fetus in the womb, and all of his internal organs have formed and look exactly the same as those of adults, naturally, adjusted for size. At this stage, the tail disappears. The baby has grown to ten grams and has grown to almost 6 centimeters. Now the most intensive development of the nervous system will occur. The baby"s brain is already bihemispheric, but it does not yet know how to control the organs and movements of the limbs – there is not enough neural connections. They are starting to form right now, and after a few days the baby is trying to pull his arms to his face. The baby begins to drink amniotic fluid. They are excreted through the kidneys – the baby pees in the same environment. This should not worry – the composition of the amniotic fluid self-cleanses every 3-4 hours. The baby"s appearance has become more human – it now has lips, a small nose, and the auricles are beginning to form. The neck is becoming more prominent and the baby is able to turn its head. At this stage, the need for calcium is becoming higher, as the process of bone hardening begins – they were soft, cartilaginous, now they are about to become hard.

From this point on, the infant will become more sophisticated; taste buds are developing on the tongue, and in due course, the child will be able to discriminate between various amniotic fluid flavors (which are dependent on the mother’s diet).

11th week

A certain interaction begins to form between the internal organs – all parts of the baby"s body learn to work "as a team". And the baby itself begins to gain weight. Now the baby has become heavier up to 15 grams and has grown to almost 8 centimeters. It floats in the amniotic fluid, but the mother cannot yet feel its touch from the inside. The baby has learned to grab the umbilical cord with his hands. From this moment on, he will have something to do in his short leisure time, because most of the day he is in a state close to sleep. The head begins to shrink, and soon the baby will look more proportional. The eyes have almost moved to the front of the head, the formation of the structures of the visual organs begins.

At this point, the baby learns a skill that will eventually enable him to walk: he can push off with his feet from any obstacle in free swimming, such as the uterine walls.

12 weeks

At this stage, the mother can look at her baby during prenatal screening, which includes ultrasound diagnostics. The baby has grown to 11 centimeters and now weighs almost 20 grams. Facial structures continue to form. The eyes have taken their place on the face, small ears acquire lobes, there are eyelids and the nose is growing – its size can even be measured by ultrasound. Thanks to the nose, the face stops looking flat. The baby has learned to suck – this reflex is important for its survival after birth. And some children can already suck their own fist or finger (fingers, by the way, have also separated from the "fin"). The intestines begin to contract spontaneously occasionally. The genital tubercle of girls turns into the clitoris and labia, and the tubercle of boys becomes a small penis. An experienced ultrasound specialist can already see the sex of the baby, but there are no guarantees – the size is still very small.

The infant starts to form facial expressions, such as folding his lips into a tube. Furthermore, he is proficient in producing a furrowed brow.

13th week

The baby"s weight is growing. Now he has reached 30 grams with a height of 12 centimeters. The baby is very thin, wrinkled, scarlet or purple in color. All existing blood vessels are visible through the thin skin. The fetus does not have a reserve of subcutaneous fat, due to which the skin becomes pink. This layer still needs to be built up. The fetus"s upper limbs are much longer than the lower ones, but the legs don"t remain in debt and begin to grow actively. The feet seem especially large. The fetus begins to hear, but only low-frequency vibrations – the mother"s heartbeat, the resonance of her voice. Full hearing is not yet possible, since the processes of debugging the work of the inner ear structures have not yet been completed. Some who do an ultrasound at this stage may be lucky – they will see how the child has learned to hug – for now he hugs himself, but after birth this reflex will help him hug his mother.

Vocal cord development is underway.

The third month of pregnancy is full of exciting changes as the baby continues to grow quickly and undergo significant development. The organs of the unborn child begin to develop at this time, and early pregnancy symptoms like nausea may start to subside. Expectant parents frequently experience a range of feelings as they get used to the changes and begin to consider the future, from excitement to anxiety. As the pregnancy starts to feel more real, this month is crucial for growth and preparation on both a physical and emotional level.

The woman"s well-being

Many people think that in order for a pregnancy to be considered normal, toxicosis must exist. This is a major misunderstanding. Rather than being the standard, toxicosis can be linked to pregnancy-related issues. It’s normal that not all women experience nausea and food and smell sensitivity during the third month of pregnancy. The idea that the third month is painful and difficult seems nonsensical to these women, who feel amazing and light, have no belly yet, find walking easy, and flutter.

Make sure that any toxicosis is not severe if it is present. A doctor’s intervention is imperative if the child vomits five or six times a day or more. The child is severely malnourished and will not benefit from the mother’s dehydration and hunger strike.

In certain instances, it may be preferable to "wait out" the challenging stage of pregnancy in a medical facility, where vitamins and nutrients will be infused intravenously.

• Waist begins to blur, by the end of the third month there is almost always a feeling of fullness in the abdomen, although in most pregnant women the size of the abdomen does not yet allow others to guess that the woman is in position.
• Belly may already begin to slightly outline in thin women and women with a clinically narrow pelvis, in women who have given birth for the second time, if they are pregnant with twins.
• Breasts have noticeably increased in size – they look full, beautiful, nipples are very sensitive. Usually, future dads are very happy about this change. By this time, nipples can darken or partially change pigmentation, Montgomery tubercles protrude.

Almost all expectant mothers report feeling more sleepy during the third month of their pregnancy. A woman will still feel exhausted in the morning even if she goes to bed on time and gets the recommended 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. The fact that everyone has to go to work or school at this time makes the situation worse because you have to fight the urge to sleep all the time.

Everybody’s appetite varies; some start eating a lot and frequently but are still hungry, while others find it difficult to resist eating even the food they used to adore.

Progesterone, the primary pregnancy hormone, now governs every bodily function in an expectant mother. The woman experiences constant mood swings and mental instability due to her highly sensitive and unstable emotional state, which is easily upset by small things. Progesterone, particularly in the evening, has been known to induce chronic headaches. This same hormone, which makes pregnancy impossible without, aids in the uterus’s reduction of muscle tone while also affecting the muscles of other organs. As a result, heartburn, constipation, and the unpleasant disease hemorrhoids may worsen or manifest for the first time.

Many women lament their increased salivation, which is particularly apparent in the morning when there’s still a wet spot on the pillow. Even though bleeding gums are usually normal, it’s still a good idea to see a doctor about taking vitamins and calcium supplements as needed (should the biochemical blood test reveal a calcium deficiency).

During this time, a normal discharge is light to slightly yellowish, homogenous in consistency, odorless, and free of dirty linen.

Discharge that is brown, pink, or greenish is abnormal and should be checked out right away by a physician as it may be an infection or a sign of impending miscarriage.

Necessary tests and examinations

In an antenatal clinic, women typically stand on the dispensary by the third month of their pregnancy. If you don’t finish this, you must move quickly. In fact, the most informative initial prenatal screening for the duration of the pregnancy takes place between 11 and 13 weeks, with the goal of determining the baby’s risk of being born with chromosomal abnormalities.

The Russian Ministry of Health has approved the screening, but the woman is free to stop it at any time, at which point she won’t know for sure whether her child is healthy. A blood test taken from a vein and an ultrasound of the fetus are part of the screening process. The goal of both diagnostic components is to find particular indicators or signs of potential deviations. After processing the data with consideration for age, the existence of unhealthy habits, and other variables, a specialized computer program determines whether the risk level is high, medium, or low.

The first screening allows you to identify indirect signs and risks of Edwards, Down and Patau syndromes. If low risks are identified, then there is nothing to worry about. The next ultrasound screening is scheduled only at 19-21 weeks If the risks are high, the woman will be offered to undergo additional testing – invasive diagnostics, for example, chorionic villus biopsy (the accuracy of the analysis is 99%) or do a prenatal non-invasive DNA test (NIPT) with an accuracy of up to 98-99%. But the woman also has the right to refuse them if she believes that she does not need this information, and she will accept the child as is – with or without the syndrome.

They also undergo a general urine and blood test in the third month.

It is also advised that a woman have her first medical examination performed by trained professionals, such as a surgeon, dentist, ENT specialist, ophthalmologist, or therapist who uses an ECG.

The expectant mother’s exchange card must contain the specialists’ notes regarding the examination and her health status.

What dangers may await?

The effects of alcohol, teratogenic drugs, nicotine, and radiation still pose a threat to organ development even after the main stages of organogenesis have passed. Additionally, the following pathologies are most frequently identified at this stage:

• functional insufficiency of the cervix (ICI);
• polyhydramnios and oligohydramnios;
• threat of miscarriage;
• presentation of the chorion or placenta;
• non-developing pregnancy.

A fetus with genetic defects or chromosomal "errors" frequently passes away on its own before the tenth week of pregnancy because it is unable to continue developing.

At this point, a woman has to take precautions against the very slightest chance of contracting acute herpes infection, measles, rubella, toxoplasmosis, or chickenpox. Syphilis and tuberculosis can still be quite dangerous at this time.

It’s important for you and your unborn child to spend this third month of pregnancy together. You’ll probably notice changes in your body and daily mood as your baby grows and develops. This is the time when a lot of the early pregnancy symptoms start to go away and provide some relief.

Your baby’s major organs are developing during this month and will continue to grow and develop in the following months. It’s critical that you look after yourself during this time because it lays the groundwork for a healthy pregnancy. You can maintain your health and the health of your unborn child by eating healthfully, getting enough sleep, and going to your doctor’s appointments.

Always keep in mind that every pregnancy is different as you proceed on your journey. It’s common to have worries and inquiries. Maintaining knowledge and communication with your healthcare provider will enable you to navigate these initial phases with assurance and comfort.

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