This is the first post of our special "Pregnancy week by week”: We want you to join us in this adventure that will show you the wonder of human gestation, and will conclude with the birth of the baby. But we start from before conception, because - as you know - we consider the first day of menstruation as the beginning of pregnancy (although in the first two weeks: menstruation and ovulation, there is no pregnancy yet); and reference to calculate the Probable Due Date.
The first day of menstrual bleeding is considered the first day of a woman's menstrual cycle, this cycle lasts approximately 28 days, although cycles that last between 24 and 35 days are considered normal. When the woman is regular it is possible to calculate with certain guarantees the moment of ovulation, but in most cases this is very difficult. Calculating the date of ovulation or fertilization is practically impossible, therefore the first day of the last menstruation is considered as the first day of pregnancy, even knowing that, surely, the first two weeks you are not pregnant.
From this one first day of the last menstruation a whole cycle of changes begins physical, hormonal and psychological aimed at achieving a pregnancy and a happy term of it. Menstrual bleeding is produced by the desquamation, detachment and expulsion of the remains that had been prepared in the uterus to receive the fruit of fertilization and that, finally, since there is no fertilization, are useless, so it is necessary to "clean" inside the uterus and start again to prepare its cavity to be able to house an embryo.
If our intention is to seek pregnancy, we should start preparing. It is important to take a vitamin supplement based on folic acid (ideally take it for three months before pregnancy). Our lifestyle and diet are also important; do not drink alcohol, tobacco, or drugs. Eat a varied and balanced diet and exercise moderately. If you take contraceptives it is important that you stop taking them and wait until you have a normal menstruation (one or two menstruations depends on women) before considering pregnancy.
It is very useful to arrange a visit your doctor and your midwife, a preconception consultation will be very important, in it they will perform a cytology and some analyzes to know the state in which you are and the possible infectious diseases that you could have passed. If you take any medication, this review is even more important, it may be that some of these medicines are not compatible with pregnancy and must be replaced by others, it is also time to perform the tests that later, already pregnant, it is not possible to perform.
And now remember that next week we will return with a new delivery.
Image - Robert McDon.