Week 13 of Pregnancy

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It is estimated that up to 20%, that is, 1 in 5 pregnancies, are lost in the first trimester. Week 13 means crossing that line and, added to the fact that you have already seen your baby, it should give you immense peace of mind, right?

Your baby is between 7 and 8 cm, similar to the width of a dollar bill, still very small, but fully formed and more proportionate than in previous weeks. The head measures about a third of the rest of the body. It weighs about 25 grams, like school scissors.

CHANGES IN YOUR BABY THIS WEEK

Starting this week, the changes in your brain are going to be very important, since, being structurally already formed, certain functions of thought begin to establish themselves.

Its skin is very thin, revealing the blood vessels behind it, but little by little it gains thickness and accumulates a layer of fat under it that will make it more opaque.

YOUR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL CHANGES

You will finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel if you have suffered a first trimester of pregnancy full of nausea.

Between the fact that you feel better and that permanent tiredness seems to also begin to disappear from your routine, you will feel great and very active. In addition, as the vascularization in the vaginal area increases so much, you will see that your sexual relations also improve.

Changes will appear in the skin, almost all due to hormonal causes. Your face will look like never before, you will notice it especially if you had a tendency for pimples and blackheads.

However, these same hormones cause the appearance of chloasma in some women, which are yellowish spots on the skin of the face.

Common symptoms in the 13th week of pregnancy

Constipation
Spots on the skin of the face (chloasma)
Stretch marks

TIPS FOR YOUR WELL-BEING

It is very important that you increase your hydration routine , both on the inside by drinking enough water, and on the outside by applying moisturizing creams.

The most expensive anti-stretch mark cream in the pharmacy will be useless if you only give it to yourself when you remember, a couple of times here and there per week. Set a reminder.

The skin on your hips, thighs, abdomen and chest is going to stretch a lot and, if you don’t have privileged genetics, small pink stretch marks are here to stay.

Advice–

It is really difficult to eliminate stretch marks that appear (and medical-aesthetic treatments are necessary, creams cannot eliminate them), so their prevention is very important.

Another routine that you must include in your daily life without exception is the application of sunscreen on your face , especially if your pregnancy coincides with the months with the most sun. There is a typical spot in pregnant women that appears on the forehead, nose, cheeks and chin, called chloasma gravidarum. Just as your areolas will darken little by little, so can the skin on your face, much more exposed to environmental factors and more delicate.

Don’t worry… chloasma usually goes away the same way it came, after childbirth, but if you are not consistent with the sunscreen it can leave you with those memory stains.

MEDICAL EXAMS AND TESTS AT WEEK 13

You will get used to having the fetal tones and your weight and blood pressure recorded at each consultation you attend.

If they did not give you the results of the triple screening in the ultrasound at week 12, they may make an appointment for you to give them to you.

What is triple screening? Combining various data, your doctor will be able to establish a fairly reliable risk index for certain fetal anomalies by assessing:

The parameters of the early biochemical screening (in the analytics you will see them as β-hCG and PAPP-A)
Ultrasound of the first trimester (translucency or nuchal fold, TN in the report)
Weeks of gestation
Other relevant indicators: your age, if you are a smoker or diabetic, your weight and race and if the pregnancy is a twin or achieved through assisted reproduction.

With all this data, they will inform you of a risk index. But keep in mind that the result is not valid to diagnose anything. If the risk obtained was high, they would suggest carrying out a diagnostic test afterwards.

The result is always expressed in the form 1/number, which means that the risk of your baby having that abnormality is 1 divided by that number. If, for example, if the result is 1/2000 for Down syndrome, it means that out of 2000 women with the same previous data as you who undergo this test, 1 will have a baby with Down syndrome and 1999 will have babies without Down syndrome.

The objective of this evaluation is to guide towards the need or not to carry out tests that are diagnostic, but carry some risk.

Important– High risk is considered any value between 1/1 and 1/270 and intermediate risk between 1/271 and 1/1000. From 1/1000, the risk is low.

The statistics assessed in the triple screening correspond to Down syndrome (trisomy 21 in the reports), Edwards syndrome (trisomy 18), Patau syndrome (trisomy 13) and neural tube defects (such as anencephaly, cleft lip or spina bifida).

FREQUENT QUESTIONS

Is any sunscreen suitable during pregnancy?

Researchers have noticed that some components of sunscreens accumulate in the placenta, without knowing very well the consequences that this could have on the long-term health of children.

This doubt should in no case lead to dispensing with sunscreen, since sun damage is not merely aesthetic, but can even cause skin cancer.

There are 3 types of sunscreens:

chemical filters
physical filters
mixed filters

At the moment, the only ones that have been shown to be safe during pregnancy are physical filter sunscreens. Although they tend to spread and are less well absorbed, they are just as effective against solar radiation.

Advice–

It is important that both the sunscreen and the cosmetics you use during pregnancy are free of parabens.