Week 17 – Second Trimester – Week by Week Pregnancy Calendar
Posted by andrew on Jan 01, 2009
Your Baby In Week 17
The only thing that is permanent as of now is growth. And this is just like the previous week is a time when your baby just continue to grow and all its organ are developing. It has added a few inches now and could be around 5.0 inches or there about and weighs close to 4.9 ounces. So even though it is still tiny it is growing at a good speed. It is all curled up and if you were to measure it otherwise it would come to a something of 13 cm.
And the placenta is also in turn growing to accommodate your baby. The placenta nourishes the fetus with nutrients and removes wastes. The placenta is an important part as it now contains thousand of blood vessels that bring nutrients and oxygen from your body to the baby’s growing body. Hence, the importance of placenta cannot be more defined. And now the need is for baby to continue in a similar fashion of growth as it is undergoing a very important stage where all the organs are getting developed and this is something that is going to be of optimum importance for the future life of the baby.
Your Body In Week 17
This is certainly one of the enjoyable weeks for you. And it is said that the second trimester is the most enjoyable of the three. But then what happens in this week or soon is something that is new to you and you need to adjust to the situation without losing your cool.
You will soon encounter ‘round ligament pain’ and this is due to the stretched ligaments and muscles that are supporting your growing uterus. What you would be told to do by a doctor would be sleep on your left side. What happens this way is that you do not compress your pelvis veins and decrease blood flow to lower half of your body and also the pain in lower abdomen. To avoid all these, what you can do is to sleep on your left side. By doing so it eases out the pressure factor and thereby allow normal blood flow. Even though it might feel like a stabbing pain but there is no way you can do anything about it and more so when it happens towards the end of the day when you are trying to sleep. But then there is little else you can do.
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sbeck
