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Week By
Week
11/15/2008 - by Anne Marie Nielson
Pregnancy Week
10
You're Pregnant! Week
10
You've almost made it through your first trimester! You may
want to spread the word, start buying maternity clothes and
start enjoying being pregnant. Before you begin the huge
celebration, there are a few more things you want to pay
particularly close attention to. One is your dental health.
While it may be difficult to brush your teeth without gagging,
it is all the more important during pregnancy. The extra blood
volume makes your gums softer and more prone to bleeding during
pregnancy. This opens up small areas that bacteria can find
homes in. It is important to keep these areas clean so you
don't develop gingivitis. A visit to your dentist during
pregnancy is a good idea. If you're not showing, be sure and
tell them you're pregnant so you avoid x-rays.
YOUR BABY
Your baby can swallow this week, and will spend the rest of his
or her time before birth practicing this all important skill by
swallowing amniotic fluid. To facilitate this new skill, your
baby's lips separate (remember, they fused a couple weeks ago)
and the palate fuses. Baby's eyes now have lacrimal sacs to
make tears. Urine begins to form in the bladder and is
discharged into the amniotic fluid. Your baby now has finger
nails, so be ready to give them their first clipping soon after
birth.
The baby is about the length of your little finger and is
swimming in about 32 milliliters of amniotic fluid.
YOUR BODY
Your belly will begin stretching a little and some of your
pants may feel a bit tight. Hopefully you'll be relieved of
some of your discomforts soon and you'll be able to enjoy your
pregnancy a bit more.
If you're seeing an obstetrician, you may be offered a nuchal
translucency test (NT) during your 11th week. This is to screen
your baby for Down syndrome. A positive result does not mean
your child necessarily has Down syndrome, it just means you
will be asked for further tests, like an amniocentesis during
the second trimester. It is up to you whether you want to take
this test or not. This particular test uses ultrasound to
measure the folds of the fetal neck. Children with Down
syndrome have been shown to have more fluid in these tissues on
average, and so if your baby measures on the high end, further
testing will be done. The ultrasound test is coupled with a
blood test to measure two different blood proteins: free
Beta-hCG and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A. In
combination with the ultrasound results, this helps determine
if your baby has a chromosomal problem.
A negative NT test is a pretty good indication that your baby
is completely normal. A positive test will result in a meeting
with your doctor, a genetics counselor and more invasive tests
in the second trimester.
For some families, these tests provide peace of mind. For
others, they cause stress and worry that may or may not be
necessary, depending on the outcome. It is up to each
individual family to decide which course is best for
them.
At From Pregnancy To Baby, we try
to provide you with all of the latest information about going
through your pregnancy from your first trimester to the first
years of your new babies life. We also provide the highest
quality books and products to help you through that time.
Source: http://www.frompregnancytobaby.com/pregnancy-week-10.html
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