First signs of pregnancy: What to expect in weeks 1 and 2

The pregnancy will last for around 40 weeks or 10 months, during which time your child will steadily grow and receive everything they need to survive once outside your womb. After 38 to 42 weeks, a natural process will occur, which will lead to your child being born and separated from your body.

However, pregnancy isn’t just divided into weeks and months – we also talk about it in terms of trimesters, each of which lasts three months. This means a normal pregnancy is made up of three trimesters, with the last leading up to the birth. Weeks 1 to 13 form the first trimester, weeks 14 to 27 make up the second trimester, and the third trimester starts from week 28 and ends when your child is born.

In week 1 (i.e. the first week of your new cycle), your monthly period starts. Each cycle begins with your period, which will be as long and intense as every other month.

All these processes are controlled by female hormones, which are aimed at enabling humans to reproduce and ensuring our survival as a species. As these processes are highly prone to failure, however, women who want to have a baby should be aware of a few things and try to ensure a level of calm within their daily lives.

In week 2, your eggs mature in your ovaries and the lining of your uterus gradually builds up again (the lining from your last cycle left your body during your last period). The lining needs to build up again so that the egg can be implanted in it once it has been fertilised. Women of childbearing age go through this process every month, even if they do not want to get pregnant – so if you don’t want to have a baby, being sensible and using contraception is extremely important.

You could think of it as “changing the sheets”: your body does everything it can to prepare in case your uterus needs to nurture a fertilised egg for a number of months. If you’re a woman who wants to get pregnant, you can also do your bit to help this process.

As menstruation progresses, the pain eases and your flow reduces until you can no longer see any blood.

At the end of the second week, around 14 days after menstruation begins, many women experience a stabbing pain on their left or right side or in the centre of their body (this pain is sometimes called mittelschmerz) during ovulation. If the pain is at either side, this simply tells you which ovary released the egg. The pain, which can be severe, is caused by a brief irritation of the abdominal membrane.

Although there are no medical symptoms or signs of pregnancy immediately after fertilisation, women often have an instinct that tells them otherwise. You might notice a state of mind that you’ve never felt before, where you feel happy and satisfied as if you’d completed a major task. However, this alone is not a guaranteed sign of pregnancy.

Possible signs of pregnancy are generally divided into three categories: 

Even before ovulation and before you know for certain that you’re pregnant, women who want to have a baby have endless questions. Your doctor or midwife can help you with your biggest concerns.

Midwives can confirm whether or not you are pregnant, register your pregnancy and carry out almost all the necessary check-ups, such as taking your blood pressure, measuring your weight, testing your urine and blood levels, determining the position and size of your baby, and checking for a healthy heartbeat. They can’t perform ultrasound scans, however – that’s a job for your doctor.

When is the best time for successful fertilisation?

If you’re familiar with what goes on in your body, you may well have noticed the symptoms that suggest you’re ovulating. You’ll still want to know exactly when is the right time to try to conceive.

There are a several ways of knowing with a high level of certainty when you’re ovulating. Each month your body prepares your uterus in case one of your eggs is fertilised, so that it can be implanted in the uterus wall.

Before that, an egg matures in one of your ovaries and is released between 14 and 17 days after the first day of your period, a process called ovulation.

One way to tell when exactly this occurs is to measure your temperature. A woman’s basal body temperature increases when she ovulates and remains higher than usual until ovulation is over, and you can measure this temperature using a special thermometer which goes to two decimal places.

An equally reliable method is to count the days after the first day of your period. Doing this as well as measuring your basal body temperature (which can be tracked as a curve) will help you know for certain when you’re ovulating.

Is it important to have sex before ovulation if want to get pregnant?

Yes! The best time to have sex is two days before ovulation. The pH levels in your vagina and the secretions of your cervix are ideal for allowing male sperm to pass through to the fallopian tube around the time you’re ovulating. Sperm can survive and be capable of fertilising an egg for around 48 hours after entering a woman’s body.

As you usually don’t know exactly when you’re ovulating, you “should” be having sex frequently during your fertile days if you want to increase your chances of getting pregnant – the more often the better. Interesting fact: even if a healthy, fertile couple have sex during the woman’s fertile days, the probability of getting pregnant is only 25%! So don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t work first time. Many couples spend months trying before it happens.