6th week of pregnancy: The 6th week of pregnancy at a glance
Your little baby’s heart starts beating in the 6th week of pregnancy. The formed amniotic fluid completely surrounds your child and thus prevents adhesions of your baby with the amniotic sac.
From the 6th week of pregnancy, you can already find out about yourmaternity leave and your rights vis-Ă -vis your employer. Maybe you are already struggling with one or the otherpregnancy complaint? Many useful tips, for example againstnausea, you get here with us.
Index
ToggleDevelopment of your baby in the 6th week of pregnancy
In the 6th week of pregnancy, the embryo is in a highly sensitive phase of development. From the oval germinal disc develops a “small worm”. It is now a very small, curved figure to recognize: with a thickening at the upper end as a head and a bent back, which ends in a kind of tail. A lot is happening inside your little baby, especially the heart is developing. His heart begins to beat irregularly. At first, it beats about 120 times per minute. The resting heart rate of an adult is 60 beats per minute, so your child is pretty fast on the road. In the following weeks, the heartbeat becomes more and more constant.
In addition, from the 6th week of pregnancy, the amniotic fluid develops in the womb, which you can later have tested for hereditary diseases, malformations and chromosomal abnormalities of your baby by means of aso-called amniocentesis. The amniotic fluid is formed in the amniotic sac (amnion). It is a clear, watery body fluid with which the amniotic cavity is filled. The amniotic fluid, like the amniotic fluid, belongs to the embryo’s own tissue and not to the maternal tissue. In the 6th week of pregnancy, it already completely surrounds your baby and thus prevents adhesions of the child with the amniotic sac. Later, the amniotic fluid is important to absorb shocks and it allows the child to move in the womb. In the umbilical cord itself, blood vessels form for the transport of nutrients from the maternal to the child’s organism.
Your body in the 6th week of pregnancy
The uterus is now slowly growing in your abdomen. During a vaginal palpation examination, your doctor or midwife can detect a change in the cervix in the 6th week of pregnancy. It feels firm and no longer as mobile and is no longer soft and supple as it was before pregnancy. This is the so-called Pschyrembel’s stick-cloth sign. It is one of the first palpablesigns of pregnancy.
The typical initial pregnancy symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting or dizziness, affect some women strongly. The hormone change can have a strong effect, especially inthe first trimester of pregnancy. If you are nauseous, have pimples or low blood pressure, you are prone to varicose veins or thrombosis, increased urinary tract infections, constipation, heartburn or cravings – the hormones are always involved. No wonder: With conception, a flood of hormones becomes active, which are not only produced in your endocrine glands, but also by the placenta and your baby itself. These hormones are mainly responsible for child development and the necessary changes in your body.
Questions about the 6th week of pregnancy
Are spotting normal?
Spotting, i.e. very light bleeding from the vagina, is usually not a cause for concern, especially in the first weeks of pregnancy. Because the maternal organism begins to adjust to its new task and reacts to it with various symptoms. But although these are harmless in most cases, you should have them checked by the gynecologist once – even if the bleeding has stopped.
Is it possible to have a belly in the 6th week of pregnancy?
In most cases, no tummy can be made out in the 6th week of pregnancy. Because your baby is hardly bigger than an apple core and thus your belly is usually still unchanged. If you already suffer from pregnancy nausea, you may even lose some weight.
When does nausea occur during pregnancy?
Nausea and vomiting are among the most common and earliest side effects of pregnancy. In the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, however, both usually disappear again, only a few women are regularly bad during the whole pregnancy. However, neither nausea nor vomiting have a negative effect on your baby.
Midwife or doctor?
You can choose whether you want to have the check-ups done by adoctor or a midwife. Both are reimbursed by the health insurance. You can also combine both, because doctors and midwives are now working more and more hand in hand. Often women have allpreventiveexaminations carried out by their midwife and only go to the doctor forthe ultrasound examinations. Because midwives are not equipped and trained for an ultrasound. The midwife, just like the doctor, can issue thematernity recordand the certificate of the calculated date of birth. She advises you and talks to you about wishes and fears. Problems in everyday life or in working life can also be addressed. So the choice is yours. Whether doctor or midwife: it is important that you feel comfortable and well advised.
Are different rhesus factors a risk?
Rhesus factors are features of blood group. If you are rhesus-negative and your baby rhesus-positive, it can theoretically lead to arhesus intolerance. However, this case is very rare, because most people are rhesus-positive. Even in rhesus-negative women, there is almost never an intolerance. Because an early blood test detects the blood feature early. In this case, an antibody screening test is performed regularly. If it turns out during pregnancy or directly after birth that the baby is rhesus-positive, you will be given an anti-D-immunoglubulin injection after birth (possibly also during pregnancy) as rhesus prophylaxis. This prevents the formation of antibodies. Find out more in our detailed article.
What does 6th week of pregnancy mean?
If you are in the 6th week of pregnancy, your embryo is four weeks old. Because there is a difference between the age and the week of pregnancy. The first two weeks of pregnancy only serve to calculate the approximate date of delivery. Thus, the calculation begins about two weeks before fertilization, with the first day of the last period.
It is counted as follows – if you are in the 6th week of pregnancy, you are in the fifth week and x days pregnant:
- 5+0= 1st day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+1 = 2nd day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+2 = 3rd day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+3 = 4th day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+4 = 5th day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+5 = 6th day of the 6th week of pregnancy
- 5+6 = 7th day of the 6th week of pregnancy
Tips and hints for the 6th week of pregnancy
Find out what the health insurance pays
Get early information from the statutory health insurance or private insurance company about which benefits during pregnancy, birth and puerperium are reimbursed or proportionately funded. Some health insurance companies or insurers also send brochures on interesting topics related to pregnancy or provide valuable tips on their website.
Maternity protection and labour law
If you know that you are pregnant, it is advisable to inform your employer in order to benefit from maternity leave. Many pregnant women wait until the twelfth week, then the most critical time is over and the probability of miscarriage decreases dramatically. However, informing the employer is important. The company can only comply with maternity protection conditions if it knows about the pregnancy. In addition to protection against dismissal for up to four months after childbirth, you also have the right to have your workplace exclude risks to your life and health. In our special you will learn everything about maternity leave.