For mom

Excellent mum! You’ve reached the halfway mark. Hopefully, it has been a smooth sailing pregnancy for you. To ensure that the latter half of your pregnancy continues just as smoothly, there are some "danger signs" to take note of. This is so that in the event they do occur, you can get the medical help you need as soon as possible.

Pre-eclampsia: What is it?

Particularly concerning is a condition called pre-eclampsia. Essentially, it is a condition that develops from pregnancy week 20 onwards, and is usually characterised by the development of high blood pressure (> 140/90mmHg) and protein in the urine.

Pre-eclampsia can affect both you and your baby. For you, it can cause seizures if your blood pressure is not well controlled and damage spreads to other organs. For the baby, pre-eclampsia can inhibit blood flow through the placenta and therefore affect its survival.

Seek help immediately if you have these pre-eclampsia symptoms

For this reason, we’d like you to be aware and seek help at once, if you experience any combination of the following symptoms of pre-eclampsia:

1. Severe headaches
2. Visual disturbances
3. Severe nausea and vomiting
4. Right-sided upper abdominal pain
5. Sudden swelling of the ankles or feet
6. Sudden puffiness of the face

Feeling sleepy in the day?

Day time sleepiness is relatively common. If you experience this, try fitting in a quick lunch time nap. Other activities such as yoga, deep breathing, a relaxing massage or a warm bath before bedtime might help you get a better night's rest!

For baby

Baby develops sleep-wake patterns

This week, your baby will weigh about 300g and be about 16cm long.

Your baby also starts to develop sleep-wake patterns similar to that of a newborn, sleeping about 18 hours and being awake for about 6 hours. The pattern of kicks may start to vary - being more intense when baby's awake and less so when it's asleep.​

Ref: L20

Click the link for the complete listing of articles for Pregnancy Week 1 - Week 40.