Your Nutrient Of The Week

Protein
Getting protein in your diet is a must. It helps produce blood and builds your baby’s tissues and muscles.

Calcium
Introducing calcium into your diet helps to build your baby’s bones and teeth.

Iron and Folic Acid
These essential nutrients produce the extra blood needed during pregnancy.

Your Baby's Development at Week 3

Although you don’t know it yet, you might have conceived already! Fertilisation occurs when an egg and sperm connect and form a single cell, called a zygote.

In pregnancy week 3, this is what happens:

• The microscopic-sized zygote divides again and again, growing at an astounding pace in your belly.
• At this stage, your baby already has all of the genetic material she needs for life — half of the 23 pairs of chromosomes from you and half from your partner.
• Your baby’s sex has been determined.

What you need to know about the zygote
Approximately 12 hours after fertilisation, your baby — right now only a one-celled zygote — divides into two identical cells. These two cells each split, creating four cells, which then split to become eight. This continues as the total number of cells in your baby doubles every 12 hours.

If a single zygote splits into two identical zygotes, each with the same genetic makeup, identical twins occur.

During your third week of pregnancy, your zygote is moving down the Fallopian tube to your uterus.

Your Changing Body at Week 3

At pregnancy week 3 it’s too early for you to have missed your period or to experience any symptoms.

Here’s what’s happening at week 3:

• Your baby is now in the blastocyst stage. Your developing placenta begins producing hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), the hormone that’s detected in your blood or urine to tell you that you’re pregnant.
• A home pregnancy test can detect this hormone about six to 12 days after fertilisation.
• Only two weeks after your cycle, your uterus is thick with a rich blood supply — ready to accept and nourish your fertilised egg.
• Your baby implants in the lining of your uterus and you might notice spotting. You could even mistake this for the start of your period. This spotting might be the first real sign that you’re pregnant! It usually only lasts one to two days and is lighter than your normal period.

References:
* Comparison among all maternal milk in Singapore as of January 2022, as declared on the label.

SG.2022.23683.SMM.1 (v1.0)