Pregnancy week 15: Week by week pregnancy guide

It’s now pregnancy week 15, mum-to-be. How are you feeling? Has the nausea passed? Hang in there, mummy-to-be, soon you’ll feel re-energised and lively once more! Meanwhile, let’s take a look at how your little one is growing this week. 

Pregnancy Week 15: How Big is Your Baby?

At the start of pregnancy week 15, your little one is around the size of a sugar apple — how sweet is that? He/she is 10.9cm long and weighs around 50g. Towards the end of this week, your developing baby would have grown around another centimetre and added another gram or so to his/her weight. 

Your baby is the size of a small sugar apple! File photo. 

Pregnancy Week 15: Your Baby’s Development

In this week by week pregnancy guide, you’ll learn that:

• Your baby has finally stared to shed his lanugo (or downy fur) to acquire baby fat, which is also known as “brown fat”.
• Eyebrows and hair start to appear this week.
• He can hiccup, which, believe it or not, happens before he can even breathe. At this stage, your little one doesn’t make any sound because his windpipe is filled with amniotic fluid and not air.
• His body is a bit more proportionate now.
• By the end of this week, he will be able to make a fist.

Pregnancy Symptoms

• You may be finding that you are more prone to colds and coughs, perhaps even a touch of flu. And it is not because you aren’t caring for yourself. At this stage of your pregnancy, your body’s lowered immunity ensures that it does not reject the fetus.
• The extra amount of blood circulating in your body make the capillaries in your nose and gums swell. This could lead to nosebleeds and bleeding of the gums.
• You may have gained between 2.2-4.5 kg. Do keep an eye on the weighing scale.

Pregnancy Care

• Since your immunity is lowered, you must not falter with your hygiene.
• The most important takeaway in this week by week pregnancy guide is: feel free to say “no” to visitors who are unwell. You need to protect yourself from harmful bacteria and virus.

Your Checklist

• Your libido may be on an increase. You and your partner should look at sexual positions that are safe and comfortable.
• Now is the time for you to book yourself in for a multiple marker screening or a triple test. Typically conducted between 15 to 18 weeks of pregnancy, these simple blood tests that can determine whether your baby is at an increased risk for Down Syndrome and trisomy 18 (both chromosomal abnormalities), as well as neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

Your next week: 16 weeks pregnant

Your previous week: 14 weeks pregnant

Do you have questions on this week by week pregnancy guide? What are your current concerns, mums? Leave us a comment below!