Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Now it’s our turn—together with our experienced midwives—to guide you through the next nine months. Our goal is to be by your side throughout the journey and provide you with all the important and interesting information you need.

If you’d like to share thoughts and experiences with other pregnant people or parents, you’re always welcome to join Baby Journey – The Community! Join us here!

Baby: What’s happening in week 1 of pregnancy

Fertilization and ovulation

You are now pregnant, which means that one (or more!) eggs have been fertilized. This happens when you ovulate, which usually occurs 12–16 days before your next period. During ovulation, the egg is captured by the fallopian tube, and during fertilization the man’s sperm meets the woman’s egg in one of the fallopian tubes. One sperm cell reaches the egg first and therefore wins the race.

Four days after fertilization, the egg travels through the fallopian tube toward the uterus, and around day six it attaches to the uterine lining. You are then officially pregnant! At this point, the fertilized egg—or embryo—is called a blastocyst, and it will “hatch” when a hole forms in the outer shell. The blastocyst then reaches the uterus and implants in the uterine lining.

Once securely implanted, the embryo begins to divide. One part forms the placenta and the fetal membranes, while the other part forms the embryo itself. Depending on where in the uterus the embryo implants, the placenta will grow from that location. This means the placenta is positioned differently in every pregnancy. It may attach at the top of the uterus, on the front wall, or on the back wall. You may also have a low-lying placenta. Where your placenta is located is something you’ll learn more about later during an ultrasound with your midwife.

The placenta and hormones

The placenta produces the hormone hCG, which stimulates the production of progesterone. You may recognize this from when you took a pregnancy test, as it’s the level of hCG that triggers the test and shows whether you’re pregnant or not. That’s why a pregnancy test is almost never wrong—there is no placenta that releases hCG unless fertilization has occurred.

At the site in the ovary where the egg was released, the corpus luteum is now present. It produces the pregnancy-maintaining hormone progesterone, and the ovaries produce the hormone estrogen. Want to learn more about all the hormones during pregnancy? Read this article!

Mother: Your body is now fully focused on creating an embryo 💜

How you may feel

You may already be experiencing tender breasts, nausea, and dull, aching pains in your lower abdomen. These aches are similar to what many women feel before their period, which can make it hard to tell whether it’s actually a sign of pregnancy or just your period on the way. Fortunately, your pregnancy test has given you a definite answer—and it really can’t be wrong, even if it feels like you need to take a handful more tests just to be sure. You may also have no pregnancy-related symptoms at all, which is completely normal, especially this early in pregnancy.

Feelings and symptoms during pregnancy vary greatly from woman to woman, so it’s important to approach this with the mindset of never comparing your unique pregnancy experience to someone else’s.

Pregnancy weeks

Pregnancy weeks are counted from the first day of your last menstrual period, even though fertilizing intercourse hasn’t actually taken place yet. Around day 14 after your period, ovulation occurs, and only then can the egg be fertilized by a sperm cell, leading to pregnancy.

Menstrual cycle and ovulation

If your menstrual cycle is 28 days long, which is the average, pregnancy is counted as beginning two weeks before fertilization actually occurs. This means the pregnancy itself lasts 38 weeks, even though it’s commonly referred to as a 40-week pregnancy. If your cycle is regular and you get a positive pregnancy test on the day your period is due, this means you are 4+0 weeks pregnant. If this is your first pregnancy, the calculation method may feel a bit confusing—so let’s clarify it:

In short, the number 4 means you’ve completed four full weeks, and +0 means you’ve completed four full weeks and zero days (in other words, exactly four weeks). When you’re 4+6, it means four full weeks and six days have passed. In the Baby Journey app, you’ll quickly notice that it says you’re in week 5 when you’re at 4+0. Sounds confusing? Let’s explain further: when the app shows that you’re in week 5 (4+0), you are in your fifth week of pregnancy, but you haven’t completed five full weeks yet. Think of how we talk about sports, like football: four minutes have been played (four completed weeks), and the fifth minute is in progress (the fifth week).

Gestational weeks

To make things a bit more complicated, the healthcare system usually refers to gestational weeks. These indicate how many weeks and days the fetus actually is. In other words, healthcare professionals will say you are in week four when you are 4+0, while in everyday language people often refer to the week you’re in—week five.

This can be useful to know when contacting your midwife, although they usually have full control and will always ask when your last period started in order to calculate how far along you are.

The article Ovulation, getting pregnant, and how long does it really take? explains this process in more detail.

If you need early contact with a health visitor or doctor during pregnancy, you can already reach out to arrange an early consultation. Most pregnant people have their maternity record created with their GP when they are around 8 weeks pregnant.

Partner: You’re going to be a parent – congratulations!

A long journey is beginning, where the first nine months are just the warm-up—soon, parenthood will be your full-time job. Maybe it feels scary, surreal, or simply amazing? It’s completely normal to experience many different emotions at the same time. Remember that nine months is a long time, and you don’t have to feel fully prepared from the start. You’ll have time to settle into your feelings and prepare mentally.

Thoughts and feelings

Some expectant partners may find it hard to accept that a little baby is growing inside the pregnant person’s belly. Even though you likely won’t notice much change from the life you’re used to, your partner will probably soon notice many physical changes (if they haven’t already!). Major processes are happening in the pregnant body—especially hormonal changes—which you may witness throughout the pregnancy. Try to remember that it may be the hormones speaking when conflicts arise that you’re not used to—maybe you can laugh about it together once things have calmed down.