What To Expect at 6 Weeks Pregnant

For 6 weeks pregnant women, there is a lot of exciting development in the body and baby’s progress to take note of. While many may still be letting the reality of being pregnant to sink in, the other women are excited to learn how far their baby’s organs have begun to form; how their pregnancy hormones are gaining prominence and other important milestones.

In this article, we will discuss all you need to know at being 6 weeks pregnant; including your 6-weel ultrasound must look like.

6-Week: How Far Your Baby has developed

By the sixth week, you are precisely in your first trimester. You have been pregnant for a month and two weeks. This is exactly the time when your baby has grown its crown-rump.

As for the embryo, while it may not even look close to a baby yet, it is certainly alive.

What does a 6 weeks ultrasound look like?

Generally, the first ultrasound does not take place till a woman has reached the eleventh or fourteenth week. But if a woman does get a call for a 6 weeks ultrasound, there can be reasons for it. Although it may not be alarming but a doctor might schedule an ultrasound that early due to certain complications with the pregnancy.

Often a woman’s age or her own medical history might be the reason why the doctor may require a scan early on. Whatever the reason may be though, at 6 weeks the baby is too tiny to spot in a regular abdominal ultrasound, which means you will need a transvaginal ultrasound.

What can you see at a 6 weeks ultrasound you may ask?

In a scan this early, your doctor wants to see the following in the ultrasound:

1. Yolk sac- a pregnant woman’s yolk sac is one of the biggest indicators of her health at this point. A doctor may want to look at the patient’s yolk sac, which resembles a tiny balloon and is inside the gestational sac. The size and shape tell a lot about how well a woman is progressing in her pregnancy in the sixth week.
2. The second most important thing your 6 weeks ultrasound can tell a doctor is the location of your embryo. Your doctor would want to know the exact implantation point of your embryo and verify how high or low it is in your uterus. This revelation would also confirm to your doctor whether the embryo is in the uterus or an ectopic pregnancy. The ectopic pregnancy occurs when your fertilized egg locates itself outside your uterus or in the fallopian tube.
3. A 4 week pregnant woman’s ultrasound will also tell whether she is having higher order multiple of twins. This is not a rarity and statistics tell us that in U.S alone there are three percent chances of having twins. However, a 6 weeks ultrasound may not be able to confirm this fact and one may even make this discovery in the later ultrasounds.
4. The heartbeat is perhaps the most special thing your 6 weeks ultrasound can tell, although many times pregnant women have to wait longer for it. However, if a 6 weeks pregnant woman goes for an ultrasound, she must prepare for the possibility of hearing a heartbeat and feeling a world of emotions in that moment.

6-Week Pregnant- Your Baby’s Organ Development

Visually, the embryo will not even look like a baby’s form in the sixth week. There are a lot of monumental developments taking place at this point. For starters, the baby’s heartbeat is in the early developmental stages.

If the little heart begins to beat before you go under your first scan, you’ll be lucky enough to hear it. Nest, the other significant organ development is the closing of the neutral tube. It actually closes and transforms in to your baby’s spinal cord and brain.

The embryo too develops an optic ventricle by this point and will soon transform into the eyes of your bay. Then come the other distinguishing features, which are beginning to take shape by now, including the jaw, ears and nose.

In the first weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, the limb buds will also be on their way to sprouting into legs and arms of the tiny life inside the womb. The sixth week is also the earliest stage of development for the urinary, reproductive and digestive systems.

Common Symptoms of 6 weeks Pregnant Women

On the surface, 6 weeks pregnant women generally do not look any different. Inside, instead, there are major transformations taking place. At this stage, a woman’s pregnancy hormones begin to gain full force. But the fact is that these hormones act differently at this point for women.

For some, the pregnancy symptoms may be mild and not much noticeable for many women. For others, even at six weeks the symptoms could be powerful and last for entire days at a time. Some symptoms may also occur only at a certain time or keep coming and going.

It is also normal to feel incredibly fatigued for a 6-week pregnant woman. At this point it is come for progesterone and other pregnancy hormones to make women feel more tired than usual.

Final Thoughts

A 6 weeks ultrasound is the earliest scan during the course of one’s pregnancy. It may make many women wonder what does a 6 week ultrasound look like? The truth is that this is the earliest stage of development. The embryo does not even resemble a baby’s form by this week.

But inside, a lot of activity begins taking place. Several noticeable and important factors can ensure a Doctor that a woman and her baby are progressing fine.