Week 13 of Your Pregnancy

Excited, daunting, overwhelming… these are all normal feelings for a mom-to-be! At 13 weeks, welcome to the start of your second trimester. Your baby is growing rapidly and is quite active. Its reproductive organs are developed, and liver and pancreas are beginning to function. 

Your 13th week of pregnancy marks the start of your second trimester. Your baby is now developing the vocal cords, all other organs continue to mature. Inside your baby’s body, ovaries or testes have fully formed. But don’t scramble to buy blue balloons or pink ribbons just yet – it’s still a little early to determine if it’s a boy or girl¹! Your baby’s liver will begin to produce bile and its pancreas will produce insulin¹. Other developments include your baby’s vocal cords², as well as eyes and ears³. 

The sense of touch forms and your baby begins to play with the umbilical cord. Sometimes it might even suck the thumb. 

Your Baby

Your baby is the size of a peach now! You can't feel its movements yet, but your b aby is already starting to stretch, kick and turn! The baby is now 6 centimetres tall and weighs about 30 grams. Your baby’s head will now start to grow at a slower rate than the rest of the body. By week 21 it will be around a third the size of the body, and at birth it will be a quarter of the size.

Your body

Your weight gain will increase gradually after these 3 months. You may sweat more often due to the increased energy consumption from your body.

Focus on Fibre: Insoluble and Soluble

Unfortunately, hormonal changes in our bodies during pregnancy can cause constipation⁵. This is why fibre is every pregnant girl’s best friend! To maintain regular bowel movements, ensure that you get at least 30g of fibre a day.

There are two types of fibre, and both are important for digestion. Insoluble fibre passes though our gut without being broken down – this helps to move other food along with it. For insoluble fibre, pick up⁶:

• Wheat bran
• Wholegrain cereals and breads
• Brown rice
• Fruit and vegetables
• Seeds and nuts

The other type of fibre is soluble fibre, which provide a source of food for the healthy bacteria in our gut. Sources of soluble fibre include⁶:

• Barley, oats and rye
• Beans and pulses
• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Seeds

Can’t wait to get started? For better health and nutrition, try these food swaps to increase your fibre intake!

• Swap mashed potato for fibre-rich potato in its skin
• Instead of fruit juice, have whole fruit
• Swap vegetable soup for vegetable and bean soup
• Swap your regular bread for rye bread
• Add some lentils to your chicken curry and choose brown rice