Your Changing Body in Week 13 of Pregnancy

Your Changing Body When You're 13 Weeks Pregnant

By your 13th week of pregnancy, you are nearing the point when early symptoms of pregnancy should begin to subside. Possible discomforts of late pregnancy are well in the future. This is a great time to enjoy your pregnancy!

• At 13 weeks pregnant, you might feel, like many women, that you can relax more because the risk of miscarriage goes down greatly by this point.
• The changes in your body might become more obvious to others.
• The top of your uterus, called the fundus, now is expanding beyond your pelvis.
• Hormones released by your placenta, ovaries, adrenal glands, and pituitary gland guide the growth of your baby as well as changes within the organs in your own body.
• By your 13th week of pregnancy, your blood pressure drops as your circulatory system quickly expands. This may continue through the 24th week of pregnancy before returning to pre-pregnancy levels.
• Your blood supply increases, but most of it is plasma, or the fluid of your blood. Red blood cells, which take longer to develop, catch up around the 20th week of pregnancy.
• Short of breath? You might notice that you're breathing a little faster or have shortness of breath. This is normal. Why? Your body reduces the carbon dioxide level in your blood in order to carry more carbon dioxide from your baby. Your breathing volume and rate adjust to this change, leaving you slightly short of breath.