Week 14 is often the week the fog lifts a little. Tiredness and sickness ease for many women, and appetite comes back with them. It also brings the eating-for-two question, which has a clear answer and it is no.
Your body this week
The placenta is now doing the work: pumping nutrients, oxygen and hormones across, and carrying waste away. It is firmly attached to the womb and connected to the pregnancy through the umbilical cord.
Your blood and the pregnancy's blood come into close contact inside the placenta but do not mix. That separation matters clinically, and it is the reason blood group is checked early in pregnancy.
Some women notice yellow stains inside a bra around now. That is usually colostrum, the first milk, and it can appear weeks or months before a birth. It is worth mentioning to a midwife if any breast change worries you, but its arrival is not unusual.
What you may notice
Sore or bleeding gums, round ligament pains, headaches, nosebleeds, bloating, constipation, indigestion, sore breasts, leg cramps, feeling hot, dizziness, swollen hands and feet, urine infections, vaginal infections, darker patches of skin, greasier skin and thicker hair.
Sickness, cravings and a sharp sense of smell often carry over from the first trimester for a while yet.
Sleeping position is worth knowing about now rather than later. NHS guidance is that from 28 weeks it is safest to go to sleep on your side, which is a habit that is easier to build early than to switch to in the third trimester.
Your baby this week
Around week 14, the length given is about 8.5cm from head to bottom — kiwi-sized, in the NHS's comparison. That is a population figure and not a measurement of any particular pregnancy.
The head is rounding out and coming into proportion. A midwife may be able to hear a heartbeat with a handheld monitor at this stage. Small amounts of amniotic fluid are being swallowed, passed through the kidneys, and returned as urine — a cycle that runs for the rest of the pregnancy.
What care usually happens around now
For women who missed the first-trimester screening window, the second-trimester blood screening test in the UK is offered from around 14 weeks and up to 20 weeks. It screens for Down's syndrome only, rather than the three conditions the combined test covers.
Nothing else is routinely scheduled this week in the UK. Antenatal schedules differ between countries, and a country with more frequent visits is not offering better care, only a different pattern.
This week's tip
Ignore "eating for two" and change what is within reach instead. ACOG puts the extra requirement at a few hundred calories a day from the second trimester — the size of a sandwich, not a second dinner. If appetite has come back hard, the useful move is stocking the fruit bowl before the biscuit tin, because week 14 hunger does not negotiate.
When to see a doctor
Report bleeding, severe pain, a fever, burning when you pee, or a headache with vision changes. Pregnancy warning signs has the full list.
Seek care now: Contact your local emergency services or go to your nearest emergency department if you have heavy bleeding, severe or one-sided tummy pain, a severe headache with vision changes, sudden swelling of the face or hands, a fever, fluid leaking from the vagina, chest pain, trouble breathing, fainting, or a seizure. Femio cannot assess a pregnancy.
Frequently asked questions
How much more should I be eating?
Less than most people expect. Guidance puts it at a few hundred extra calories a day from the second trimester, and none at all in the first.
Is it too early to be leaking colostrum?
No. Some women produce it weeks or months before birth. Week 15 covers the discharge changes that often come next, and week 13 covers the start of this trimester.