Week 8 usually opens the window for the booking appointment, the longest antenatal appointment most women have. It is also, for many, the week mood becomes the loudest symptom rather than sickness. Both are worth planning for.
Your body this week
You may be bloated and your breasts slightly swollen, but it will probably be several more weeks before you look pregnant.
The placenta is preparing to take over the work of feeding the pregnancy and removing waste. The NHS describes it as sprouting small branches that anchor it to the wall of the womb. That handover is gradual and finishes early in the second trimester.
Feeling anxious or low is common enough that NHS antenatal care asks about it directly. The advice is to say so — to a midwife, to a GP, to someone — rather than to wait and see whether it lifts. There is no threshold you have to reach before it is worth mentioning.
What you may notice
Tiredness, sickness and needing to pee more often as the growing womb presses on the bladder. If that is wrecking your sleep, the NHS suggests drinking plenty during the day and less in the evening.
The rest of the list is familiar by now: a metallic taste, sore breasts, headaches, mood swings, food likes and dislikes, a sharper sense of smell, a milky white discharge, cramping, darker patches of skin, and bloating.
Bleeding, severe pain or one-sided pain still belong to today rather than to the next appointment.
Your baby this week
Around week 8, the measurement given is roughly 16mm from head to bottom — about raspberry-sized in the NHS's illustration, and expected to roughly double over the following week. Population averages, not a description of any one pregnancy.
The head has started to uncurl. Arms are lengthening faster than legs, because the upper body grows first. Around this point the embryo starts to be called a foetus.
What care usually happens around now
The booking appointment usually happens between weeks 8 and 12 in the UK, takes about an hour, and covers medical history, blood pressure, a urine sample, and blood tests. Screening for HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis is offered, as are screening choices to discuss for later in pregnancy.
A dating scan is offered somewhere between weeks 8 and 14. NICHD describes a similar first-visit pattern in the US, with the schedule set by the clinician rather than a national timetable — so the shape is shared even when the dates are not.
This week's tip
Write your questions down before the booking appointment and take the list in with you. An hour sounds long and disappears fast, and the questions people forget are always the ones they were embarrassed to ask. If a previous pregnancy ended in loss, put that at the top of the list — it changes the care that is offered.
When to see a doctor
Contact a midwife or GP for any bleeding, severe or one-sided pain, an inability to keep fluids down, or a fever. If you feel unable to cope, say that too. What happens at the first pregnancy appointment explains the visit itself.
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, pain in the tip of your shoulder, a severe headache with vision changes, sudden swelling of the face or hands, a fever, chest pain, trouble breathing, fainting, or a seizure. Femio cannot assess a pregnancy.
Frequently asked questions
What actually happens at a booking appointment?
Medical history, blood pressure, urine, blood tests, and a conversation about screening choices and where you might give birth. Pregnancy warning signs is worth reading before you go, so you know what to ask about.
I am crying at everything. Is that hormones?
Mood changes are extremely common in the first trimester, and that does not make them trivial. Week 9 is the week hormone levels usually peak. Tell your midwife how you are feeling — it is a routine question, not a difficult one.