14 weeks pregnant

How big is your baby at 14 weeks?

About the size of a kiwi fruit — around 8.5 cm (3.3 in) long head to bottom, according to the NHS, weighing roughly 90 g (3.2 oz).

The head is getting rounder and more in proportion with the body — the first sign of the top-heavy look of the first trimester resolving.

A note on the numbers: up to week 19 the NHS measures crown to rump — head to bottom, because the legs are curled. At week 20 it switches to head to heel, which is why the length appears to leap 10 cm in a week. Weights here are the median from the WHO fetal growth charts, which begin at 14 weeks; half of babies weigh more, half less.

What's developing this week

The NHS describes something this week most people never think about: your baby is having a wee. Small amounts of amniotic fluid are swallowed, pass into the stomach, and the kidneys pass the fluid back out as urine. That loop runs until birth, and from here your baby, not you, tops up most of the amniotic fluid.

Your baby is kicking energetically. You almost certainly cannot feel it, but your midwife may now be able to hear the heartbeat with a handheld monitor on your bump.

ACOG describes weeks 13 to 16 as when the bones harden, especially the long bones, toenails form, the neck becomes defined, hearing starts to develop and the lungs begin building the tissue that will exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide after birth.

The placenta is now doing the heavy lifting: pumping out nutrients, oxygen and hormones and removing waste. One detail worth knowing — your blood and your baby's come into very close contact there but never mix, because you may be different blood groups.

What you might feel

For most people this is the week things become liveable again. Sickness usually eases around 13 or 14 weeks, the constant need to pee often settles as the womb rises out of the pelvis, and energy starts to return.

New things instead. Yellow stains in your bra are probably colostrum, the first milk, and are normal this early. Round ligament pain — a sharp pull low down when you stand up fast, cough or roll over — appears on the NHS list from now. The rest of it: swollen or bleeding gums, nosebleeds, headaches, bloating and constipation, heartburn, sore breasts, leg cramps, feeling hot, dizziness, swollen hands and feet, chloasma, greasier skin and thicker hair.

On sleep, the NHS is precise and often misquoted: it is fine to sleep on your stomach or back now. The advice to go to sleep on your side applies from 28 weeks. If you wake on your back, turn over and go back to sleep.

Is 14 weeks pregnant 3 months or 4 months?

Week 14 is the first week of month 4, and the first full week of the second trimester by every reckoning.

There is no official weeks-to-months map. A calendar month averages about 4.3 weeks, not 4, so 40 weeks is a little over nine months — and two apps can disagree about which month you are in. The most widely used mapping:

• Month 1 — weeks 1 to 4
• Month 2 — weeks 5 to 8
• Month 3 — weeks 9 to 13
• Month 4 — weeks 14 to 17
• Month 5 — weeks 18 to 22
• Month 6 — weeks 23 to 27
• Month 7 — weeks 28 to 31
• Month 8 — weeks 32 to 35
• Month 9 — weeks 36 to 40

Your maternity team will not use months. Everything is booked by week and day — "19 weeks and 3 days" — because a few days change what is offered. The anomaly scan window is 18+0 to 20+6 weeks, not "about five months".

What's happening at your appointments around now

Nothing this week, in most systems. The gap between the dating scan and the next contact is one of the longest of the pregnancy, and it catches people out.

In the UK, NICE sets the schedule: 10 routine antenatal appointments for a first baby, 7 if you have given birth before. Next is the 16-week appointment, then the anomaly scan between 18 and 21 weeks. If nobody has told you how to book that scan, ask now — arrangements vary by area and in some places you book it yourself.

In the US, ACOG says you should have at least one standard ultrasound, usually at 18 to 22 weeks, with visits typically monthly through the second trimester rather than at named milestones.

One administrative thing: tell your employer if you have not. That triggers your maternity rights, the right to attend antenatal appointments in paid working time, and a workplace risk assessment.

Is it safe to fly at 14 weeks pregnant?

Yes, in a straightforward pregnancy — and you are inside the window everyone recommends. The RCOG is unambiguous: occasional air travel is not harmful in an uncomplicated pregnancy. There is no evidence that cabin pressure or humidity harm you or the baby, and none that flying causes miscarriage, early labour or your waters to break. ACOG names 14 to 28 weeks as the best time to travel; the NHS names mid-pregnancy.

Week 14 is the opening of that window rather than the middle of it. The RCOG notes motion sickness on a flight can make pregnancy sickness considerably worse, so if yours has not settled, a long flight may be pleasanter in a fortnight.

The risk that is real: blood clots

Pregnancy raises deep vein thrombosis (DVT) risk, and that does not ease in the second trimester. ACOG puts it plainly: any travel of four hours or more doubles DVT risk, and pregnancy adds to that. Under four hours the RCOG says you are unlikely to need special measures. Over four hours:

• Loose clothing, comfortable shoes, an aisle seat, regular walks about the cabin
• In-seat exercises roughly every 30 minutes
• Water steadily; cut down on caffeine
• Graduated compression stockings — not ordinary flight socks, and sized for you by a midwife or doctor

With other clot risk factors you may be advised to have heparin injections around the flight.

Practical points

• Airline cut-offs are usually 37 weeks for one baby, 32 for twins, so nothing restricts you yet — but from 28 weeks most airlines want a letter from your midwife or doctor, which the NHS warns can cost money and take weeks.
• Check what maternity and emergency care exists at your destination, and tell your insurer you are pregnant so that cover includes pregnancy-related care.
• Some travel vaccines and anti-malarial tablets are unsuitable in pregnancy; travel to Zika areas is not recommended.

When to call your midwife or doctor

The second trimester is the quietest stretch of pregnancy for most people, which is exactly why it is worth knowing what is not ordinary. Maternity units are staffed around the clock.

Get emergency help now

Call your local emergency number (999 in the UK and Ireland, 911 in the US and Canada, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand) or go to an emergency department if you have:

• Heavy vaginal bleeding, or any bleeding with severe abdominal pain
• Abdominal pain you cannot concentrate through
• Fainting or collapse, chest pain, or sudden breathlessness
• A severe headache painkillers do not touch, blurred vision or flashing lights, pain below your ribs, or sudden swelling of your face, hands or feet — the NHS lists these as pre-eclampsia symptoms, most likely from 20 weeks, needing immediate assessment

Call your midwife or maternity unit today, whatever the hour

• Any vaginal bleeding, however light
• A gush or a steady trickle of fluid from your vagina
• Regular tightenings, or persistent low backache and pelvic pressure
• Discharge that changes colour or texture, smells strongly, or brings itching or soreness
• Itching without a rash, especially at night or on your palms and soles — the NHS asks for this to be checked, because it can be intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• A temperature, feeling generally unwell, or burning when you pee
• Not feeling movement yet is not on this list. At 14 weeks almost nobody has.

You do not need to be certain something is wrong. That is what the number is for.