9 weeks pregnant

How big is your baby at 9 weeks?

About the size of a strawberry — around 22 mm (0.9 in) long from head to bottom. Just short of an inch, and roughly ten times the length of four weeks ago.

A note on the numbers: in the first trimester babies are measured crown to rump — head to bottom, not head to heel, because the legs are curled. Weight is not reliably estimated this early, so any site quoting grams or ounces before about 14 weeks is guessing.

What's developing this week

The face is looking properly recognisable: eyes protected by eyelids, a small mouth, and a tongue with tiny taste buds already forming. The hands and feet are developing — no separate fingers or toes yet, just grooves where they will be. All the major internal organs (heart, brain, lungs, kidneys and gut) are developing, and bones are starting to form.

The genitals are also taking shape, though the NHS notes you will usually not find out the sex until the anomaly scan at around 18 to 21 weeks. A small myth the NHS bothers to correct: babies are not all born with blue eyes — colour at birth ranges from slate grey to inky black depending on the parents' genetics, and often changes afterwards.

What you might feel

Extreme tiredness, nausea, mood swings, a metallic taste, sore breasts, headaches, changed food preferences, a heightened sense of smell, discharge, light spotting, cramping, darkened patches on the face, thicker hair and bloating are all on the NHS list for week 9.

Hunger often becomes unpredictable around now — ravenous, then repelled, sometimes within the same hour. Small frequent snacks tend to work better than meals. There is no need to eat for two; the NHS is clear that no extra calories are needed until the third trimester.

If you are still being sick many times a day, cannot keep fluids down, or are losing weight, that is not something to ride out. Severe pregnancy sickness is treatable and the treatment works.

Is 9 weeks pregnant 2 months or 3 months?

Week 9 is the first week of month 3 — the last month of the first trimester. Two months down.

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 — "11 weeks and 3 days" — because a few days change what is offered.

Month 3 runs five weeks rather than four in this mapping, weeks 9 to 13, which is one of the places different apps disagree with each other.

Miscarriage risk at 9 weeks

You are between the 8-week and 10-week markers, both of which are reassuring. In a study of over 300 women with a history of recurrent miscarriage, seeing a heartbeat at 8 weeks gave a 98 per cent chance of the pregnancy continuing, and at 10 weeks 99.4 per cent. Week 9 sits between those figures.

One caveat almost never stated: those heartbeat figures come from a study of over 300 women with a history of recurrent miscarriage, so their baseline risk was higher than average. For most people the equivalent numbers would be at least as reassuring.

Tommy's estimates early miscarriage overall at 10 to 20 in every 100 pregnancies, with most occurring in the first 12 weeks and risk falling dramatically after that. Your remaining risk at 9 weeks is a fraction of the number you would have read at 5 weeks.

You will find week-by-week miscarriage percentage tables all over the internet. Tommy's, which funds the UK's national miscarriage research centre, says openly that beyond the well-evidenced drop after 12 weeks, reliable week-by-week risk research does not really exist. We give you what is evidenced instead.

The most common cause of early miscarriage is a chromosomal problem that happens by chance. Not lifting something, not a glass of wine before you knew, not stress or exercise. Tommy's states it directly: miscarriages very rarely happen because of something you did or did not do.

Is it safe to fly at 9 weeks pregnant?

Yes, in a straightforward pregnancy. 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 no evidence that flying causes miscarriage, early labour or your waters to break.

Practically, week 9 is often easier than weeks 6 to 8 — but not always, and the RCOG's point about motion sickness compounding pregnancy sickness still applies. The RCOG notes most obstetric emergencies happen in the first and third trimesters, and advises a reassurance scan before flying for anyone with an increased chance of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.

Watch the calendar as well as the medicine: your booking appointment is due between weeks 8 and 12, and your dating scan between 8 and 14 weeks. Check a trip does not collide with either.

The risk that is real: blood clots

Pregnancy raises deep vein thrombosis (DVT) risk from the earliest weeks. ACOG puts it plainly: any travel of four hours or more — car, train, bus or plane — 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

• No airline restricts travel this early — cut-offs sit around 36 to 37 weeks for one baby, 32 for twins.
• Check what maternity and emergency care exists at your destination.
• Tell your insurer you are pregnant; cover should include 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

Early pregnancy is full of sensations that turn out to be nothing. These are the ones worth a phone call.

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 bleeding with any of the following, which the NHS lists as needing immediate assessment:

• Severe abdominal pain you cannot concentrate through
• Pain in the tip of your shoulder
• Feeling sick, faint or dizzy, or losing consciousness
• Heavy bleeding that soaks through a pad quickly

Sudden sharp abdominal pain with dizziness, faintness or looking very pale can indicate a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, needing same-day surgery. Around 1 in every 90 UK pregnancies is ectopic, and the NHS notes symptoms usually appear between weeks 4 and 12 — where you are now.

Call your midwife, early pregnancy unit or health line today

• Light bleeding or spotting, with mild or no pain
• One-sided pain low in your abdomen or pelvis
• Brown, watery discharge that is new for you
• Pain when you pee or open your bowels
• You cannot keep food or fluid down for 24 hours, your urine is very dark or absent for 8 hours, you feel severely weak or faint, or you are vomiting blood or losing weight — the NHS triggers for pregnancy-sickness help, which is treatable

You do not need a booking appointment first, and you do not need to be certain something is wrong.