Week 15
Wednesday March 09th 2005, 6:25 pm
Filed under: Family

Your heart is
increasing its output to supply the baby with oxygen. Your enlarged
heart is pumping about 20% more blood than prepregnancy. This volume
will actually increase throughout your pregnancy for an ending
increased heart output of 30-50%.
If your clothes are getting tight, do not try to cram yourself into clothes. Either invest in some maternity clothes, borrow them, wear your partner's clothing or unzip your pants!
The maternal blood screening for neural tube defects, often called the Alpha-fetoprotein Test (AFP)
may be offered at this point. It is a screening that is most accurate
during the 15 – 17th weeks of gestation, although this screening has a
high false positive rate.

Baby:

Your baby
may have developed the habit of sucking his or her thumb! The skin is
very thin and you can see the blood vessels clearly underneath.
Your
baby is about 70 grams. The scalp hair pattern is developing. And the
heart is pumping about 25 quarts of blood a day. This will increase to
about 300 at term.

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