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Meandering through the First Trimester- Real Life Story

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Meandering through the First Trimester- Real Life Story

 

Abbie Tomson (All4birth digital lead and Registered Midwife)

 

The first trimester is unusual for anyone having a baby, and I found it particularly challenging as a midwife. I felt more anxiety than ever before- could it be an ectopic pregnancy? Missed miscarriage? Is everything okay? Whilst feeling relatively okay for the first few weeks!

I had an unusual few weeks, 4-7 weeks gestation, as I didn’t have many symptoms, and I felt anxiety around the clock! I booked an early private scan at six weeks and six days and felt so much better! This really helped with the anxiety and helped me start to connect with the baby.

I took this photo in the early weeks when I didn’t feel any symptoms; I tried to start working on some good habits for the pregnancy! This included gentle yoga, meditation, reading birth stories (such as on here!) and connecting with other mums to be online. I also started to tell those closely around me about the pregnancy, which also helped to make it feel more real!

I had my booking appointment and had my own set of notes which was so strange after being the one who handed out the notes for so long! I then had another early scan due to starting antenatal low-molecular-weight heparin (blood thinning injections- due to my risk factors) and waited for the results of my screening tests.

Around this time, the (all day!) nausea kicked in and occasional vomiting. I had a fixed morning routine- before sitting up in bed, I’d roll over, take an anti-sickness and eat a dry cracker before sitting up. I then would very slowly eat a bowl of coco pops whilst drinking a ginger and something tea and would go to work and feel pretty unnerved until around 10 am when suddenly I’d start feeling better! I’d then get waves on and off throughout the day but found travel sickness bands helpful and eating little and often throughout the day. This continued until I was 17 weeks, and suddenly, I felt better!

A new wave of anxiety came before the dating scan (when I was around 12 weeks), and it was a relief to see an ever-growing baby on the screen and announce our pregnancy to our wider family and all our friends and colleagues at work!

The first trimester can be such a lonely time, not necessarily wanting to shout from the rooftops, whilst also not having a lot of energy, feeling terrible day to day, all whilst people don’t know what is going on! Check out the corresponding article I have written about the first trimester, where you’ve got to remember your body is going through such incredible changes and working so hard, all without you seeing!

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