Prenatal Care: What to Expect in Each Trimester

Every trimester of pregnancy comes with its own checklist, and knowing what's coming makes each appointment feel less like a surprise and more like a milestone.

The first trimester (weeks 1-12) is mostly about confirmation and baseline testing — your first ultrasound to date the pregnancy, blood work to check for anaemia, thyroid function and infections, and starting folic acid if you haven't already. This is also when morning sickness peaks for most women, usually easing by week 14.

The second trimester (weeks 13-27) is when most people feel their best. This is when we do the anomaly scan around week 18-20, checking the baby's growth and organ development in detail, and when most parents choose to find out the baby's sex if they want to.

The third trimester (weeks 28-40) shifts to more frequent visits — every two weeks until week 36, then weekly — tracking the baby's position, growth, and your blood pressure closely, since this is when conditions like pre-eclampsia typically show up. We'll also discuss your birth plan in detail during this stretch.

Throughout all three, the single most useful thing you can do is keep every appointment, even the ones that feel routine — that's exactly when small changes are caught early.