During Week 21, your baby will practice digesting using his or her new digestive system. Meanwhile your pregnancy experience in Week 21 will mirror the experience of the past few weeks.
Your Baby
Previously, your baby received nutrition solely through your placenta. While the placenta still plays an important role, your baby is now using his or her mouth to take in nutrition as well! Whatever you digest becomes part of the amniotic fluid in your uterus; your baby takes little gulps of that fluid every day for additional nutrition. While using the placenta for nourishment, your baby obviously couldn’t taste anything, but now that he or she is gulping down fluid, your baby can taste. Naturally your digested food isn’t going to taste the same to your baby as it does to you, but nonetheless many flavors do transmit into amniotic fluid including vanilla, anise, mint or carrot.
Curious how this has been proven? Blind scientific studies have been conducted in which participants smelled different amniotic fluid samples and were easily able to identify specific food scents. What a person can smell, they can taste, so that means that flavors are retained in your amniotic fluid and your baby can taste food in the womb! The following body parts will be developing this week:
- Eyelids. Your baby’s eyelids and eyebrows are now fully developed.
Your Body
During Week 21, your day to day experience won’t be so different from the past few weeks. Your profile will continue to swell and you’re probably feeling starting to feel your baby’s movements. This early on those movements are usually pretty gentle and some women may mistake the sensation as flatulence. You may develop varicose veins in your legs, in part because your growing uterus puts pressure on the inferior vena cava, the large vein that returns blood from the legs to the heart.
Week 21 Pregnancy Symptoms
During Week 21 you’ll still have those pesky hormone symptoms which you’ve been experiencing throughout your second trimester. Your gums may bleed, you may have nasal congestion and snore at night, and you may be growing extra hair all over your body. Otherwise you’ll still be putting up with indigestion, but it’s likely you’ll feel hungry all the time. Backaches and abdominal aches are still common this week, and you also may have varicose veins and stretch marks.
Week 21 Pregnancy Tips
So with your ravenous hunger and your baby now able to taste your food, what should you be eating and how much?
Lots of women dive right back into eating and actually overeat. The best approach though is actually the same one as before. Eating a number of small, healthy, well distributed meals throughout the day is the healthiest choice for you and your baby. You needn’t (and shouldn’t) double your food intake either—most physicians recommend aiming for 300 calories a day on top of whatever is healthiest for your body weight. You should be gaining weight at the rate of approximately 1 pound per week, though slight variances are okay.
You should be eating healthy, organic food now not only to provide the best nutrition for you and your baby but also because by introducing your baby to healthy foods in the womb, you increase the likelihood that he or she will enjoy those same healthy foods later. Studies have even shown that children whose mothers ate lots of fruits and veggies while they were in the womb grew up enjoying fruits and vegetables more than those who did not. That doesn’t mean your child won’t be a picky eater (almost all children are), but maybe less picky!
If you have unique cultural foods which are part of your heritage, consider eating those foods more often while pregnant too—that way your child may grow up enjoying your cultural cuisine even if you live in a country where that type of food is less common. For many children developing a taste for certain types of food is difficult or comes later in life if they are not surrounded by that food as everyday fare. If for example you are a Chinese American, eating Chinese food while your baby is still in the womb may help him or her to enjoy Chinese food as a child even though that food may not comprise an average school lunch.
Next week your baby will weigh about a pound! And you’ll notice another unusual hormone-induced development which may cause you to go running to the department store (right after you thought your maternity wardrobe was complete) to buy a new pair of shoes.
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