Many women choose to delay announcing a pregnancy at least until the end of the first trimester (12 weeks into their pregnancy). This is usually because of concerns about the risk of miscarriage (pregnancy loss) during this time.
There's no right or wrong time to tell people you're pregnant. It's up to you to decide what's best for you and, if you have a partner, you may want to decide together. Some people choose to wait until after they've had the first ultrasound scan. It's your baby, so it's up to you.
At 10 weeks, you'll likely have had your first prenatal visit, where your healthcare provider has confirmed your pregnancy and assessed any risks. So, it might be a good time to share the news! But you may want to wait a couple more weeks when the risk of miscarriage is lower.
Pregnant women are often advised to wait until they pass the 12-week mark, when the risk of miscarriage drops sharply, to announce their pregnancies to the world.
Traditionally, those who are pregnant have been advised to keep the pregnancy hush until the end of the first trimester or start of the second trimester (around 14 weeks) when the risk for complications and pregnancy loss drops.
While many women know they are pregnant as early as a week after a missed period, social norms dictate pregnancy announcements should wait until after the all-important 12-week mark. The early weeks of pregnancy are often filled with roller coaster style emotions, hormones and pregnancy symptoms.
Many women choose to delay announcing a pregnancy at least until the end of the first trimester (12 weeks into their pregnancy). This is usually because of concerns about the risk of miscarriage (pregnancy loss) during this time.
There are no rules to when you announce your pregnancy. Some women wait until they're 20 weeks, others can't wait for the home pregnancy test to dry!
The risk of miscarriage drops significantly as pregnancy progresses. In one study, researchers found a miscarriage rate of 9.4 percent at 6 weeks of pregnancy, 4.2 percent at 7 weeks, 1.5 percent at 8 weeks, 0.5 percent at 9 weeks and 0.7 percent at 10 weeks.
More than 80% of miscarriages occur within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. After 12 weeks, the rate decreases rapidly (Dante et al, 2013; Houry and Salhy, 2014).
Just 12 weeks after your last period, the foetus is fully formed. All the organs, muscles, limbs and bones are in place, and the sex organs are well developed.
Most miscarriages - 8 out of 10 (80 percent) - happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage in the second trimester (between 13 and 19 weeks) happens in 1 to 5 in 100 (1 to 5 percent) pregnancies. Pregnancy loss that happens after 20 weeks is called stillbirth.
Your First Ultrasound
It's typically done between 7 and 8 weeks to verify your due date, to look for a fetal heartbeat, and to measure the length of the baby from “crown to rump.” At this ultrasound, you'll also learn whether you're having one baby, pregnant with twins, or more!
If you get a positive pregnancy test result, call your healthcare provider. They'll likely schedule an appointment eight weeks in where they'll confirm the pregnancy and its location via ultrasound, as well as run other important tests and screenings.
That positive result can bring a flood of reactions from excitement to fear. And, while your baby might be too small to see, at 5 weeks pregnant, you may already be feeling its presence both physically and emotionally.
There's no right or wrong time for when to tell your boss you're pregnant, but most women wait until shortly after their first trimester – when the chance of miscarriage has decreased significantly – and before their pregnancy has started to noticeably show.
In the majority of cases, even though it may be hard, the answer to the question is yes. If you are pregnant, you should almost always tell the father. Only when it is not safe for the birth mother to be with the birth father is the answer to seek legal counsel and possibly withhold the information.
Communicating with your line manager
By law, you don't need to tell your employer you're pregnant until the end of the 15th week before your due date (when you're 25 weeks pregnant). But it's best to tell them as soon as possible, especially if you have physical symptoms like sickness and need their support.
By 7 weeks, the embryo has grown to about 10mm long from head to bottom. This measurement is called the crown-rump length. The brain is growing rapidly and this results in the head growing faster than the rest of the body. The embryo has a large forehead, and the eyes and ears continue to develop.
At 6 weeks gestation, you might be able to see: a black oval circle (black is fluid on ultrasound) which is the gestation sac. A little white ring which is the yolk sac where the baby feeds from in the early weeks of pregnancy, the embryo (foetal pole)and.
Your nausea and vomiting may be worse than ever: Morning sickness peaks around 9 or 10 weeks of pregnancy for many women. That's when levels of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are highest (morning sickness is thought to be linked to rises in hCG and estrogen).
Most miscarriages happen between 6 and 8 weeks gestation. We know that most of these occur due to a major genetic abnormality in the fetus. The sperm and the egg (which are known as gametes) each contain half the genetic material necessary for a complete person.