Can anyone help me understand the placenta?

[brownpaperbag1]

I’m so confused about when the baby goes from being self-sufficient in its own “bubble” to the placenta taking over. I’ve read various different answers on MN - including 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 15 weeks! Does anyone know which is correct?

Also, once the placenta does kick in, is it even more important to improve your diet at that point, as whatever you eat/drink can now pass to the baby?

I’m worried as I’ve not been eating particularly well during my first trimester due to nausea. I just want carbs and can’t
stomach much fruit!

Bump!

Hi,

I had a private scan at 9 weeks and you only see her. At 10 weeks I started spotting to went to my local EPU for a scan and you could clearly see the placenta forming. She said another week and it will be functioning. Meaning 11weeks.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve know two people on crack during pregnancy and have gone on to have perfectly healthy babies. I’m not saying this is the case for every one but put it this way you would be doing a lot worse than not having the best of diets. Just get yourself if you haven’t already good quality pregnancy vitamins that has everything your baby needs.

Xx

Thanks @Pinkflower23. Does that mean the nausea should disappear at around week 11 as well?

I was really Lucky and didn’t get any nausea or sickness what so ever. If it wasn’t for cramps and late period I wouldn’t have known I was pregnant. On the other hand I work with a girl who had it bad and sees still sick at 25 weeks. But I think generally they say 12ish weeks when you start to feel better. Depends how lucky you are haha.

Xx

Hello, I work in this field. This explains how a baby gets nutrition etc before the placenta functions.
www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Alcohol/

@MrsHardbroom I just read this in your link:

"Alcohol from the mother’s bloodstream can pass into the yolk sac"

I'm really panicking now, as I was drinking up to week 5 of pregnancy (when I found out I was pregnant). Most of the advice I've read says that alcohol can't pass to the baby until the placenta has formed, so not to worry about any drinking you did before realising you were pregnant. Is that not the case?!

From the BBC:

Dr Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the RCOG, says: "The general consensus is something harmful like alcohol tends to have an all or nothing effect [in the very early stages of pregnancy].

"It tends to cause a miscarriage or it has no harmful effect."

He said such a situation is "very common" and he gets women coming to him every week worried they have drunk heavily before knowing they were pregnant.

If the baby is still alive after such drinking, he says, the likelihood is it will be healthy.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29519947

That's a really really common situation- please try not to worry about it.

The nausea may pass soon, it may not. As for your diet, you should try to eat healthily but don't worry too much if there's not much you can stomach. I suffered from Hyperemesis in both pregnancies and had a pretty bad diet in both due to what I could stomach. Both babies are healthy, with healthy weights and growths.

That's a really really common situation- please try not to worry about it.

@MrsHardbroom Thanks but that link is really not reassuring!

I didn't know I was pregnant with DS1 until I was 12 weeks! Had what I assumed were two normal periods (always have been light and only last a few days) so went out drinking a lot.

He's now a very happy healthy 7 yr old.

Another friend didn't find out she was pregnant until about 6 months. She'd been drinking and partying etc. Baby is a totally wonderful little girl

Thanks @Mintypea5. I stopped as soon as I got a BFP and your story is reassuring - but I'm still feeling really worried after reading that link.

I'm so very sorry the leaflet made you feel worried- that was absolutely not my intention, I pointed to it to explain yolk sac nutrition. Please feel reassured that a huge number of women drink before they realise they are pregnant, it's so commonly reported and not something that obstetricians tend to worry about as long as the woman doesn't carry on drinking heavily

@brownpaperbag1 please don't worry about the article.
I would suggest the majority of pregnant women have drunk alcohol before finding out they were pregnant.
I personally was very drunk celebrating the 6Nations this year just a few days before finding out I was pregnant. I am now 33 weeks and all the signs show that everything is fine.
I have a cousin that did a girls trip to Benidorm and a skydive whilst pregnant (and unaware of course) and I also know someone who didn't know they were pregnant until labour started - she drank and smoked the whole way through. Both babies are perfectly healthy.

You cannot worry about what you've done, just do what you can going forward xx

Honestly, don't worry too much. Whilst a modern western diet isn't always the healthiest it isn't generally lacking in calories and nutrients needed to grow a baby.

The dietary advice is not so much for baby (they need such small amounts of nutrients it's barely noticeable) but for you, for you to feel healthy and well.

Thank you for the reassurance - it's just so scary as there is a lot of literature out there on Google suggesting that drinking at any time during pregnancy (including the very early stages before the placenta kicks in) is an absolutely terrible thing to do. If I've harmed my baby in some way I will never forgive myself.