🌱 Your first trimester: what’s actually happening

Nobody warns you how much the first trimester can knock you sideways for something that "doesn’t show yet." Your body is doing an enormous amount of invisible work — building a placenta from scratch, flooding your system with new hormones, and increasing your blood volume, all before you’ve had a single scan.

Why you’re so tired

Progesterone rises sharply in early pregnancy and it’s a natural sedative — that’s not in your head. Your resting heart rate and metabolic rate are both higher too, which is why climbing a flight of stairs can suddenly feel like a workout.

The nausea question

Roughly 70–80% of pregnant people get some degree of nausea, and it isn’t limited to mornings. It usually peaks around weeks 9–10 and eases by week 14–16 for most people. Small, frequent meals with something in your stomach before you get up help more than avoiding food altogether.

What’s actually forming

By the end of the first trimester your baby has a heartbeat, all major organs have started developing, and they’ve gone from a cluster of cells to something that looks recognisably like a tiny human. It’s the busiest 13 weeks of development in the entire pregnancy — which is exactly why you feel so wiped out.

A note from Maya

The first trimester is the one clients feel guiltiest about struggling with, because there’s "nothing to show for it" yet. There absolutely is something to show for it. Rest when you can, and don’t let anyone tell you that you’re making a big deal out of nothing.