Week 6: A tiny heartbeat

Your baby is about the size of a pea now, and that little heart is beating — somewhere around 80 to 100 times a minute. Small buds that will become arms and legs are appearing, and the very first hints of a face are forming.

This is often when nausea and food aversions are at their strongest, usually peaking somewhere between weeks six and eight. You might also notice more saliva than usual, the odd headache, and big emotional swings — laughing one minute, teary the next. All very normal as hormones surge.

Now’s a good time to ask your GP for a referral for a dating ultrasound, usually done between 8 and 13 weeks — often the first time you’ll see that flickering heartbeat on screen. Eating “well” can feel impossible right now, so be gentle with yourself; for these few weeks, whatever stays down is enough.

Seeing or hearing that heartbeat is a milestone many people long for, but a gentle heads-up: you usually can’t hear it at home this early, and home doppler devices aren’t recommended — it’s easy to misread them and frighten yourself, when a reassuring scan is far more reliable. The flicker on an early ultrasound is usually your first real glimpse.

If you haven’t already, this is a good week to book your first GP appointment to confirm the pregnancy and start your antenatal care. The dating scan they arrange does more than show the heartbeat — it confirms how many weeks along you are (and sets your due date), checks the pregnancy is in the uterus, and sees whether you’re expecting one baby or more. None of it has to happen this instant; you’re simply getting the ball rolling.

Food aversions and a heightened sense of smell can make this a genuinely tricky stretch — favourite foods may suddenly repel you, and cooking smells can turn your stomach. Work with it rather than against it: eat the few things that appeal, keep cold or plain options handy (they smell less), and don’t worry about a “balanced” plate for now. It’s also completely normal for your emotions to be all over the place as hormones surge, so be gentle with yourself, and let your partner or a close friend in on how you’re really feeling — these early weeks can feel lonely when you’re not telling many people yet.

In these early weeks it’s easy to feel you should be glowing while actually feeling wretched — exhausted, queasy and emotional, often before you’ve told a soul. That gap between the expectation and the reality can be lonely. Be reassured it’s incredibly common, it’s temporary, and it’s not a sign of how the rest of your pregnancy will go. Rest when you can, eat whatever appeals, lower the bar on everything non-essential, and confide in at least one person you trust.

Mild cramping as your uterus grows can be part of the picture, but pain or any bleeding is always worth a quick call to your midwife — or the free, 24/7 Pregnancy, Birth and Baby line on 1800 882 436 — just for peace of mind.