19 Weeks Pregnant

You are now 19 weeks pregnant (or in your 20th week if that's how you prefer to count it).

Congratulations - You're halfway there! The top of your uterus (womb) now reaches your belly button and will grow about a centimetre a week. Your baby measures about 14.2cm long from crown to rump and weighs about 240g.

She is swallowing amniotic fluid, and her kidneys continue to make urine. Hair on her scalp is sprouting too.

Sensory development reaches its peak this week. The nerve cells serving each of the senses – taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch – are developing in their specialised areas of the brain.

Nerve cell production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections. If you're carrying a baby girl, she already has roughly six million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she's born, she'll have about a million.

You may have felt the kicking and somersaulting of your growing baby. At times, you might find that she is so mobile that you can't sleep. The next 10 weeks or so will be your baby's busiest and most active time, until the uterus gets too crowded.

Your uterus has grown well into your abdomen - the top of it probably reaches your belly button. From now on it will grow at about a centimetre per week. You may also notice some aching in your lower abdomen. It's nothing to be alarmed about - it's just the stretching of your muscles and ligaments supporting your bump.

Many pregnant women worry that they won't be able to cope with the pain of labour and childbirth. Some women consider an elective caesarean to avoid the problem completely, but this isn't necessarily a good idea as the risks with a caesarean delivery are much higher than with a normal delivery and there will still be pain involved, albeit after the birth. There are many effective forms of pain relief available in maternity units. You could try some natural methods of pain relief first, including labouring in a birthing pool, which can help women cope with the pain of labour without any drugs at all. The more you find out about what is available or what you can try, the more in control you will feel and the less worried you will be.

Getting a good night's sleep when you're pregnant can be difficult, particularly if you have heartburn or indigestion. If that's the case then food will be the last thing on your mind, but some pregnant women wake up in the night with hunger pangs and have to have a midnight feast before they can get back to sleep. Another cause of disrupted nights may be your partner's elbow in your side because pregnancy can cause nasal congestion resulting in - yes, you guessed it - snoring.