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Welcome to the very start of your pregnancy journey.
Your baby's progress:
- Congratulations! One lucky sperm has beaten millions of his competitors to be united with the ovum (egg).
- A fertilised ovum is called a zygote. The zygote floats down the Fallopian tube and divides into two identical cells.
- The cells continue to divide at a rapid rate.
- By the sixth day, a cluster of more than 100 cells has been produced.
- The chromosomes of mother and father form the chromosomes of the baby.
- Your baby's gender is determined by the sex chromosomes in the father's sperm.
- By the end of the first week the cells have formed a blastocyst – a hollow, fluid-filled cluster of cells. The next two weeks are known as the germinal period.
Good to know:
- When two ova (eggs) mature and are fertilised during a single ovulatory cycle, dizygotic (fraternal) twins are formed. The majority of twins occur in this way. Twins developing from the division of a single fertilised egg are known as monozygotic (identical) twins.
