Second Trimester Pregnancy Guide:

When Does the Second Trimester Begin?

Second trimester of pregnancy begins in week 14 until week 27. You’re in month 3 of your pregnancy and stepping in to your second trimester can feel really good. There is a lot of relief and excitement with getting to this milestone!

What Changes During the Second Trimester?

Physically, changes that can occur during the second trimester is your energy can start to return. You can also notice some of those first trimester symptoms starting to fade. Of course, this isn’t the same for every pregnant woman and you may still very much feel in the first trimester even though you’ve reached week 14. Emotionally, this is the time where most women announce their pregnancy to their circle of family and friends. This can be a wonderful and exciting time. After spending the first trimester with this exciting secret, it can make the pregnancy feel more real once you tell more people.

Early second trimester can also be a challenging time mentally for some Mamas. Your first trimester symptoms may have gone and youre more energised but you don’t have a bump yet, can’t feel baby move yet and are waiting the next scan. There are a few weeks at the start of the second trimester which can feel incredibly hard. You may no longer have the constant reminder of pregnancy in your morning sickness but you don’t have that beautiful bump to caress yet.

This absence of awareness can make your anxiety high. It’s like you’re searching for reassurance that everything is going as it should be, but you don’t have much evidence to support that most days. Of course, it is completely healthy and expected to not experience many symptoms during this time and it doesn’t mean something is wrong.

It can just be a challenging time mentally for some Mamas. Something that can support you with this is prenatal yoga and particularly visualisations. Prenatal Yoga is all about connection to your body. It can help you to feel connected with your growing baby (even if you don’t have a bump yet). Visualisations can also be used in a prenatal yoga class to help create positive images of your baby growing safely inside your womb. These positive visualisations can support anxiety during this time.

Common Second Trimester Symptoms

• Nausea and sickness may continue
• Heartburn and indigestion
• Swelling in feet and ankles
• Increased appetite
• Back pain
• Round ligament pain

Does Your Energy Really Come Back?

There’s a somewhat misconception that entering your second trimester immediately means your nausea disappears and your energy returns. While this can be the case for many Mamas-to-be, it isn’t the same for everyone. If you are someone who isn’t particularly feeling different or that great when you entered the second trimester, you are not alone. While the idea of feeling energised and more like yourself is appealing, don’t allow that pressure to make you feel something is wrong.

Also, it’s worth noting that energy can gradually return. It isn’t like you wake up on week 14, day 1 and feel like running a marathon. Some women get their energy back gradually and some it never fully returns during their pregnancy.

Be kind to yourself and patient with these common expectations that may not apply to your individual pregnancy.

Your Pregnancy Bump

Another topic that holds a lot of pressure and expectation. Please remember that there is no one way a pregnant body is supposed to look or one size or measurement a bump should be. Your bump is individual to you. There are so many factors that impact the size of a woman’s pregnancy bump and it doesn’t mean something is wrong because it is bigger or smaller than you expect. Of course, if you ever have any concerns about your bump, contact your midwife.

Regardless of how big or small, every Mama will experience bump growth during this second trimester of pregnancy. You will learn to adjust to your changing body and how you move with it. What helps with this? You guessed it, prenatal Yoga! A good prenatal yoga programme should have weekly classes that change and move with the changes of your body and pregnancy. Week 14 pregnancy is very different to week 27 of pregnancy, even though they both fall within the second trimester. Try not to see your bump as a limitation of movement, but an adjustment to learn to move in a different way.

Baby Movements

Another significant part of the second trimester is feeling your baby move for the first time. Arguably, the best part of the pregnancy! This can start to happen from 20 weeks, but some women feel it sooner or a bit later. If you ever concerned about baby’s movements, then contact your midwife or doctor.

While we talk a lot about body connection in prenatal Yoga, this also includes connection to your baby. This can happen before you feel those movements, but the practice of that bonding with baby gets stronger once you experience those movements. Breath awareness, meditation and visualisation are all Yoga tools that help to improve your bond with your baby and build that relationship with your pregnant body.

This leads to learning to trust your body. This is such an important part of birth preparation. Your birth (however it unfolds) is a team effort for you and your baby. You are learning to listen to your body, signs it is showing you at different stages of labour and using those all important contractions to help birth your baby. Yoga can build that trust with your body as early as second trimester so by the time you give birth, you have confidence in that skill.

Your 20-Week Scan

Wow Mama, another incredible milestone in the second trimester! Your 20 week scan is a more detailed scan of baby’s organs and development. It is also where you can find out the sex of the baby if you want to. Read my full blog post of 20 weeks pregnant scan here.

Exercise During the Second Trimester

The second trimester can be a really wonderful time in terms of movement and exercise. While you may not be feeling completely back to normal, energy levels usually rise and morning sickness reduces. This may mean that there are more periods of the day where you feel like exercise. As always, listen to your body.

After a restful first trimester, your body may be craving some movement. Or you may just be wanting a really slow, stretchy Yoga class to relax. Both are valid. Both are good for you. Although there are less restrictions during this trimester than the first trimester, never push yourself.

Apart from Prenatal Yoga, it is still advised not to drastically start new exercise that you didn’t do before you were pregnant. Also, it is worth noting, that even when continuing with exercise you did do before pregnancy, your body is different now. Your body will move differently, your energy and fitness levels may change too. Honour that.

Always listen to the feedback your body is giving you. Your pregnant body is incredibly intelligent and will tell you exactly what it needs more or less of.

Prenatal Yoga During the Second Trimester

Prenatal Yoga can become part of your regular routine from this trimester onwards. You can practice full prenatal yoga classes both online and you can attend in person classes too. This trimester is all about connecting with your body and learning what your body can do. It also focuses on strength, especially pelvic floor strength. Both physical strength and mental resilience are developed through prenatal yoga too. There is a balance of standing, energising, strengthening poses and restorative, restful poses. Yoga for birth also starts to feature in second trimester yoga classes. While this may sound too early, it is really about building confidence in your birth prep as well as moving intuitively.

Pelvic Floor and Pelvic Stability

You are probably sick of hearing about Kegels already! So, let me say that sitting down and doing Kegels everyday of your pregnancy is NOT how I teach pelvic floor strength. It is important that you learn the importance of the pelvic floor muscles, the role they play in pregnancy and especially in birth. It is never too early to start pelvic floor work and even first trimester can begin with simple pelvic tilts and awareness. This can be built on in the second trimester with more focus on the strengthening and releasing of these vital muscles.  

It is best to incorporate these exercises in a yoga class but if you can find time in your day when you’re doing something else like folding washing, then done is better than not! The reason they are so effective to practice during Yoga is the dynamic movement of our body with the breath that we incorporate into the pelvic floor contraction and release. Learn more about this at The Mama Yoga Club!

Second Trimester Week by Week

Week 14: Your first week into the second trimester! Read full blog post Pregnancy 14 weeks: Start of 2^nd Trimester, energy shifts & Yoga here.

Week 15-19: Moving through your second trimester now and you might be noticing some increased energy and reduce in first trimester symptoms (finally!). This can also be a tricky time where you don’t have many symptoms that make you feel pregnant. You are anxiously waiting the next scan and maybe planning your baby shower. Meditation and visualisations can be really supportive here for those anxious moments.

Week 20: 20 week scan, find out gender of your baby and might feel baby move for the first time. It’s a big week! Read full blog post 20 Weeks Pregnant: Your Scan, Baby Movement, Bump & Yoga here.

Week 21- Week 25: your baby does a lot of growing in this trimester and that probably means your beautiful bump is growing too! These weeks are really where the pregnancy is established and you’ll become more confident adjusting your movement as your body changes and grows. Week 24 is where I start to teach Yoga for birth preparation to give you plenty of time to become confident in those skills.

Week 26: leg cramps keeping you up at night? If it’s not leg cramps, its kicking baby or pesky heartburn! Insomnia is a common symptom this week. Read full blog post on how to support yourself through it: 26 Weeks Pregnant: Symptoms, Leg Cramps & Prenatal Yoga.

Week 27: Last week of the second trimester and that third trimester is so close, you can smell it!

Preparing for the Third Trimester

So what’s next? That third trimester is vast approaching! While it can be a relief you’ve been counting down to, it can also be an overwhelming time to approach the final trimester of pregnancy.

Read full blog post Third Trimester Guide here.