At 5-7 weeks pregnant, the basic structure of your baby is starting to come together. The brain, spinal cord, heart, and other major organs are forming at this stage. On ultrasound, the baby only measures about 4-5 millimeters (about the size of a grain of rice) and you will not be able to see these individual structures yet. Seven weeks is the week when you can see that “flicker” on ultrasound. I want to say something here about not seeing the heartbeat yet. Over the years, I have noticed that I may not always see the heart beating at 6 weeks. I have done research and have not found any explanation, to date, on why that is. It does not necessarily mean that anything is wrong. I personally call this the time of being “on the fence”. It is a particularly scary time for my clients, and I try to reassure them that pregnancy is a time of patience. Usually, I try to get women to come in at 7-8 weeks pregnant, since they all want to see the heart beating. That way, they do not leave with anxiety and worry for the next 2 weeks. At this stage, on ultrasound, the pregnancy will look like a grain of rice attached to a circle floating in a small black bubble. The circle that your baby is attached to is the yolk sac. This yolk sac will feed your baby until the placenta develops and takes over at about 10 weeks. There are things I look for at this stage and point out to my clients: Where the gestational sac is located and how the edges of the sac look. You would like for the gestational sac to be located away from the cervix or opening of the uterus and you want the edges to be smooth and even. This is the earliest time you can see anything by ultrasound but be patient! Your baby is growing. As your baby grows, you will get to see more and more detail!
