15 weeks pregnant: what is happening this week

Just over ten centimetres, apple-sized, and hearing is starting to come online. Voices reach it, and so does the constant percussion of a heartbeat and a digestive system from very close range. Lanugo - fine downy hair - is spreading across the body, and eyebrows and eyelashes are beginning. Discharge tends to increase around now, which is driven by blood flow to the pelvis and is ordinary rather than a problem. Skin itching turns up in the same period and is often worse at night; the NHS asks that severe itching, particularly on hands and feet, be reported rather than tolerated, because it is occasionally a sign of a liver condition of pregnancy that is worth ruling out. Hearing developing has one practical consequence and it is not a gimmick. Sound from outside is audible, and the voices heard most often before birth are recognised after it. Reading aloud, talking to the bump, having a conversation in the same room at normal volume - all of it counts, and none of it requires enthusiasm for the idea of talking to somebody's abdomen. It is worth starting now, because starting is the awkward part.