- Pregnancy Week by Weeks
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If there is a week in the entire pregnancy that earns the description of sweet spot, it is somewhere around here.
The first trimester is behind you. The anatomy scan is done. The third trimester has not yet arrived with its particular physical demands. You are past the halfway point, your bump is real and visible and growing, and the movement that started as something uncertain and subtle a few weeks ago has become something you recognise with confidence. Real kicks. Unmistakable. Sometimes strong enough to surprise you. Sometimes rhythmic in a way that tells you your baby has hiccups, which is a discovery that makes most parents stop completely and just feel it.
The pregnancy at 22 weeks has a presence that it did not have at twelve. You are not just managing symptoms or waiting for milestones. You are living alongside someone who is making herself known every day, and that is a genuinely different experience from what the first trimester was.
This is a good week. Let yourself be in it.
Your baby at 22 weeks: the size of a corn and increasingly capable
Your baby measures approximately 29 centimetres from crown to heel and weighs around 478 grams this week, roughly the weight of a corn.
The face that you may have seen in profile at the anatomy scan is becoming more defined week by week. Eyebrows and eyelashes are present. The eyelids remain fused, but the eyes themselves are fully formed beneath them, and the visual system is developing even in the absence of light. The lips are distinct and your baby can open and close the mouth, practising the movements that suckling will require.
The brain is developing with extraordinary speed. The cerebral cortex, which will eventually be responsible for conscious experience, memory, and sensory perception, is developing its characteristic folded structure, increasing the surface area available for complex processing. Neurons are forming connections at a pace that will never be equalled at any later point in life outside the womb.
Your baby can hear with clarity now, and the auditory system is sophisticated enough to distinguish between different sounds. Your voice remains the most consistent and familiar sound in the acoustic environment of the womb, and research on newborns confirms that this familiarity is retained at birth in measurable ways. Talking to your baby at 22 weeks is not a sentimental gesture. It is an auditory experience that your baby is actively receiving and cataloguing.
The sense of touch is well developed. Your baby feels the movements of the amniotic fluid, feels the umbilical cord, and responds to pressure on the outside of your abdomen, which is part of why a partner pressing gently on the bump sometimes produces an immediate kick in response, a game that entertains most couples at this stage of pregnancy significantly more than the baby finds it interesting.
Tooth buds for the primary teeth are forming in the jawbone beneath the gums, in the precise positions where the first teeth will eventually emerge, somewhere between six and twelve months after birth. Everything your baby will ever need is being built right now, far ahead of when it will be used.
Movement at 22 weeks
By 22 weeks, most women who have been feeling movement for the past few weeks are beginning to recognise patterns. A particular time of day when the baby tends to be most active. A response to specific foods, especially something sweet or cold. A period of quiet that typically precedes a burst of movement. A particular position that seems to provoke or settle activity.
This developing familiarity with your baby’s individual movement pattern is genuinely important, not just as a connection-building exercise but as the foundation for the movement monitoring that will begin around 28 weeks. A mother who knows her baby’s normal is a mother who can identify a meaningful change from it, and that knowledge is one of the most reliable tools available for monitoring fetal wellbeing in the third trimester.
The movements at 22 weeks may include what feels like a rhythmic tapping or pulsing that lasts for several minutes. This is almost certainly hiccups, which are extremely common at this stage as your baby practises the swallowing and breathing movements that will be essential at birth. Hiccups feel different from kicks, more regular and more repetitive, and many women find the sensation both endearing and slightly peculiar once they recognise it for what it is.
If you have not yet felt clear movement by 22 weeks, contact your gynaecologist for an assessment. By this stage, most women have felt their baby move, and the absence of any detected movement warrants attention rather than continued waiting.
Your body at 22 weeks
The physical experience of 22 weeks is shaped by the size of the uterus, which now sits clearly above the navel, and the progressive shift in weight distribution that comes with it. The bump is prominent enough to affect movement, posture, and sleep, and the physical adaptations required to accommodate it are becoming more present in daily life.
Back and pelvic pain is one of the most consistently reported symptoms from around this point onward in the second trimester. The combination of the growing uterus shifting the centre of gravity forward, the relaxin hormone loosening ligaments throughout the body, and the progressive muscle fatigue of maintaining an adjusted posture produces lower back discomfort and sometimes pelvic girdle pain that can range from mild to significantly limiting. Gentle movement, specifically walking, swimming, and prenatal yoga, is more effective for pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain than rest. A women’s health physiotherapist, if accessible, can provide specific guidance that general advice cannot. If the pain is significant, ask your gynaecologist for a referral rather than simply managing through it.
Varicose veins may begin to appear or worsen in the second trimester as the growing uterus increases pressure on the veins of the lower body and the blood volume expansion of pregnancy places additional demand on the venous system. They are most commonly visible in the legs and are typically more uncomfortable than medically serious, though significant varicose veins warrant a conversation with your gynaecologist. Avoiding standing for long periods, elevating the legs when sitting, and wearing compression stockings if recommended are the most practical management approaches.
Skin changes continue. Any melasma present on the face tends to darken with sun exposure, making daily SPF application more important in the Mauritius context than in cooler climates. The linea nigra running down the centre of the abdomen may be darkening. Stretch marks on the abdomen, hips, or breasts may be appearing or becoming more visible, driven by the rate of skin stretching rather than by any topical product or its absence. They will fade progressively after birth.
Leg cramps at night remain common. Consistent hydration, regular calf stretches before bed, and magnesium-rich food in the daily diet are the most practical preventive approaches. If cramps are frequent and significantly disturbing sleep, mention it to your gynaecologist.
Early Pregnancy Symptoms: What Is Normal, What Helps, and When to Call Your Doctor
Nutrition at 22 weeks
The nutritional priorities at 22 weeks are consistent with what they have been throughout the second trimester, with a few specific additions worth naming as the pregnancy moves into its second half.
Vitamin C deserves specific attention at 22 weeks, not only for its role in iron absorption, where it has been a consistent recommendation throughout the pregnancy, but for its role in collagen production. Collagen is the structural protein that forms the connective tissue of your baby’s skin, bones, and blood vessels, and it is also the protein that supports the integrity of your own skin as it stretches to accommodate the growing uterus. Fresh fruit and vegetables are the most reliable sources, and in Mauritius the year-round availability of papaye, citrus, pineapple, guava, and tomato means this is one nutritional need that does not require special effort to meet.
Zinc is a nutrient that receives less attention in pregnancy nutrition content than iron or calcium but is genuinely important for immune function, cell division, and the development of your baby’s nervous system. The best dietary sources are meat, shellfish, legumes, nuts, and seeds, many of which are already recommended for other nutritional reasons. A varied diet that includes these foods regularly is likely providing adequate zinc without specific intervention.
Iron and protein and calcium remain the consistent daily priorities they have been throughout. The combination of iron-rich plant foods with vitamin C at the same meal, protein at every main meal, and calcium-rich food at least once daily forms the nutritional foundation that supports both your wellbeing and your baby’s development through the second half of pregnancy.
Hydration in the Mauritius heat at 22 weeks deserves consistent emphasis. The combination of the increased blood volume of pregnancy, the higher metabolic demands of the second trimester, and the ambient heat means fluid requirements are meaningfully higher than they were before pregnancy, and higher than most standard hydration advice accounts for. Water consistently available throughout the day, supplemented by the fluid content of soups, fresh fruits, and coconut water, is the most practical approach.
Preparing for the gestational diabetes test
The HGPO, the oral glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes, is performed between weeks 24 and 28 in Mauritius. At 22 weeks, it is approximately two to six weeks away depending on when your gynaecologist schedules it.
The test requires fasting from the evening before until the blood tests are complete, which typically takes two to three hours. During that window you will have a baseline blood test, drink a measured glucose solution, and then have one or two further blood tests at specified intervals. The results tell your gynaecologist how efficiently your body is managing glucose, and any impairment of that efficiency is gestational diabetes, which if present will be managed with dietary changes, monitoring, and in some cases medication through the third trimester.
In Mauritius, this test matters more than its position as a routine antenatal procedure might suggest. The island’s rates of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome are among the highest in the Indian Ocean region, and gestational diabetes is correspondingly more common here than global averages reflect. The result directly affects how your third trimester is managed and monitored. It is not optional and not something to work around.
Confirm the date and location of your test with your gynaecologist at your next appointment if you have not already done so.
When to contact your clinic
Contact your gynaecologist for heavy vaginal bleeding, significant or one-sided abdominal pain, regular contractions, leaking fluid from the vagina, fever, severe headache with visual disturbances or swelling of the face and hands, a significant sustained change in your baby’s movement pattern from what has been normal, or any symptom that feels clearly wrong rather than ordinary second-trimester adjustment.
The final weeks of the first half of the second trimester bring the gestational diabetes test and the milestone of 24 weeks, viability, the point at which birth would be attended by a neonatal response aimed at survival. The kicks will continue becoming stronger and more recognisable. The bump will continue growing. The third trimester is six weeks away.
References: NHS — You and your baby at 22 weeks pregnant. nhs.uk. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — Second trimester prenatal care. acog.org. World Health Organisation — Antenatal care recommendations. who.int. Tommy’s — 22 weeks pregnant. tommys.org. Ministry of Health and Wellness Mauritius — Antenatal care guidelines.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Always consult your gynaecologist or midwife for guidance specific to your pregnancy. If you have concerns about movement, symptoms, or your antenatal care at any stage, contact your clinic.