pregnancy week 6
6 weeks pregnant.
The embryo curls into a tiny crescent. Eyes, ears, and limb buds start sketching themselves.
Updated 29 July 2026 · Sources: NHS and ACOG
Your baby this week
A C-curled shape with dark spots where the eyes will be, tiny pits for ears, and four small buds that will become arms and legs.
- Facial features sketching
- Arm and leg buds emerge
- Heart has four chambers
- Strong morning queasiness common
What may be changing in your body
Morning sickness can hit full force. Smells you used to love may now turn your stomach. Frequent peeing and bone-deep tiredness are common.
Morning sickness
Nausea often ramps up noticeably this week and, despite the name, can strike at any hour. Around seven in ten pregnant people experience it in the first trimester.
Food aversions
Coffee, meat, and previously loved foods can suddenly become repulsive. Aversions are hormone-driven and usually fade by the second trimester.
Heightened sense of smell
Everyday smells — a colleague's lunch, the fridge, perfume — can become overwhelming. This hypersensitivity often drives the nausea.
Exhaustion
Building a placenta is metabolically expensive, and this stretch is often the most tired you will feel all pregnancy. Rest is productive right now, not lazy.
Sore, heavy breasts
Breasts continue growing and the area around the nipple may darken. Tenderness tends to peak in the first trimester then ease.
Vomiting that keeps nothing down — when to call
If you cannot keep fluids down for 24 hours, are dizzy, or are losing weight, call your midwife or doctor. Severe sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum) is treatable and you do not need to simply endure it.
Your week 6 checklist
- Confirm your booking appointment is scheduled — chase it up if you have heard nothing
- Build a nausea toolkit: plain crackers, ginger tea, cold fizzy water, small bland snacks
- Switch to eating little and often rather than three large meals
- Ask your employer about sickness and flexibility policies if mornings are becoming difficult — you do not have to disclose the pregnancy yet
A useful partner move this week
This is typically the hardest-symptom week so far, so take over the jobs that involve smell — cooking, bins, the fridge, the dishwasher. Keep plain crackers by the bed and water within reach without being asked. If she is vomiting regularly, keep a gentle eye on whether fluids are staying down, because that is the sign to call the midwife.
What comes next
Limbs grow longer and the head starts to round out. By week 8 the embryo will look distinctly baby-shaped on ultrasound.
Common questions
When does morning sickness peak and when does it end?
Nausea typically peaks between weeks 8 and 10, then eases for most people between weeks 12 and 16. A minority feel sick into the second trimester, and a small group throughout pregnancy. If vomiting is stopping you keeping fluids down, call your midwife or doctor — effective, safe treatments exist.
Is it a bad sign if I have no morning sickness at 6 weeks?
No. Around a quarter to a third of pregnant people never get significant nausea, and their pregnancies proceed just as healthily. Symptom levels vary hugely between individuals and even between pregnancies in the same person. Absence of nausea alone is not a reason to worry.
Can stress or lifting things cause a miscarriage at 6 weeks?
Everyday stress, normal exercise, lifting shopping or a toddler, and having sex do not cause miscarriage. The majority of early losses result from chromosomal differences present from conception, which nothing you did caused and nothing you do can change. If worry is weighing on you, say so at your booking appointment — support is part of the job.
How many months is 6 weeks pregnant?
Pregnancy months do not divide evenly into weeks, so clinicians date pregnancy in weeks. At 6 weeks, you are in trimester one.