Pregnancy calendar: 38th week of pregnancy
Pregnancy calendar by week. An experienced doctor tells how a child develops in the womb and what changes occur in the pregnant woman’s body. All the most important things about the 38th week of pregnancy
Changes in your body (38th week of pregnancy):
You may not notice it, but your body is preparing for the upcoming birth. This preparation will be:
- An increase in the number of Braxton-Hicks training pseudomovements. They, unlike real sweat, do not have a pronounced growing rhythm, and are mostly painless.
- Pelvic bones and the ligaments between them diverge slightly, increasing the birth canal along which the child will move during childbirth;
- The intestine tries to get rid of all the excess.
- The mood becomes calmer, hormones are actively preparing you for childbirth.
When to go to the hospital? The images from the movie, where the taxi rushes to the hospital at maximum speed, but does not make it, and the child’s father is forced to personally accept the birth of his wife, have probably already appeared in his imagination. I can assure you that this is an unlikely scenario. The process of childbirth is long: for women who give birth for the first time, it is mostly 18-20 hours, and for women who have already given birth again, this period is shorter, up to 12-14 hours. In general, many factors affect the length of labor, such as the size of the woman’s pelvis or the placement of the baby.
Remember the signs of labor when you should go to the maternity hospital:
- So, cramps are a feeling of tension, spasm of the muscles of the uterus. If before that you recorded Braxton-Hicks pseudo-pregnancies, real contractions will become more intense, longer and more painful. It is necessary to go to the hospital when seizures can be described by the formula: 1-4-1. That is, breaks with a duration of at least 1 minute with an interval of 4 minutes, which lasts for at least 1 hour.
- When your waters broke. A fluid similar to urine should flow from the uterus.
- You feel extremely strong, unbearable pain in your back, lower abdomen, and pelvis.
How does the baby grow?
The baby can gain up to 28 grams per day, the increase in subcutaneous fat will help it maintain a stable temperature after birth. The latest studies show that the stay of a child in the womb during the 38th week of pregnancy has a positive effect on the development of the baby’s nervous system and brain.
If the obstetrician-gynecologist prescribed you an ultrasound examination at 36-38 weeks of pregnancy, you can even see a hair on the baby’s head. Sometimes the baby smiles sweetly or yawns.
I advise you to use this period to have a good rest, gain strength, and sleep if possible before the next marathon, which will begin after the birth of the child.
Автор: Ольга Летнянчик, лікар
Read also:
– Pregnancy calendar: from 1 to 40 weeks
