Your baby is at present considered to be fullterm. By now your babe volition be curled into the "fetal" position, filling the whole of your uterus. His range of movements will be restricted to a boot and a bit of stretching and peradventure attempts at rotating. Your baby will go on to lay down fat deposits under his skin and will be practicing all the movements y'all'll encounter later he is born, e.grand. animate, suckling, swallowing, blinking, grasping and clasping her hands, caput turning, kicking and stretching, maybe fifty-fifty sucking his fist or thumb. You may notice a slight reduction in the number of movements y'all experience – your babe is likely to have quite distinct periods of action and longer periods of slumber. (If y'all do not experience your babe moving regularly and you are concerned, you can drink a glass of iced h2o and see if this stimulates movements, if non, you should adapt an appointment for your LMC midwife or dr. to mind to your babe'due south heartbeat a.south.a.p. ) Your babe volition at present probably weigh three- 4kg and measure approximately 51cm tall.


Your trunk: By at present, lots of women are feeling completely over being pregnant and impatient to run into their babies. Remind yourself and others, that the due date y'all've been given is only an average and it is completely normal for a infant to arrive after the estimated due date as long equally mother and infant are well.

It is usual for you to come across your LMC midwife or doctor for a check-up each week during this time.

Postdates or overdue?: The normal length of pregnancy is betwixt 37 and 42+weeks. Your Expected Due Date (EDD) is 40weeks right in the middle of this normal range. Despite commonly used terminology, your infant is not overdue simply because he has not been born on his EDD. In most cases pregnancies that continue past the EDD stand for a completely normal variation of the average. Although it is hard not to be disappointed about your baby's "no evidence" and completely "fed upward" with existence pregnant, it tin assistance yous (and your relations and friends), to be aware that 60% of babies are born afterwards their EDDs.

The best time for your baby to be born is when he is fullterm and this is not necessarily on the EDD yous accept been given. Some babies do remain in utero (in the womb) past the best time for them to be born. Your baby's placenta has a limited life span and this is unlike for every mother and babe. If your pregnancy continues by your placenta's "use past" appointment, it volition no longer efficiently transfer oxygen and nutrients to your baby and your baby volition exhibit symptoms of postmaturity e.m. deadening growth, reduced movements, reduced amniotic fluid book etc. This can happen earlier or later the EDD and this is one of the reasons why your visits to your LMC become more frequent every bit yous approach your EDD. If your pregnancy lasts more than one week by your estimated due date (or if your LMC midwife or doctor is concerned that your placenta might non exist operation efficiently at whatsoever phase of pregnancy), due south/he will probably recommend that you lot have a exam called a Fetal Biophysical Profile. This test uses ultrasonic technologies to assess fetal movement, tone, reactivity, breathing movements and amniotic fluid book and gives your baby a score out of 10. If your babe gets a score of 8 or more, it indicates that your placenta is nevertheless providing adequate nourishment for your baby, i.e. if you have passed your EDD your baby is probably postdates rather than postmature and, in the absenteeism of any other issues, you can safely and normally remain pregnant till your labour starts spontaneously.

Finish Work: If you are in paid employment you should have started your maternity leave by week 37. Fifty-fifty if you have a really cruisey chore/boss and can come in tardily, get out early etc, you lot should reduce your working week downwardly to effectually 3 part-time days around now. Yous need plenty of fourth dimension to ready physically, mentally and emotionally for the huge transition that is alee. Accept fourth dimension to enjoy these last days/weeks of pregnancy and if it is your start baby, to savour doing any you experience like. If you lot already accept a child or children you will take less self fourth dimension and probably less time to rest – attempt to organize regular childcare and/or playdates for your other kid(ren) then that you lot can focus on yourself and your almost newborn babe for a few hours and get a daytime nap, or at least some uninterrupted relaxing time.

Pack your bag: If yous are planning to give birth in a motherhood unit or hospital, around at present you can celebrate by packing the not-perishable items you want to have on mitt for your labour and will demand during the first 12+hours after your baby is born. Use the listing below as a guideline.

For Labour

Clothing – you can habiliment your own clothes during labour or a hospital gown. If you would prefer to wearable your own clothes pack a couple of comfortable tops or T.shirts. Y'all may as well want to pack a bikini summit and/or a couple of crop tops to clothing in the puddle if you don't fancy beingness totally naked.

  • Socks
  • Hairbands/clips
  • Massage oil or massage wax
  • Extra pillows in coloured pillowcases and so you remember to take them abode
  • Hotpacks (Wheat/rice pack or gel pad) and cold packs (a bottle of frozen h2o wrapped in flannel makes a passable cold pack)
  • Drinks including bottled water
  • Lip Balm or moisturizer
  • Photographic camera – fully charged
  • Music – CD player or Ipod and dock etc

Later Labour

  • Soap, shampoo & conditioner, toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Sleepwear
  • Maternity/nursing bra
  • Actress knickers
  • Dressing gown or robe or coat
  • Shawl or cardigan
  • Slippers and shoes
  • Baby apparel – near hospitals provide nappies and perchance some kind of shirt for the duration of your post birth stay just at the very least, you lot will need a full fix of clothes for your baby for coming domicile. i.e.
  • Vest or singlet
  • Grosuit/all-in-one
  • Socks or booties
  • Cardigan or jacket
  • Lid that covers your baby'due south ears
  • Rug or blanket to put over your baby in her carseat
  • Infant carseat

Signs of Labour: A number of things can happen that will signal that you volition soon be in labour, but yous are not in labour until you are having regular contractions.

Contractions: You know you are having a labour contraction when your uterus (and abdomen) get hard (like a tightly pumped up brawl) and you feel some sort of depression intestinal sensation usually at the level of your pubic bone in the front and occasionally in your lower back instead or equally well. Both of these things (uterine tightenings and pelvic twinges/pains) take to be happening at the same time for you lot to be having a labour contraction. These sensations can be very mild to start with – a twinge or feeling of pressure, or period-like pain – just they volition grow to become a pulling, stretching or tightening sensation that gets stronger as time goes by. Contractions are intermittent not continuous i.e. they come and go. Every bit your contractions get more established y'all will probably notice that they have a wave-similar pattern i.e. they get-go fairly mildly build to a peak of intensity so slowly fade away giving you a catamenia of minutes when your body feels as relaxed equally usual.

Prelabour contractions can feel the same but they are more than random in terms of their intensity and frequency and disappear earlier establishing into a blueprint of being longer and stronger and closer together . Prelabour contractions often come up and go depending on what you're doing due east.thou. if you lot might be up and moving and notice that you are having contractions then you lie down and they disappear or vice versa. Or, you are having contractions and so y'all go into a warm bath and they disappear. Or, you notice them later in the mean solar day when you are tired simply if you lot accept a sleep they disappear etc etc.

Active labour contractions become longer, stronger and closer together over a period of time. Active labour contractions crave all your attention – they will finish you mid-judgement or mid stride. You lot volition need to focus to keep your breathing regular and yous will probably be needing to utilise some labour coping techniques to help you lot to stay relaxed and allow these contractions to do their work. Yous are not considered to be in agile labour until your contractions last for at to the lowest degree one minute and are 5 minutes or less apart and have been at this frequency for at least 1 hour. This is called the 1 – 5 – ane rule. When your contractions are coming at this level of frequency your LMC midwife or doctor volition commonly propose you to become the infirmary or volition come to your home if you are planning a homebirth.

Waters breaking: For about 10% of women the outset sign of labour is sudden loss of fluid from the vagina – this usually means that the amniotic sac has torn and amniotic fluid is draining out. Note the time, and the amount and colour of the amniotic fluid that is leaking out. Wear a germ-free pad and keep any sanitary pads for your LMC to see. If the fluid loss is clear, contact your LMC during regular working hours. If the fluid loss is muddy-looking, greenish or brown, contact your LMC immediately. The fourth dimension between waters breaking and the onset of contractions is enormously variable. Some women's waters will intermission and within v minutes they will accept had their start labour contraction, while other women will await hours before they accept their first contraction.

Warning Signs: You should call your LMC midwife or physician immediately

if you feel whatever of the post-obit:

  • Any vaginal bleeding (not the "show" which is often blood stained mucus). Wear a sanitary pad (continue whatever germ-free pads for your LMC to come across)
  • Precipitous stomach hurting or astringent cramping
  • Persistent or severe headache.
  • Dizziness or visual disturbances (fuzzy vision, seeing spots or flashes)
  • Persistent vomiting (cannot keep water down)
  • Pain or called-for awareness while urinating or inability to urinate.

Eat well: Your uterus is a muscle that will function more efficiently if it is well nourished and well hydrated. Labour (start labour especially) is a flake like a marathon, you need to exist physically and mentally well-prepared and y'all demand to have a practiced amount of energy on board so that you last the distance. Consume small meals approximately every four or five hours then that your energy levels are high but y'all are not "weighed down with nutrient or using excessive amounts of free energy to digest large/heavy meals. You lot also need to drink regularly. Try to recollect to drinkable at least one cup of fluid every ii hours between meals. Your labour will establish (and progress) more efficiently if your muscles are well-hydrated.

Exercise: Proceed with regular gentle exercise. This will help y'all to maintain strength and stamina and reduce the intensity of the common discomforts of late pregnancy. Do some stretching exercises each day at habitation as well as standing to attend a pregnancy exercise course if you lot're still able. Go for short, leisurely walks once or twice each day if your pelvis allows. Swim or water walk regularly, especially if you lot are unable to do whatsoever other form of practice.

Residual: Your night-time sleep is likely to be quite interrupted past now and so you need to make sure that you have a nap or at least a substantial residue at some point each day. Your labour could start at any time, twenty-four hours or night. Yous will be better able to cope if yous are too rested as possible.

Relax: Labour is a series of large musculus stretches. During labour the cervix (cervix) of your uterus, then your pelvic muscles and vagina stretch open up to let your baby out. Your muscles volition non stretch if y'all are not able to relax. Practising relaxation during your pregnancy will help "railroad train" your subconscious listen to instigate a relaxation response to whatever stimuli (a word or phrase, an idea, a visualization, a piece of music, a sure blazon of touch) you lot have proficient relaxing to. You need to be able relax actively (e.g. propped up in a labour enhancing position, perchance rocking or another repetitive movement), or passively sitting or lying supported in some labour enhancing position and doing nothing except breathing and consciously releasing tension from all your muscles so that you feel as soft and flopsy equally a rag doll. All relaxation requires even breathing so you need to keep to practise breathing gently and evenly, focusing on lengthening your exhalations. Relaxing to the aforementioned music each solar day will have the added do good that this music is heard past your baby and the hormones and he will become accepted to the hormonal land that you induce when you relax. After he is born it is likely that this same music will help your baby to relax.

Baby movements: Your infant is at present very tightly packed in your body and has less and less space for movement, so you lot may observe a change in both the quality and frequency of her movements. You could make a fetal kicking /movement nautical chart so that you lot become consciously aware of your baby'due south agile times. You can download a fetal kick nautical chart at www.babypartner.com/tools/charts/pregnancy/fetal-kick-chart.pdf Although you may feel less frequent movements now that your babe has entered your pelvis you lot should be feeling some vigorous kicks and movements each twenty-four hour period (your placenta is attached to the forepart of your uterus). If you are concerned that you haven't felt any strong movements for 12 – 24 hours, drink a glass of iced water. The awareness of cold volition usually get your baby moving. You can also try lying quietly on your left side for 1 hour then rolling over onto your right side, if you nonetheless don't feel whatever movements. If neither of these tests result in obvious baby movements, you should contact your LMC midwife or doctor.

Breastfeeding: If this is your first babe and you have attended a birth preparation course, you should have got some basic information to aid you institute successful breastfeeding. However, since breastfeeding will be the equivalent of a full-time job it can be a good thought to get as much information as possible and accept a refresher now that your nativity is imminent. Attending a La Leche League "meeting" will give you a chance to observe and chat with breastfeeding mothers. Check out your local group for information and support with breastfeeding before and after your baby is born on world wide web.lalecheleague.org.nz Many hospitals and maternity units also offer a 1-off breastfeeding grade for women booked to requite birth in their facilities – inquire your LMC for data about these sessions or contact your local maternity unit for times and bookings.

Baby dress and bedding: All the clothes and bedding y'all have bought or gathered for your baby needs to be washed earlier your baby is born. Cull natural fibre clothes and bedding e.m. cotton, wool (including merino), linen, bamboo etc. Your baby'south skin is her biggest organ then it needs to be wrapped in breathable fabrics. Too your babe's power to regulate her own temperature is very immature, natural fibre dress and bedding will help ensure that she stays comfortably warm and that moisture is wicked abroad from her skin and evaporates instead of staying on her skin and making her cold. Click here to check out the natural fibre wear and bedding bachelor from MAMA. Wash your baby's wearing apparel and bedding in a mild, biodegradable laundry powder/detergent and rinse well. Your baby's wearing apparel and bedding should be well enough rinsed that they not aroma of the laundry pulverization you accept used. Accept advantage of any fine days to line dry out your baby's washing, the ultraviolet rays of the sun are a natural germicide.

Making Love: Remember it was loving that got your baby in and then loving will help get your baby also. The hormones released during lovemaking help soften your cervix getting information technology set to stretch open during labour and the hormones that cause orgasm also crusade uterine contractions. (Nipple stimulation also encourages your body to release the hormone oxytocin that causes your uterus to contract.) If you're not feeling like full-on, orgasmic lovemaking, just hanging out with your partner, kissing, cuddling, having massages, enjoying your baby'south movements, speculating about what your baby is going to be similar, what its going to be similar to have this new and absorbing focus in your relationship, sharing your excitement almost becoming parents or enlarging your family unit. Taking the time to be together feeling loved and loving and bonded with your partner and your baby will assistance instigate the onset of your labour.

  • Week one
  • Weeks 2 – 3
  • Calendar week 4
  • Weeks v-8
  • Weeks 9 – ten
  • Weeks 11 – 13
  • Weeks 14 – 17
  • Weeks xviii – 20
  • Weeks 21 – 24
  • Weeks 24 – 28
  • Weeks 28 – 32
  • Weeks 32 – 36
  • Weeks 37 – 40