Pregnancy week by week

You

You feel yourself probably more uncomfortable, as your stomach aches due to the weight gain and you probably feel breathless, as your uterus still presses on your diaphragm. Relaxation and holiday helps to mitigate this feeling of discomfort. You can have some Braxton- Hicks contractions during which your uterus muscles contract for about 30 seconds. In this stage of pregnancy these contractions should be painless and occur seldom. You should contact your midwife or gynaecologist, if the contractions of uterus become more frequent, painful and last longer than usual and mucous fluid will exude from the vagina. This might be a symptom of premature birth.

Your baby

Your baby weighs now over 1.7 kg and is about 42 cm tall.  During the period when the growth of your baby’s body slows down, the fast brain development begins. All more important organs have now been fully developed except lungs and your baby’s urinary bladder functions regularly. The movements of your baby seem less frequent and weaker, as they grow bigger and have less room to move in your uterus. But when you notice that your baby is not moving almost at all, you should contact your midwife.

Dr. Marek Šois recommends

You could check the movements of your baby. Lie down every day at a certain time and clarify how long time it takes to feel ten movements in your stomach. The result is good if it takes no more than one hour. Think where you would like to give birth to your child and learn about different hospitals and their possibilities. If you have not done it yet, now it is time to attend the lectures of the family school. You could go there alone or together with the partner and choose just these topics for listening that you are interested – the lectures involve the topics of birth, breastfeeding, caring of a newborn as well as about a lot of other things.

If you have questions or concerns related to you or your baby’s health, you could make an appointment for a consultation of the gynaecologist.