Your baby is now fully developed with head, limbs and body in normal proportions.
From now on your baby will be putting on weight, preparing itself for birth. It will be able to feel your Braxton-Hicks contractions, as you yourself prepare to give birth.
Your baby is covered with a fatty substance called vernix that insulates the body. As the baby develops, it will continue to deposit fat throughout the body to keep warm. Your baby's head is now covered with hair and its body is becoming more plump.
Your baby is now developing its internal organs. The brain has increased in size. Nerve connections in the brain are protected with a fatty substance, called myelin, that helps electrical brain impulses to travel more quickly speeding your baby's coordination and intellectual development.
Your baby's lungs, which take longer to develop than other internal organs have acquired most of the alveoli, air filled membranes. The lungs are also producing surfactant, which will aid breathing at birth. Your baby is now growing at a faster rate than the placenta.
As your baby grows it is producing hormones that passes through the placenta and turns into estriol. This in turn will stimulate your body into generating prolactin, preparing the milk glands to produce milk ready for the baby's birth.
You may find yourself "leaking" colostrum. While not milk, it would provide food for your baby for a couple of days after birth until proper milk supply begins. You might want to buy breast pads or breast shells with lids now to minimize leaks. Your body is now preparing itself for birth, and you should to.
By week twenty eight, the chances of survival are over ninety percent (9 in 10), and every week that the baby remains in the uterus and gains weight increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. By the time your baby weighs more than 3lbs, the chances of survival are ninety five percent.
Inside your baby is still lacking surfactant, a greasy substance that prevents your baby's lungs from sticking and helps your baby breathe so your baby would require artificial respiration. Your doctor can administer a test called the l/s ratio and phosphatidyl glycerol test to measure the maturity of your baby's lungs and determine whether it can breathe on its own.
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